Let’s talk about the brown paper bag test…
So on instagram I saw a clip from the new proud family reboot. Dejanay went out for a black sorority that Trudy, Penny mom is an alumni of. Apparently Dejanay didn’t get in because she failed the brown paper bag test. You know, comparing SKIN COLOR to that of a BROWN PAPER BAG to see if you are lighter. So once Trudy finds out, she goes to confront the dean and inadvertently finds out she’s light skin, plus also she experienced the SAME test before admission. The dean tells Trudy that this is and always HAS BEEN the tradition of admissions.
So FIRST OFF, this post is for the NIGGAS, this is for the NIGGAS, strictly for the NIGGAS, the
REAL NIGGAS.
No offense to ANYONE but this is a conversation for those of COLOR who can or have sat with their grandparents and heard stories of segregation, racism, oppression, and MULTIPLE forms of abuse due to their RACE.
Anybody else GET TF OUT, simply because your OPINION on skin color HOLDS NO WEIGHT…
Now I’ll wait ………
So let me just first start off by saying, colorism is a DEEP seeded issue within the Negro community. Meaning the SEED of the issue is rooted deeply. When we look back on slavery which we have CONSTANT reminders of so that issues like this cannot be ignored but addressed. We KNOW that the white slave masters would rape the women of color producing offspring. Often these children were given what MANY considered to be favoritism due to their skin complexion.
Most were house niggers, if we’re going to get technical. Most of them were shown some type of love by the master and some of the family due to actually being of relation. Now for most slaves that did not have this “favoritism” you can assume the jealousy of them working in the hot fields, being beaten plus ridiculed for EVERY little thing while some “house” nigger strolls around getting lighter repercussions because they “LOOK” better. You can also imagine how the madame of the plantation took to the sight of the PRODUCT of her husbands AFFAIRS strolling around her home.
This point is HEAVY because it is where the BEGINNING of the “IDEA” that being of LIGHTER SKIN is somewhat a blessing & a curse. You are either too good or not enough, extra soft or two hard, accepted or rejected 🤷🏽♀️
The truth of the matter is NEGRO is still NEGRO and when it COUNTS which they will make it COUNT at some point you’ll EASILY be reminded of your slave heritage. I am using the term “NEGRO” because truly that’s what we are as an “black” community.
NEGRO’s - People of Color/Melanin.
We are NOT African American, that is a term that became popular while Rev.Jesse Jackson was running for president and the U.S. Government adapted it as a means to confuse the Negro community of its true heritage. My father born in 1964 has NEGRO as his race on his birth certificate along w/my mother born in 1965. A little bit of digging in history can truly save you from being a victim to senseless lies.
Most people of color heritage starts right here in the United States of America as INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. Some can say they have some African heritage because this is a melting pot but for the most part we ALL originate from right where we stand. NORTH AMERICA. You can even ask some indigenous Africans and they will share their stories of how there weren’t AFRICAN SLAVES. Not until their OWN people began to sell them off for political reasons aiding to the TRIANGULAR TRADE.
Obviously you guys should tell by now I started undergrad as a HISTORY major😂
Anyway, you have to think, when the British began to colonize in the U.S./thirteen colonies, whatever right. WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE WHO DID NOT COMPLY? They couldn’t have KILLED them all right because obviously there was major work to be done and just from historic observations(no offense to my whites) Caucasian’s do not prefer hard work.
There is a DEEP seated tendency of having the lighter work load for people of Caucasian decent. Once again NO offense but we keep it real here! Y’all be having it easier w/all the right connections from years down your lineage🤷🏽♀️ So do you really believe they off’d those that did comply with their integration?
ABSOLUTELY NOT. THEY ENSLAVED THEM, with those who accepted the integration sitting by, watching out of FEAR. Thus the cycle began in the history of people of color being pitted AGAINST one another for PRIVILEGES that some have over others.
Think how long it took before MORE people were enslaved, then also think of those that weren’t and WHY? Men who were knowledgeable were more valuable. Women who were more attractive also held more value for reproduction. Now we can also see not only the seeds of colorism but the “uppity” negro debate as well. Why being “bougie” is considered a NEGATIVE term because you got it. Negros that held some type of KNOWLEDGE/INTELLIGENCE held more regard w/masa than some others.
So when we as a “NEGRO” community continue to have conversations around colorism in 2025. It truly shows how stagnant we are in terms of elevation and ascension. Really it points to why we cannot transcend the same issues our ancestors faced in their time.
In our community I do not see skin tone. I see BROWN that’s it, and that’s a product of my family plus the lessons they taught/shared w/me. My grandmother on my mother’s side is half indigenous, her mother FULLY INDIGENOUS. My grandmother shared stories w/me of how my great grandmother was mistreated for being lighter than the other girls w/softer hair plus features. She also shared w/me how she was bullied consistently by one little girl as a child because of her lighter features plus softer hair. She told me that one day she finally whooped the little girl a**, and when she got home her daddy told her not to worry about her mama. Cause her mama told her to ignore it, not to fight at school, and her daddy covered for her w/her mom saying it wasn’t RIGHT for her to continuously be ridiculed for how she looked outside of HER control.
My great grandmother understood, because God made my grandmother who she was so she had EVERY right to stand up for it. That little girl NEVER bothered my grandma again, and my grandma married a DARKER shaded man, proving to break the cycle. She could’ve had a man of lighter shade, but she saw the privilege of loving not simply for appearance but what lies beneath it.
This doesn’t go to say that I don’t understand the darker shades perspective on the situation because my mother is a darker shade of brown. She shared w/me how she was bullied in elementary for her skin color and how that brought some resentment toward her mother and younger sister who took after my grandmother in skin color. Experiencing that at a young age left an impression on my mother, so much so she told me she didn’t like darker shades of men. Simply because at the time of dating, she didn’t want no “Dark shaded man, cause I didn’t want no dark children.”
I immediately understood what this meant. My mother didn’t want her children to face the same ridicule she faced for being of darker shade. I didn’t judge my mother, and neither should you because in the midst of her trauma surfacing all I wanted to do was hug her for attempting to protect me from something that hurt her so. Are you guys getting the POINT?
When we JUDGE others especially in terms of skin color, ALL WE DO IS HURT. No one WINS in the battle of colorism, with the negro community losing the most because we CONDEMN OUR OWN PEOPLE. We continuously inspire the SAME TRAUMAS in our bloodlines.
My father is of lighter shade, hot yella as my folks say w/his nickname being cheeze. Do you know as a man the fights I’ve observed my father get into because he is of brighter shade? Men assuming weakness because “he wasn’t in the field” ancestrally, in slavery my father would’ve been a house nigger. Receiving some “favoritism” because his mother was taken advantage of by his father. Not counting that these circumstances most likely brought on more issues for him to be made stronger. My father is a VERY strong man, who could’ve EASILY pulled his weight in the field.
When my father was 18 years old, his best friend who lived next door took a baseball bat and knocked out my father’s top row of teeth. Why? An argument regarding his friend being jealous of him, insinuating that he only had what he had going on cause of his complexion. My father didn’t back down, and it resulted in his APPEARANCE being altered for the rest of his life. It NEVER bothered my dad, growing up he always made jokes dropping his teeth out his mouth on purpose and telling us not to judge ANYONE off their looks because you don’t know their story. My dad also married a woman of darker brown shade because he loved her and chose the direction of his life God led him too.
Most times when people in our community battle w/colorism it is because somewhere down the line they faced the issue themselves but never beat it. They never got past it, our men/women may seek out women/men of lighter shade to fill a void of not being enough or accepted to gain that. A lot of men/women seek outside their race as an escape from their heritage and abuse they suffer from it. Most of the time it’s TRAUMA not colorism.
Our community is NOT THE MOST ACCEPTED, ACCEPTING, OR ACCEPTABLE. If we’re being honest, people cut us out, we cut people out, and we all do things to be cut out. The point is RELEASE. These “stories” no longer FIT into our communities. We can mix and mingle w/WHOEVER we want to, as long as we understand that NO ONE IS ABOVE THE OTHER.
Our SOURCE sits at the highest point of creation. When we ALL MOVE WITH LOVE, we can understand this concept. How can someone be better than you because their hair is softer or skin of lighter complexion? When they quite literally can walk past homeless people and SPIT/KICK on them? Everything just can’t be about appearances because we are MISSING WHAT TRULY LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE.
America has built its foundation off of this CRAP and it’s time WE all do the work to tear it down. Beauty and its standards in America has been and still is FALSE. Why was the relaxer initially created? For women of color to resemble Caucasian women because THAT was considered the standard. So what do women of color do now? Braid our hair and place WIGS that resemble Caucasian hair on TOP OF OUR HAIR. Which I’m not knocking it y’all cause I love me some us but I can’t NOT STATE FACTS. That’s being part of the problem, and God birthed me as a solution.
So you WILL get the truth. YES, wear whatever you want to wear, and style yourself however you desire. Just don’t buy into the BEAUTY STANDARD THAT ISN’T AUTHENTIC. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s what YOU SAY IT IS. When we play into today’s beauty standards w/pointless debates, arguments, and ideals on colorism.
We play RIGHT INTO the hands of those who do not belong or FIT into our community as NEGRO people. These are people without our HERITAGE or BLOOD that cannot relate but wish too in ANY WAY possible even if that means stirring up chaos, confusion, and conflict simple to gain some validation of worthiness. We shouldn’t discuss things in our communities that hold no weight such as a white, Mexican, Asian, or Pacific Islander men/women being more valuable in the NEGRO communities more than the actual negroes IN it.
No offense to any races that I just mentioned once again we just stated FACTS. Plus I’m SURE I asked you to LEAVE early on to avoid ANY offense🤷🏽♀️ Being honest w/MY people these races will NEVER out value you because they don’t share the same story and that’s just that. Their blood doesn’t speak the same history as ours hence why some will CLAIM to have ANY percentage of what we ALL FULLY have!
The debates should no longer be allowed in our communities. Instead the examples should be set that colorism isn’t a factor to ANYONE of OUR community because it’s CONSISTENTLY being brought in by parties that exist OUTSIDE our communities. Stop yapping about people hair, all our s*** nappy if you leave it to do what it naturally do long enough.
Stop yapping about darker complexions, all our s*** BROWN, and transforms with more or less sunlight. Stop yapping about beauty & appeal, when ALL of us can be ugly, cause it’s not appearance that tells us who people truly are, it’s attitude, and inner heart.
Y’all be blessed and truly come up out the mind of America they instilled in you so you can build a greater, better tomorrow. At this rate, the enemy will take a new victory, cause remember chaos, confusion, and conflict is of Satan. God don’t move or get down like that!
Love yourselves, wear your Afros, your dreadlocks, bootyshorts, bamboo earrings, gray sweats, BOTH hoop earrings, nose rings, dashikis, moomoos, jays, big chains, lace fronts, tattoos, and anything else that points to your heritage plus bloodlines because it’s the TRUE PRIVILEGE. Many have DIED to stand proudly in being born from a slave heritage, you
BETTER STAND UP AND WEAR IT PROUDLY🗣️✨
NOBODY else can do it! - hence why I said nigga, nigga, niggers, DOWN. Cause my ancestors was WHIPPED do ya hear me?
For me to have this right here, and the government gave me freedom of speech so at that point right there…
Y’all BE BLESSED🧚🏽♀️🍀✨✨✨✨😂