Paper Bag Test 2007
It’s not really surprising to me that a Detroit party promoter thought he could get away with having a party just for light-skinned women. Read about it here. Depending on your environment, such coontastic ideas are the norm; go unchallenged and are often encouraged.
But I wonder if he would have gotten the same negative backlash had he had a party celebrating dark-skinned women. Was this mainly a problem because it struck a nerve for so many given our history?
I don’t think anyone would have really tripped if dude hosted a “Watch Out 4 Da Big Girls Bash.” Comedian Monique has made a career out of pioneering the fat pride movement. But I’m sure sand will be raised if someone has a “Size 2 Jam.”
What does this mean?
Eugene is a guest contributor at Intelligent Ignorace.
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Comment by shawtypimp1 on 15 October 2007:
maybe i’m ignorant, but i don’t see the big deal. we do discounts for stranger shit. we always let women in for free. on a rare occasion men get in for free. we let people in for free with passes or if they are wearing all white or all black…why not do a party discount for skin tone? eye color?
i understand the linkage to preferential treatment with slaves but it only applies if we apply it to this scenario.
Comment by J-Dash on 15 October 2007:
shawty, i don’t know if any of the real-world examples you mentioned were in fact stranger than skin-tone. eye color, weight, hair color and shoe size are definitely strange… and kinda dumb, too. lol… if you keep it at an extremely broad level, you might be able to get away with it. that’s why gender-based promotions normally don’t face any backlash.
dude prolly coulda bypassed all this by simply giving out free passes to light-skinned women. good ol’ hindsight, eh?
but i think he would have faced similar backlash by doing a dark-skinned promo. the spirit of it still harkens back to the way we were once divided and valued based on our skin tone, and that’s something that we as a people are trying to bury for good (i think…)
Comment by Jamelle on 15 October 2007:
Um, here’s the problem:
Allowing or denying people based on the lightness of their skin just reinforces the racist belief that skin color determines humanity.
So I guess it’s all right if you want to reinforce the racist structures of this society.
Comment by lrubin39 on 16 October 2007:
nothing surprises me anymore. however, there are some issues in our community that need to be let go–not reinforced. Levels of acceptance due to skin color was a tactic used to divide us, not build us, by individuals that had no love for us. We can’t perpetuate such behavior.