Nappy Headed Black Child

So i recently got into a discussion with a sister from the continent over the significance of the term "B/black". She states that the term which we use here in the american diaspora as descriptive of culture is a literal term describing the color of a person's skin. This debate centered around colorism and how lighter skinned Black (noun) women have been portrayed historically and are portrayed in the contemporary better than darker skinned Black women.

Often times when we see Black people portrayed the Black men generally are well represented in terms of hue however when we look at the women more often than not the darker skinned Black women are less represented. The totality of Blackness is not being well represented. And the sister from the continent felt that these lighter skinned women should not be considered black(adj) but still of African descent.

I began to explain that here in the american diaspora because of our separation from and the loss of our traditional cultural realities Black has developed as a cultural term and not a literal one and as a result when you say to a lighter skinned Black(noun) women that she is not black (adj) you are in effect saying she is not Black (noun) in terms of culture because that is the significance that term carries in the american diaspora when applied to people.

Her response was well why don't they (lighter skinned Black women) breed blacker(adj)?

Now this proposition was something that i had to think about and make a couple of phone calls to bounce ideas around before i could respond via this blog. At the time i just didnt have an answer for it.

So after some thinking here is my assessment. Breeding blacker(adj) in this context is presented as a solution to colorism by eliminating the difference in hue and thus equating black (adj) with Black (noun). However what this does is takes the stigma off dark skinned Black people and puts it on light skinned Black people. It doesn't truly fix anything just reverses it. Furthermore that idea also feels real close to an idea of purity, which is kinda moot by virtue of us being a diasporic population. Moreover Breeding blacker(adj) does not equal cultural congruency as Clarence Thomas will tell you.

It simpy doesn't fix anything. We deal with colorism by promoting images that display appreciation for all the hues of Blackness. In my opinion our culture is much stronger a unifying force although it is much harder to establish given the white supremacist society that is america. When you look at colorism it is much more a product of how the culture of white supremacy has effected body image how people of african descent view themselves. Colorism is an extension of racism which is culture based.

We need Black(nouns) babies not just black(adj) babies.

Questions? comments? concerns?