I’ve never liked that “Ebony and Ivory” stuff.
Many Black people describe each other as “dark-skinned”. As a child, I never really thought about it but when I was confronted with white people who call all people of color who aren’t pale “dark-skinned”, I began to think.
Maybe I really will be a teacher or professor one day in an “official” capacity and that’s why I’m thinking about this on this level. Maybe I just think too much, one of my overwrought idiosyncrasies.
Whatever the reason, I have adopted a policy of not categorizing brown people as “dark-skinned” based on some theory of relativity when comparing oneself to milk and white chalk. Unless there’s a point, I will not write stories comparing Black people to consumable or exotified things like chocolate, caramel, leopards, cheetahs, lions (no big cats from jungle or plain in general), animals in general, darkness, overdone comparisons and conflation with nature like trees, wood, plants, flowers, and soil.
I will question when people call myself or others “black-skinned”—as in the color, not the socio-political identity (‘B’lack)—in my presence.
I will find other ways to describe brown skin.
There is an entire spectrum of brownness. Unless it’s painted or treated somehow, I don’t even think ebony wood is actually ‘black’. Even coffee isn’t black; anybody who’s ever looked at coffee before (or spilled it) can tell you that coffee is brown—even espresso. All my life I’ve had this threshold in my mind that stops me from thinking of ‘B’lack people as literally ‘black’, even the most beloved brownest of us.
We need to change the way we think about our skin tones, complexions, hues, color-coding, and what have you. I believe that mitigating racism and other forms of oppression means being active about changing the way we think about our bodies on emotional and psychological level. It means breaking down our pathologies about our skin and the overvaluation of “white” skin.
We have to start asking ourselves “What do I/they mean when I/they use the phrase “dark-skinned”.
I love the color black. At one point, most of my wardrobe was black in high school—I was really emo[tive]/empathic in those days. However, even though we may identify politically as ‘B’lack, not literally, the color is perceived in many negative ways and has many negative connotations such as lowness, hypersexuality, darkness, evil, and disease, when it is mapped onto our skin literally. White folks have spent centuries coming up with and solidifying new ways of turning us ‘black’ because we are not white.
Maybe this is just a long way of saying we need to start re-teaching people their primary colors and how to discern nuances.
Out,
~MsQ
Don’t Bother with Hollywood
There’s a comment I made floating around out there about some celebrity who may or may not have had plastic surgery. Angelina Jolie’s lips? Jennifer Lopez’s butt? Who knows. I don’t even remember.
I was talking with my sister when I realized how ridiculous the conversation I’d been having with another commentator on someone else’s blog was. I said what I said because everything that I heard or read were impressions made on me years ago. I have no way of knowing that what I read or heard was true. Somebody put two pictures in front of me and I was like “Yeah, her lips are totally obviously different between these two photos” and I stuck with the “truth”.
The “truth” is smoke and mirrors.
How would I even know if the photos themselves were real?
What I’ve learned when it comes to the topic is that next to nothing in Hollywood is real. Photos. Videos. Magazine covers. Plastic Surgery. Botox. Extreme diets and exercising. Drugs and alcohol. Six tons of makeup. Everybody’s lying to get money and fame-whore. Whatever. All of its there to manipulate your perception, gratify somebody’s ego, and ultimately get your money. You’ll never know what the heck you’re really looking at, that’s the point. Did you know it’s not against the law to falsify the news? I’m sure this goes double for celebrity
gossipnews.So I’ve made a vow to try never to talk about what’s altered or not altered on my blog or anywhere else. I don’t want to objectify those celebrities anymore than they already are objectified, even if they open themselves up to it.
Besides. What’s the point?
Everything in Hollywood is there to create illusions of perfections and someone else’s idea of beauty.
So I don’t bother with Hollywood too much.
Evermore real,
MsQ
Posted by Taviante Queens in Popular Media, Reflections, True Story, Writings to.... Tags: Black feminism, celebrity criticism, celebrity plastic surgery, comestic surgery, Ms. Queenly, social commentary