My Skin Is Not White
deanesmay
Okay, first off, I want to make it clear that I have no agenda behind this question. Honestly, I don't.
In the early 1970s, certain folks decided that the polite way to refer to people of African descent with dark skin and curly hair was "black." Before that, you would (if you weren't rude) refer to a white person as "caucasian" and a black person as "negro." That was just the way people talked. But that became unaccepable, and after that we would refer to pale-skinned Europeans as "white" and dark-skinned Africans as "black."
But am I the only one who thinks this was a bad move?
"Black." To me this is a bad word. Black is a negative color. If I'm in a black mood I'm angry. If I indulge in black humor I'm being cynical about the human race. If I'm wearing black clothes, it's because I'm in mourning. If you study physics, you learn that black is the absence of color. Basically, black is a negative.
So why would anyone want to be a "black person?"
I'm considered a white man. I don't really relate to that though. My skin is not white. It's a sort of peach color unless I've got a tan on, in which case it's a very light brown. But it's never white. Indeed, if I said "my face went white," it would mean all the color had drained out of it because I was freaked out and upset.
I have never met a person with black skin. I've met people with beautiful dark brown skin though. Indeed, the prettiest girl I ever dated (other than my beautiful pale-skinned wife) grew up in Harlem and had skin the color of walnuts. Her lips were lush and gorgeous, her hair curly like wool, her nose somewhat flat but perky.
Indeed, in my world, the most beautiful woman alive (other than The Queen of course) is Halle Berry. So, well, I guess it's a dumb question, but:
Why use such a negative word to describe such beautiful people?
In the early 1970s, certain folks decided that the polite way to refer to people of African descent with dark skin and curly hair was "black." Before that, you would (if you weren't rude) refer to a white person as "caucasian" and a black person as "negro." That was just the way people talked. But that became unaccepable, and after that we would refer to pale-skinned Europeans as "white" and dark-skinned Africans as "black."
But am I the only one who thinks this was a bad move?
"Black." To me this is a bad word. Black is a negative color. If I'm in a black mood I'm angry. If I indulge in black humor I'm being cynical about the human race. If I'm wearing black clothes, it's because I'm in mourning. If you study physics, you learn that black is the absence of color. Basically, black is a negative.
So why would anyone want to be a "black person?"
I'm considered a white man. I don't really relate to that though. My skin is not white. It's a sort of peach color unless I've got a tan on, in which case it's a very light brown. But it's never white. Indeed, if I said "my face went white," it would mean all the color had drained out of it because I was freaked out and upset.
I have never met a person with black skin. I've met people with beautiful dark brown skin though. Indeed, the prettiest girl I ever dated (other than my beautiful pale-skinned wife) grew up in Harlem and had skin the color of walnuts. Her lips were lush and gorgeous, her hair curly like wool, her nose somewhat flat but perky.
Indeed, in my world, the most beautiful woman alive (other than The Queen of course) is Halle Berry. So, well, I guess it's a dumb question, but:
Why use such a negative word to describe such beautiful people?
If you absolutely hate the word and don't want to use it to describe someone on my ethnicity, you may refer to me as "an American of African descent."
Racism to me is nothing, unlike culturism, which is everything.
Bu the way. Why in hell am I being logged in as "unkwnown" every time I put in my password on this new and slightly pitiful exxuse for good old Dean's World, when in fact both you and your computer system know perfectly well that I am the one and only...
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
I love the color black. Have plenty of it in my home, my clothes, my art - well, you get the idea.
That the word "black" sometimes has negative connotations shouldn't stop us from using it appropriately and appreciating it!
On the other hand, I'm with Arnold. I hate the constant references to race that permeate our society. I see, however, no getting away from it in the near future, given the mindset of the media and the liberal left.
I also have always wondered.... why is it that those who are roughly half black and half something else - white, asian, etc. - are always referred to as black? Why isn't Lani Gunier (sp?) a Jewish woman? Why does Tiger Woods' black heritage always get top billing?
I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with it being "on top." But why does "black" always trump anything else?
Maybe I will be alive to see the day when people care about as much about a person's race as they do about whether they have curly or straight hair.
Hope so.
Peg K
Exactly so. So it shouldn't be hard for you to understand the sentiments express here:
But if I had met her, and she happened to have skin that was darker than mine, I'd still marry her.
I live near Vancouver, where interracial marriage is common. There are few black people, but there are many, many people whose ancestors (note how I phrased that?) come from India, China, Taiwan, Japan, the Phillipines, etc. They marry 'white' people and other Asian people with impunity. Nobody under the age of 80 gives a mixed-race couple a second glance any more.
And that's how it should be.
BTW: some of the most beautiful women I have ever seen (I mean stunning: jaw-dropping, eye-bulging STUNNING) come from India. My wife and I sometimes watch the Bollywood movies on the local TV channels just to see them.
Also, about Jesus, you have to realize that Jesus wasn't Aryan to begin with. All people make Jesus to look like themselves. So if you live in a culture where the majority of the people are white Jesus will usually look white.
In Judaism white is the color of purity, but its opposite would be red (sin).
Skin color is always a variation of brown.
Oh and to answer La Shawn's question, absolutely I would marry a black woman. I have never let an artificial barrier like skin color keep me from befriending, dating, or anything else, people I find interesting. Of course, if they look and think like you La Shawn, then it would be "when can we set the date!"
But extremely white skin is unnatural and creepy looking. If I say "my face turned white!" or "you're white as a ghost!" those aren't positive things. Ghosts are spooky and white in our cultural mythology.
So I guess maybe it is just a word. It's somewhat more descriptive than "colored" (like white people are colorless?). Then you go back to the old "caucasion/negro" thing and that doesn't make sense since the Caucussus mountains run through Armenia and Iraq, which would make Iraqis "caucasions" and not those pale Germans and Brits.
I dunno, it's a weird hangup. Peg also makes a good point how we consider people black even if they're really only half or quarter or whatever. And I've met people from India whose skin was much darker tha most black pepole's but they aren't considered black.
Bah humbug. It's a silly mess isn't it?
Also, it's confusing. A Negro whose ancestors have been here since before George Washington was born is equated with, e.g., a first-generation immigrant from Nigeria or, ironically, with Kim du Toit, a "white" man who came here from South Africa.
And, if I have to say "African-American", why then, I absolutely insist on calling myself a "European-American". But that's wrong, too, because _culturally_ we are all Europeans regardless of skin color. Like Arnold Harris (good to see you here!), I am a culturist, not a racist.
If you want to be a racist, then you must recognize that the albinos are the only True White Race. All the pinkish, beigish, peach people should be purged out of the Klan.
Black and white. Interesting. Yes, black is historically associated with night and darkness, and therefore with evil. That's precisely why it's used by some S&M lovers. White is also negative, though, in that it is a skeletal, ghostly, or ash color, a color of death. Yet both can be beautiful.
In ancient Egypt, black was the color of the fertile soil irrigated by the Nile, therefore of life and prosperity, therefore of the good, and was associated with Osiris. Red, by contrast, was the color of the sterile sands of the desert, and was therefore associated with evil and with Set.
Colors, colors, colors, colors.... I love colors. Colors I do love.
I love that old word "Negro" (with a capital "N"). It has a look and sound of nobility and dignity. I love what it connotes. It was used during the ages when the "civil rights" movement really did stand for equality before the law, for justice, for individual freedom and dignity. I love the very fact that is so archaic and "square". The style. Negro.
Holy Dawn and her holy Negro wife Norma.
I also love the beautiful feminine form "Negress".
How true.
"Colored people"? "People of color?" Hmmm.... I agree with Smelly Duck that we would look more colorful in blues and greens. Reds and purples, too? Hmmm....
Go on. She doesn't bite. :-)
Those of us whose primary ancestry goes back to the Mediterranean are referred to as having “olive” skin. Thus, when _absolutely forced_, I’ll refer to myself as being “green”...
Finally, I don’t know why, but we’ve used some derivation of “black” to describe people of African Descent for quite a long time: “N----“and “Negro” both mean “Black” in (I think) Latin and Spanish respectively. So the switch to “black” was just the latest in a long line of attempts to de-profane the term...
Remember, Dean, physics also teaches us that when we're talking about color of pigments black is what you get when you combine all your pigments. (Well, okay, you get dark brown, if you have enough light pigment. But still.)
Physics doesn't really teach us anything about the "positive" or "negative" meaning of a color, honest.
"Black"'s major problem isn't that it's negative, but that it's both inaccurate (most "black" people being, in actuality, brown), and that it doesn't tell us anything significant. What's skin color even matter, apart from mere aesthetics?
I don't mind Caucasian, because it's just a clinical term for round-eyed people with relatively thin lips (because as I understand it it does encompass Native Americans, Latinos, and Indian Indians--some of whom have dark skin). No harm there.
I despise it when people refer to "Arabs" as nonwhite. They are Caucasian (in the racial sense). Most of them look like they could be Jewish or Italian--so why pretend they are a different race? That seems to me just a step removed (if that) from the white supremicists who maintain that Jews aren't white.
And I hate hate hate the use of white to mean "not Latino."
I'm afraid that "if a little bit black, all the way black" is a concept left over from the Jim Crow days.
We should all refuse to check their little boxes as a matter of principle and practicality; I certainly did the last time they took a census here. Besides, I don't know how much Native American ancestry I have--but believe me, it's small.
Of course we all lose our tempers now and then. Dean freely admits to being imperfect in this regard, which is why regulars to this establishment will generally be cut more slack than people who we don't know very well.
Still: behave like an adult, or go find somewhere else to play. Thanks.