Mixed Blood, Light Skin and Good Hair

Barack Obama's ascendance to the U.S.Presidency has cultivated fertile curiousity for all things black: Who we are, what we wear, how we live and style our hair have garnered constant media mention since the black family took up White House residence.

MIXED BLOOD
Although it was not exactly news to us that the First Lady's ancestral chain included an Anglo-Saxon link, a CNN anchor of Canadian descent captioned the story as "history unknown." Somebody, please throw that clueless bloke a historical bone.

For years, African-Americans have recounted how white male domination during slavery surreptiously produced scores of mulatto babies. Despite repeated sexual violation instances, colored folks wear the translucent skin biracial blood sometimes affords them like a privileged badge.

In WASP households, I suspect, the subject is rarely broached since burying the societal shame of the black and white ties that bind perserves purity's perception. Clearly, the result weaves a fabric of facts unacknowledged versus unknown.

LIGHT SKIN, GOOD HAIR

Freshly plucked from the European standards tree, a bite of the "light skin, good hair" apple was initially savored in slavery when darker skinned slaves made the ripe observation that lighter skinned slaves were granted privileges they were forbidden to enjoy. Though the perception of creamy skin and 'bone strait' hair manifested a slave mentality on the plantation, identity and self-esteem issues surrounding appearance still boggle emancipated blacks in America today.

Surprisingly, some 'light, bright and damn near white' sisters and brothers have experienced unease with their culturally disassociated skin tones. Pain piercing her 'high yella face' and tears welling in her green eyes, a friend once confided the heavy burden she bears as a categorical misfit: "I hate it when people look at me as if they're having difficulty figuring out what I am."

Until African-Americans stop worshipping 'light skin and good hair' as the ultimate beauty barometers, in psychological bondage they'll remain. Granted, the African-American conditions of nappy hair and dark skin are ancestrally ours but make no mistake, the inferiority conclusion was coined by others.