It’s Tuesday evening and Clarissa has just completed a new
podcast on colorism. She had just finished dinner and washed the dishes and had
been absent from her site for about two weeks. Good evening, wow, it’s
been a little while and I know this message sounds a bit cliché to some but I’m
going to say my piece anyway. I want to speak to the black community. Now,
other listeners feel free to listen, but this is a message that the black
community needs to hear. My podcast messages are typically aimed towards women
and girls of color but I sporadically do speak on collective issues, hence my
following. I recently went back to my mother’s childhood home to reconnect with
family that I had not seen in about 8 years. See my mother is from Louisiana
and like many other blacks, she found her way to Los Angeles during the great
migration. My trip was there, because of a relative that passed away. My mom
sparingly visited Louisiana growing up, but she would sent me and my older
sister to visit down there once we were teenagers. For some reason, she insisted
on us going down there for the funeral. I have to say that colorism……is a
real bitch. Being in Louisiana, it was nice to see so many shades of black. We
go from the darkest of the dark to the lightest of the light. My mom is a very
fair skinned creole woman and during her time out here, she could have easily
passed for white by some, though she never did, she never tried to hide who she
was despite the climate she grew up in when she left. I have to say, shame on you black men,
particularly those of a darker complexion who turn their nose up at
dark-skinned women. I also have to call out women who assume that every man who
does date someone who is light is “cooning” or “self-hating” or that he hates
his mother. Now, there are many black men struggling with self-hatred, I’ll
give you that, but you cannot assume that that’s the case with every
relationship. There are many women who happen to be high yellow, who seek dark
men. My sister is one of them. She’s relatively bright, but her husband happens
to be dark. If you do not know the history of the relationship, please don’t
make assumptions. Anyway, back to black men though. If your date is fair
skinned, just check your motive. Don’t date light simply to get quote on quote “pretty
babies”. My father, may he rest in piece was dark. I’m a medium brown. I have
four sisters, two that are what we could call high yellow and two others who
are dark. One of my fair-skinned sisters is married to a man who has a similar
skin complexion as myself. They have three children. Two of the dark, one of
them fair. Even if you are not dark, that gene may come up generations later,
which is why this who ‘I would never marry someone dark because I don’t want
that in my gene pool’ is bullshit because IT’S ALREADY THERE! Be proud of your
blackness regardless of your shade. “Racially Ambiguous”? Yeah, I can spot it a
mile away. “She Puerto Rican” but her mama’s last name is Rideaux and her dad
is an Orsot. “I’m not black” But your folks got out here the same time mine
did. No ma’am, no sir. Embrace the shades; we come in all colors of the
rainbow. We have red, yellow, and blue undertones and each shade is beautiful
in its own way.
She hit the send button shortly afterwards before going to
take a shower. The kids had just eaten supper and she had an evening lecture
tomorrow. After taking a shower, she fixed a hot tidy and watched some TV,
really, let the TV watch her. She began dozing off shortly after an episode of “The
Haves and The Have Nots”, her husband came in the room and laughed at her, “Why
are you watching that trashy show?” he asked. “It’s
fascinating, I love it. It’s juicy!” she responded as she turned the
volume up.
He then continued. “Tyler Perry either does shows that are
really good or really bad. I’d like to see better representation of black actors
than this, but the gain, I don’t like soap operas in general, they’re too silly.”
He then went to the den after getting a can of beer.
Deja was sitting in her room looking at notes
for her book, she started thinking about the second chapter and what to
discuss, she thought about traveling with her older sisters on the bus and how
aunts would sent plane tickets to Los Angeles. She texted Yvonne and asked if
she’d be available for coffee later tomorrow afternoon. Shortly after receiving confirmation of the date,
Aundrea came in the room briefly and asked, “How’s dad? He seems a bit
frustrated”
The following morning, alarms go off in the house and the
kids are at the breakfast table. “so when is our first casual dress day”Aundrea
asked. “umm….I believe it’s next Friday”
Malachi responded. Quincy was still sleep at the time, but got up in time
to tell the children to have a good day. After breakfast, they headed to their
destinations. Aundrea was in her reading class where the teacher was giving a
lesson on fiction vs nonfiction while giving a synopsis on the weeks to come.
Aundrea noticed a girl with the book “Alias Grace” on the front of her
desk. The teacher informed them that
they would begin a movie next week; in the meantime, they were reading “100
years of solitude”. The bell was getting
ready to ring when the teacher announced that there would be a group activity
once this story was complete and that they were be pairing up. After class, she
asked the girl if she wished to be partners for the group activity next class.
They parted ways and went to their next classes.
Quincy was at home getting dressed to go to the library to
fill out job applications. As he was leaving, he got an alert for a job
interview with the food stamp program at 10:00 am on Friday. After calling to
confirm the appointment, he got in his truck. He stayed at the library for
approximately two hours submitting 11 applications. Not wanting to go back hoe,
he decided to stop at a bar where he had two beers. While looking for work, he figured
he would study for some civil service exams. Refusing to be a bum, he gathered
some study guides from Barnes and Noble along with some scratch paper from the dollar
store before heading home.
At school, Aundrea and Brianna were getting to know one
another. They talked things such as boys, interest, things they do for fun then
Brianna giving Aundrea some information regarding the book. “I saw it available
at the library, you should check it out. No offense, but I’m funny about
letting people borrow from me”
“None taken, I’m the same way” Aundrea responded
She then told Brianna that she should meet her brother. “You
and my twin brother would be like BFFs, he’s also an avid reader. I’d imagine
he’s read the book. I will have to introduce you to him one of these days.
Deja was in English giving a lecture on examples of plagiarism.
She assigned a reading and reminded her students that their essays would be due
Friday and there would be a quiz Monday on the plagiarism lesson. “I’ll see you
next class”
Azalea had just finished giving a lecture when she got a
call from her daycare regarding her son. He was running a high temperature and
was vomiting. She had to end her lecture and pick up her children bringing her
son to the emergency room. While in the ER filling out paperwork, she began
answering a series of questions regarding the health of her children. She knew
that other than her Gabriel’s sickle cell, there were no other health ailments
in the family. She called her husband who left work when he got the news. He
then called, Yvonne.
“Has anyone called Deja?” Azalea asked, “She’s probably in class”.
“I called her” Yvonne confirmed, “told her I’d keep her
updated as we found out more”
The doctor out after about two hours and informed them that Gabriel
would be fine and that this isn’t uncommon. At daycares, children catch all
sorts of things and that it’s highly likely that he got it from another child.
Relieved, Azalea cried tears of joy as Yvonne texted Deja
the news.
Yvonne and Deja still met for coffee. Deja ordered a caramel
latte while Yvonne got a basic cup of coffee. After adding her cream and sugar,
she pulled out a bottle of whiskey and promptly poured two cap fulls of it into
her java.
“Damn girl!” Deja said, “That bad?!”
Yvonne responded “Look, I’m a social worker. I take on other people’s problems, sometimes it drives me to drink!”
They resumed drinking their coffee while having the
conversation. Deja took notes while this transpired.
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