A Response to Sho Baraka's Chris Rock Moment

I read his post that addressed ‘inner’ racial racism. His daughter came to him and expressed her young feelings about her skin color. After I read this post I responded, I’m just posting it on my blog to allow my readers to see it as well.
http://thisishigh.com/?p=479#comment-696

I love that this post addresses the issues of how we see ourselves, and how it all roots back to the gospel, but I have one thing to add. I am of a ‘lighter’ tone within the African American race. As a child, light skinned children don’t have it any better. I have been discriminated against by my own race because of a physical characteristic I have no control over. I got over it as I got older and just ignored it. I put up a wall, forgot about the issue all together, allowed my wall to come down, and was blown up at the barbershop recently.

You know how men folk talk at the barbershop, ruthlessly. I went with my husband and son for their cuts as usual. The shop was in an uproar about color because at the time Herman Cain was running for presidential office. They were discussing how he would never be elected because of his color. They claimed the Barack was acceptable because he was lighter. First it was a competition between light skinned and dark skinned people as a whole and then we got on the subject of light women (redbone’s as they called them) and dark women. Dark women were lifted up in this conversation and lighter women were called stuck up, conceited, gold diggers, anything you can think of was said. I was the only light skinned woman in the shop (outnumbered … is it bad that I thought of it that way?) 

After they made these comments they looked at me and said, “No offense.” I said, “It doesn’t matter to me” attempting to shrug it off, but honestly it brought me straight back to the 6th grade when girls spewed venom about my color and hair (my momma kept my hair fresh). Boys would tell me that they liked me when we were secluded, but they made fun of me when the ‘around the way girls’ were near. I was ostracized for being me. At that time I turned to people who didn’t talk about it at all (other light skinned girls) and we were as thick as thieves not caring what we looked like.  

I looked at my husband and he gave me the look (you know the look, when a loving husband gently yet firmly restrains his wife from attacking weak prey as if she were a rabid dog). I was calm on the outside, but inside I was offended and wanted to say I am not stuck up, I simply ignored others and stopped responding to the insults. 

But honestly none of this really matters. To be categorized within some statistic created by another race, but still upheld by my own, made me see how we still have so much to learn. There is no way to learn this without the knowledge of the gospel. It alone erases “color-lines”. Knowing that we were each made (to be) a different way but we all serve the same purpose, to give God glory, is what’s most important.

(Yeah this was long)

T.G.