When Black is Just Never Enough

Black is beautiful. The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice. These are familiar mantras in the Black community. Perhaps it was never meant to exclude the lighter-skinned group in our culture, but rather to serve as a reminder to include the dark-skinned sect who felt ignored, neglected and ugly. 

No matter the year and regardless of the shade of the person running the free world from the reigns of the White House-the complexities of complexion will forever be a factor. During President Obama's initial win, there was a seemingly unbreakable bond that had been forged in the Black community. Naïveté would be the only source for the continued thinking that we would hold hands, lift each other up and sit by the campfire of love and self-inclusion singing Kumbaya.

What is it that forces us to pick each other apart and hold fast to the classism or colorism in our own community based on complexion? I'm convinced that hundreds of years later we are still enslaved to the mindsets finely woven into our psyche from 'master'. In 2014 not only are we wrestling with racial injustices from external sources; but the crabs in a bucket role based on complexion that many play help to keep colorism in our community flourishing. 

Take Pharrell's GIRL album cover for example. There was an uproar concerning his lack of diversity in the artwork he used. 'Black Twitter' sounded off because supposedly Pharrell did not feature any Black women on the cover. Case in point, the young lady standing closet to the singer of the Oscar nominated Happy, is in fact Black. At first glance she may not appear to be of African descent but that is one of the amazing things about my people. We come in so many various shades of beautiful. From fair-skinned being able to pass as white-to Black, appearing as if the sun came down and gently blessed the skin with a kiss. Upon the discovery that the young lady is actually Black, does the argument shift to, "she's not black enough"?

In an interview with the Breakfast Club, Pharrell states his disappointment with the disgruntled critics. "What really disappointed me is that, man, they jumped the gun. She's a black girl from Wisconsin (speaking of the woman standing closest to him) I used to date over 10 years ago, maybe 12 years ago. Had haters bothered to listen to the music first, they'd have known that GIRL is an ode to women, period." Click here to listen to Pharrell's interview.
   
Before we rally together at the steps of injustice fighting against the external sources of racism that lurks in the shadows, first we must look in the mirror and ask ourselves- "Am I contributing to the belief that my complexion is superior, and thereby aiding in the intolerance among my own people?" When the unchecked privilege of complexion festers, light or dark, the storied crabs in a bucket manifests itself into the reality that no matter what shade of Black a person is, their Black is never considered quite as beautiful.

I do not claim ownership to the above images.