This is kind of based on a late-night/early-morning discussion that I was having with a friend of mine.
Do you think that color discrimination is still prevalent in the African-American community? If so, what do you think it says about how we view ourselves and the world around us?
here i reintroduce the term "ingrained". it refers to subconscious, preconceived notions, NOT conscious thought processes. and as for what i said about hips, that goes all the way back to the theory of 'natural selection'. certain body types, and apparently skin tones, are more attractive to potential mates because of their capacity to reproduce a certain type of offspring. i figured that would be common knowledge..but maybe we haven't all had biology?
Yeah, I have. When I mentioned the pre-colonial African concept of color preference, I was speaking of royalty. If you look at Egyptian hieroglypics, you will notice that the royalty in the pictographs were of lighter complexion simply because they were not as exposed to the sun as the lower classes were. That's it. So if there was any color consciousness it was due to that.
FYI: when Darwin spoke of natural selection and therefore, survival of the fittest, he was speaking of a species' ability to survive in the wild, based on certain genetic traits. For instance, a brown walking stick would have a better chance surviving on a tree with brown bark than a white one based on its ability to blend in with the surrounding environment and not get eaten by predators. Thus, that brown walking stick would have a higher population and genetic occurence than the white one.
Two: It is the female that chooses a mate. Not the male. During the hunter-gatherer era, the **** erectus female chose the male based on his ability to supply her with food and protection. Not unlike how we do it today...except we call it 'the nuclear family'. Quality over quantity.
As for the male, it is towards how many females he can impregnate and therefore how many chances that they would have at continuing his line: i.e.: one lion among six or seven lionesses. Quantity over quality.
"Natural selection is the process by which favorable heritabletraits become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable heritable traits become less common."
in the context that i used natural selection.. obviously i meant that in which it acts on phenotypes, or physical characteristics.
& i'm not really sure what Egyptian heiroglyphics have to do with the original question posed, being that it refers to color preference in African-American culture and most of the slaves brought to America were from West Africa. Color preference here, regardless of what anyone may think IS still affected by the **** mentality of "white is right".
Which is what I said. Besides, Darwin and his theory of evolution has little to do with the question I proposed. I asked if it was still prevalent in the African-American community, not its' origin. I already know where it originated.
Color preference is based on a psycho-sociological concept of identity and beauty as opposed to a biological one of reproduction and genetic appeal. Which is what natural selection implies. It's NOT off of the **** mentality, since other ethnic communities have the light-dark issue without ever having endured four centuries of slavery as we did.
It's NOT off of the **** mentality, since other ethnic communities have the light-dark issue without ever having endured four centuries of slavery as we did.
Somebody else in this thread is an indepent thinker ... whew thought i was all alone for a second.
We have to emancipate our minds and stop believing someones "theory"
...
Thats basically how i feel on the sittiiiatiion...
that's just the thing.. i didn't even introduce natural selection as an explanation for color preference in society. i used it as an example of perceived fertility by hip size. many hbcuconnect forum posters just seem to have a habit of nitpicking one's replies, and using them in the context that supports their own position! when ya'll didn't understand the basic principles of "WHR" i had to resort to other simpler methods. & just so you know.. natural selection CAN act on physical appeal.
the other societies may not have had to endure four centuries of slavery, but then again they really don't apply to the question at hand do they? so speaking on African Americans.. which is what I believed we were discussing, who HAVE suffered through four centuries of slavery, yes, i do believe color preference still exists. i still also believe that it is mainly a result of slavery.
hbcuconnect forum posters just seem to have a habit of nitpicking one's replies, and using them in the context that supports their own position!
Uh they kinda have a word for that... yea, its called debate... if you cant stand the heat, dont step in tha oven (or circumstatially "the thread")...
And we were using other races to show that their light-dark perception is analogus with ours, and they havent been through slavery therefore invalidating the "**** mentalities" plausibility...
And i'd just give up on tha whole hip-birth theroy... Guy see phattie, Guy wanna hit them, grab them... not pop babies out of them...
But you're still entitled your opinion, I just drop jewels...
1.
This is kind of based on a late-night/early-morning discussion that I was having with a friend of mine. Do you think that color discrimination is still prevalent in the African-American community? If so, what do you think it says about how we view ourselves and the world around us?
Oh my gosh, of course it is. We are still so divided when it comes to skin color. I’ll never forget this time when I had my nieces with me. My sister’s daughter and my brother’s daughter.My brother’s daughter is light skin with long hair straight. My sister’s daughter is brown with a thick grade of hair.This little old Black woman walked right up to us and said “She is so cute” referring to my lighter complexion niece. I said “yes, the both are”.This light skin/dark skin thing goes way back generations and generations. Sadly, I think it is here to stay. Most Black will always have a preference among are own. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the way it is.
Uh they kinda have a word for that... yea, its called debate... if you cant stand the heat, dont step in tha oven (or circumstatially "the thread")...
And we were using other races to show that their light-dark perception is analogus with ours, and they havent been through slavery therefore invalidating the "**** mentalities" plausibility...
And i'd just give up on tha whole hip-birth theroy... Guy see phattie, Guy wanna hit them, grab them... not pop babies out of them...
But you're still entitled your opinion, I just drop jewels...
1.
i ain't doin no trippin.. & being that i'm on the debate team at my high school, this is nothing. just an informal discussion. but in accordance with this forum, i'm entitled to my opinion which i plan to express and defend if need be. in doing so, i refuse to stoop to taking anyone else's words or opinions as they state them and try to switch up what it's obvious they are implying (which is the point i made- not that i don't want to argue the issue). despite this..i know that incongruity is inevitable, and frankly- i thank God for it.
i ain't doin no trippin.. & being that i'm on the debate team at my high school, this is nothing. just an informal discussion. but in accordance with this forum, i'm entitled to my opinion which i plan to express and defend if need be. in doing so, i refuse to stoop to taking anyone else's words or opinions as they state them and try to switch up what it's obvious they are implying (which is the point i made- not that i don't want to argue the issue). despite this..i know that incongruity is inevitable, and frankly- i thank God for it.
I wasn't switching up your words. You just had an invalid argument, and I was showing you all the things that were wrong with it. For one, to say that it is the **** mentality that causes the color preference in our community, is to say that we still cannot make decisions for ourselves. I give credit to where credit is due, but mr. white man doesn't get this one.
You did introduce natural selection to the color preference concept, proposing that it was 'instinctual and ingrained' that we choose certain individuals with certain phenotypes to mate with. Natural selection is "blind" in the sense that an individuals' level of reproductive success is a function of the phenotype and not of whether or to what extent that phenotype is heritable.
Had you said that according to Spencer's theory of social Darwinism, light-skinned people with straight hair are more favorable mates, based on their ability to better survive America's racist society, then you would have had a plausible argument. But you didn't, so you were wrong.
i feel like i'm beating a **** horse in this thread.. my opinions have been clearly expressed, and i really have no intention of trying to change anyone else's. but the question you posed was: "Do you think that color discrimination is still prevalent in the African-American community?" being that this question in and of itself acknowledges that it has been prevalent in American Black society at one point, what do you think started it? slavery. and uh- yes, it still is the main factor behind why colorism exists within us. if you and anybody else doesn't want to admit it, fine. you say it doesn't affect your thinking, fine. but there are millions of Blacks in America and many don't want to be associated with anything "Black" because of the self-hatred that has been passed down from slavery. people keep mentioning how its just based on people's modern idea of beauty.. that it's just what people nowadays think its beautiful, but have yet to delve beneath the cover of its our "own f*cked up view of beauty". why else would we associate light skin and long nontextured hair as beautiful? just because? i'm sorry but that's too easy.
& since nobody can make this connection i will try to lay it out as point blank as possible. i said that people are attracted to each other based on how they think they will reproduce. i gave an example that stems way back in the gap to caveman days.. more voluptuous women were often more able to carry to term and give birth to healthy babies than frail ones. thus, surprise another "ingrained" notion that a curvy figure is more attractive than a boyish one. don't bother saying it isn't universally true, thats truly a given. (nitpickers) now enter my point about Blacks thinking "white is right". people find lighter skin and a finer grade of hair more attractive, because they don't want dark babies with **** hair. why don't they? the **** mentality leads us to thinking that those are not the qualities attractive people should posess. and the argument i used was the right one for the point i meant to make.
... whew thought i was all alone for a second.
We have to emancipate our minds and stop believing someones "theory"
...
Thats basically how i feel on the sittiiiatiion...
