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Today'n Black History: Paper bag parties

HoneyPotTrap

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The "brown paper bag test" was a ritual once practiced by certain African-American and Creole fraternities and sororities who discriminated against people who were "too dark." That is, these groups would not let anyone into the sorority or fraternity whose skin tone was darker than that of a paper lunch bag, in order to maintain a perception of standards. Spike Lee's film School Daze satirized this practice at historically black colleges and universities.


Along with the "paper bag test," guidelines for acceptance among the lighter ranks included the "comb test," which tested the coarseness of one's hair, and the "flashlight test," which tested a person's profile to make sure their features measured up or were close enough to those of the Caucasian race.[5]

Free African Americans

The historian Ira Berlin noted the emergence in the 16th and 17th centuries of Atlantic Creoles, people of color descended from the multinational peoples in African ports where Portuguese and Spanish traders, African women and Arab traders congregated. Some were enslaved with their mothers; others were freed. They tended to learn multiple languages and found work at the trading posts on the edges of African settlements, especially at the places where Europeans bought slaves. Sometimes the multiracial Creoles would work as overseers or translators. They started sailing with the Portuguese and some went to Europe before any came to North America. Others were among the earliest slaves brought to the American colonies and the Chesapeake Bay area.[1]
In the early Chesapeake Bay Colony, some Africans came as indentured servants. Others arrived as slaves, but in the early years could sometimes be freed from slavery through work. Most Europeans arrived as indentured servants, agreeing to work for a period to pay off their passage. Some Native Americans learned to speak English and adopted English customs. All these groups lived and worked together; boundaries were more fluid than after slavery became institutionalized as a racial caste. Colonial records show that some African slaves were freed as early as the 17th century.



More significantly, researchers have found that the origins of most of the free people of color before the American Revolution were in relationships between white women servants and African or African American men.[2]
These free families became well-established with descendants moving to frontier regions of Virginia, North Carolina and west as areas opened up.



Free Indians who lived in English communities also married into these communities. There they were free of the strictures of plantation areas and were often well-accepted by white neighbors. Many became property owners. Some multiracial communities married within their common group; other free African Americans consistently married out into the European American community and their descendants assimilated as white. Some prominent Americans have been descended from these early free families, for instance, Ralph Bunche, who served as ambassador to the United Nations.[2]


As early as the 18th century, travelers remarked on the variety of color and features seen in slaves in Virginia. Light-skinned slaves were sometimes given better treatment on plantations, with domestic jobs inside the master’s house, including as companions or maids to his legal children. Some of them were educated or at least allowed to learn to read. Sometimes the master might arrange for an apprenticeship for his mulatto son and free him upon its completion, especially in the first decade after the American Revolution, when numerous slaves were freed in the Upper South. In the Upper South, from the Revolution to 1810, the percentage of people of color who were free increased from 1 to more than 10 percent. By 1810 75% of blacks in Delaware were free.[3]
Newly imported Africans and darker-toned African Americans were used in hard field labor, where they were more likely to experience abuse. As tensions about slaver uprisings rose in the 19th century, slave states imposed more restrictions, including prohibitions on educating slaves and on slaves' movements. The slaves themselves could be punished for trying to learn to read and write.
In Louisiana especially, Creoles of color had long formed a third class during the years of slavery. They had achieved a high level of literacy and sophistication under French and Spanish rule, becoming educated, taking the names of white fathers or lovers, and often receiving property from the white men involved with their families. Many became artisans, property owners and sometimes slaveholders themselves. Unlike in the Upper South, where free African Americans varied widely in appearance, free people of color in New Orleans and the Deep South tended to be light-skinned. The privileges of Creoles of color began to be curtailed after the Louisiana Purchase, when American slaveholders arrived who tended to view all people of color as of one class: black, or, not white.[4]
[edit] After the Civil War

When four million slaves were emancipated and granted citizenship in the South, new issues arose both for whites and for free people of color. When slavery ended, some light-skinned blacks, especially those who were called "old Issue" for having been free long before the war, resisted being grouped with freedmen. They created social organizations that excluded darker blacks, as they assumed that this group had just been released from slavery. The free people of color were proud of their education and property rights. This is an example of within-race colorism. These practices have remained somewhat common in modern society.
[edit] Twentieth century

From 1900 until about 1950 in the larger black neighborhoods of major American cities, "paper bag parties" are said to have taken place. Some organizations used the "brown paper bag" principle as a test for entrance. People at many churches, fraternities and nightclubs would take a brown paper bag and hold it against a person's skin. If a person was lighter or the same color as the bag, he or she was admitted. People whose skin was not lighter than a brown paper bag were denied entry.[5]
There is, too, a curious color dynamic that sadly persists in our culture. In fact, New Orleans invented the brown paper bag party — usually at a gathering in a home — where anyone darker than the bag attached to the door was denied entrance. The brown bag criterion survives as a metaphor for how the black cultural elite quite literally establishes caste along color lines within black life. On my many trips to New Orleans, whether to lecture at one of its universities or colleges, to preach from one of its pulpits, or to speak at an empowerment seminar during the annual Essence Music Festival, I have observed color politics at work among black folk. The cruel color code has to be defeated by our love for one another. —Michael Eric Dyson, excerpt from Come Hell or High Water.
This is one of the ways that light-skinned black people (so called 'High-Yellow Negroes' or Creoles in Louisiana) attempted to isolate and distinguish themselves from darker-skinned blacks.
Even in contemporary American society, psychological studies have shown African-American and white participants both demonstrate colorism, in which they perceive light-skinned blacks to be smarter, wealthier, and happier than those of darker skin.[citation needed]
[edit] In culture

In her 1983 novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker wrote about the effects of skin color.
In his 1987 film School Daze, Spike Lee satirized colorism and the paper bag test at elite historically black colleges. He created a scene in which light-skinned and dark-skinned young women face off using names like "tar baby," "Barbie Doll," "wannabe white" and "jigaboo."
Comedian Paul Mooney uses colorism and the paper bag test in some of his comedy. For example, in one routine he says, "At home where I come from, Louisiana, we have the saying for it: 'If you brown, hang around. If you yellow, you mellow. If you white, you all right. If you black, get back."
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chairman of the Afro-American Studies department at Harvard, wrote about personal "brown paper bag" experiences in his book The Future of the Race.
Other authors who have written about the brown paper bag test are Wendy Raquel Robinson, Zora Neale Hurston, Kathy Russell, Midge Wilson, Tom Wolfe, Marita Golden, Toni Morrison, Kola Boof, Audrey Elisa Kerr, Venus Mason Theus, and Wallace Thurman.
[edit] See also


[edit] References


  1. ^ Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1998, p.17-25
  2. ^ a b [1] Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, 2005, accessed 15 Feb 2008
  3. ^ Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994 Pbk, pp.78 and 81
  4. ^ Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877, New York: Hill and Wang, 1994 Pbk, p. 83
  5. ^ Did Hurricane Katrina reveal a historic reality? Excerpt from Michael Eric Dyson's (2006) Come Hell or High Water
Russell, Kathy; Midge Wilson, Ronald Hall (1993-10-01). The Color Complex. New York: Anchor. p. 208. ISBN 978 0 385 47161 9.
Williams, Lena (1992-11-22). "The Many Shades of Bigotry". New York Times.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Bag_Party"]Paper bag party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 

HoneyPotTrap

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Colorism in the United States is a practice that began in times of slavery due to white slaveowners' assertion that any person black (African) or associated with blackness was inferior or lowly. Common practices of the time were to allow the slaves with the lighter complexion (more commonly the offspring of the slave masters and their slaves) to engage in less strenuous usually domesticated duties, while the darker, more African looking slaves participated in hard labor, which was more than likely outdoors.[3]


Scientific studies conclude natural human skin color diversity is highest in black/sub-saharan African populations therefore many blacks/sub-saharan Africans or people of sub saharan African descent are naturally light skinned.[4]

[edit] Media and stereotypes

While stated less explicitly, colorism has been portrayed in episodes of the NBC drama Homicide: Life on the Street.[6] Lighter-skinned African American superior officers Deputy Commissioner of Operations James C. Harris and Colonel George Barnfather appear to discriminate against main character Baltimore Police Lieutenant Al Giardello, a darker-skinned African American. Additionally, African American women have discriminated against Giardello on the grounds that his appearance is "too black".[7]

Along with the above example, a major issue in American society has been the fact the majority of media outlets (television, movies, advertising, etc.) choose to portray lighter skin people, because on average, that is the national preference. The (light to dark) hierarchy within the African American race is one that has existed since the time of slavery, but its problems and consequences are still very evident. Darker skinned blacks are more likely to have negative relationships with the police, less likely to have higher education or income levels, and less likely to hold public office. Darker skinned people are also considered less intelligent, less desirable (in women mostly), and are overall seen as a lesser people.[8]


Studies have shown that when measuring education and family income, there is a positive sloping curve as the skin of families gets lighter. This does not prove that darker skinned people are discriminated against, but it provides insight as to why these statistics are recurring. Lighter skinned people tend to have higher social standing, more positive networks, and more opportunities to succeed than those of a darker persuasion. Scientists believe this advantage is due to not only to ancestors benefits, but also skin color, which coincides with the belief of colorism affecting peoples lives from past to present. In criminal sentencing, medium to dark-skinned African Americans are likely to receive sentences 2.6[clarification needed] longer than those of whites or light-skinned African Americans, and when a white victim is involved, those with more "black" features are likely to receive a much more severe punishment, reinforcing the idea that those of lighter complexion are of more "value."[8]


The perception of beauty can be influenced by racial stereotypes about skin color; the African American journalist Jill Nelson wrote that "to be both prettiest and black was impossible"[9] and elaborated:
As a girl and young woman, hair, body, and color were society's trinity in determining female beauty and identity, the cultural and value-laden gang of three that formed the boundaries and determined the extent of women's visibility, influence, and importance. For the most part, they still are. We learn as girls that in ways both subtle and obvious, personal and political, our value as females is largely determined by how we look. As we enter womanhood, the pervasive power of this trinity is demonstrated again and again in how we are treated by the men we meet, the men we work for, the men who wield power, how we treat each other and, most of all, ourselves. For black women, the domination of physical aspects of beauty in women's definition and value render us invisible, partially erased, or obsessed, sometimes for a lifetime, since most of us lack the major talismans of Western beauty. Black women find themselves involved in a lifelong effort to self-define in a culture that provides them no positive reflection.[9]
[edit] Commercial

Skin whitening products sales grew from $40 to $43 billion in 2008.[10]
In the African-American community, light skin is considered more attractive than dark skin. During slavery, light-skinned African-Americans were perceived as intelligent, cooperative, and beautiful.[11] They were more likely to work as house slaves. Light-skinned Blacks were also given preferential treatment by plantation owners and their henchmen. For example, they had a chance to get an education.[12] Dark African Americans worked in the fields and did not get an education.[13]

[edit] Skin Color Paradox

The Skin Color Paradox is an idea that deals with the issue of "being black," meaning how African Americans identify themselves, as well as others with the same experiences or lifestyles. A major issue in this paradox deals with the inconsistencies between a person's socio-economical and cultural preferences and their political preferences. Going along with the colorism issue, the paradox exists due to the fact that lighter skinned and darker skinned African Americans seem to have different experiences (socioeconomically and culturally), yet in the past, and theoretically in the future, will continue to have similar political preferences that benefit the African Americans as a whole.[8]


Political scientists would suggest that skin color is a characteristic perhaps as equally important as religion, income, and education, which explains why the paradox is so surprising, but studies show that skin color (or shade) has no real implications on actual political preferences. Another issue with the paradox is regarding Affirmative Action. Studies show that most African Americans that benefit from Affirmative Action come from families that are better educated and more well off, and historically this means that the lighter-skinned portion of the black race is receiving the majority of the aid, making it appear as if the race as a whole is being benefited.[8]

[edit] The "Blue Vein Society"

Following the Emancipation, mulatto societies such as "The Blue Vein Society" came into prominence. Its members were often well-connected free-born or freed individuals of mixed African, European, and occasionally of Native American blood. To be eligible for membership, one's skin color had to be pale enough that the "blue veins" on the underside of the arm were visible.[14]


Such restrictive organizations allowed its members and their offspring to meet, co-mingle and marry, thereby preserving what small privilege the mulatto elite had enjoyed before all slaves were set free. Uneducated, or economically disadvantaged mixed-race individuals, even those whose skin color was technically light enough to qualify them for admission, were rarely welcomed, demonstrating that there were more than color issues under consideration.


The original "Blue Veins" were said to have been organized in New England. Their primary objective was to establish and maintain "correct" social standards among people who had achieved some social, educational and economic standing.
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorism"]Discrimination based on skin color - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_yellow"]High yellow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 

Deacon C

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It's so sad that black folks participate in this colorism foolishness til this day. White people may have started it, but in this day and age of 'enlightenment', why are blacks folks continuing it?
 

DinaDae

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Though it's not as blatant today by the majority, you have musicians and film industry today call it "attracting a larger audience". So when they're called out on it they can sit there and play dumb with a bugged eyed look.
 

LuluLoves

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Interesting read. That the skin colour seperation in the black and other race/ethnicity communities continues to happen is very sad . I'd never heard about modern studies comparing the wealth, education and job benefits of different shades although you would kind of assume it based on what you know historically. It's sad there were/are prominent groups that practice seperation who are black themselves when white people can no longer afford you any better treatment -you have to work for benefits rather than be the chosen one, so it's a little ridiculous.
I wonder how all this compares to countries in Africa whereas while there was occupation of whites, the black population was not a minority and yet there are still complexing issues over there. I imagine it's less of a stress over there but I wonder if there were similar groups practicing paper bag tests etc.
 

mmmmmmmm

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Ever consider what would have happened had the dark skinned people used a brown paper bag as a determining factor for entry..barring those lighter than the bag.
 

CoCoD

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My Indian friend just asked me the other day about some cream to lighten the blemishes in her skin. (Mind you, I did NOT see not nary a blemish). I told her about Fair & Lovely, a bleaching cream hugely popular in Indian countries.

Then she starts going on about how light skinned is the preference and dark skinned people are looked down upon. :no:

Sadly, she's about the color of a paper bag herself.
 

Deacon C

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Ever consider what would have happened had the dark skinned people used a brown paper bag as a determining factor for entry..barring those lighter than the bag.

This would obviously cause an uproar of epic proportions. But since it's dark-skinned people complaining about this treatment, it is a non-issue and dark-skinned people should 'get over it'.
 

DCKitty

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Ever consider what would have happened had the dark skinned people used a brown paper bag as a determining factor for entry..barring those lighter than the bag.

But since dark is considered negative, and light is considered positive, it's highly unlikely that the lighter shade folks would want to be a part of something with those of a darker complexion. They simply wouldn't want any part of it, seeing it as inferior so that wouldn't happen.
 

ianabg

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My Indian friend just asked me the other day about some cream to lighten the blemishes in her skin. (Mind you, I did NOT see not nary a blemish). I told her about Fair & Lovely, a bleaching cream hugely popular in Indian countries.

Then she starts going on about how light skinned is the preference and dark skinned people are looked down upon. :no:

Sadly, she's about the color of a paper bag herself.

The funny part is that Fair & Lovely is not a "bleaching cream". It does not have hydroquinone, bleach, steroids or mercury. It's main "lightening" ingredient is basically sunscreen.

I guess it's a good thing that no one will actually damage their skin through using F&L but at the same time, there are probably some very, very misguided women out there investing in this stuff, which will never yield them the results they want.

I wish colorism could go away, it's really pointless and has no place in today's society.
 

HoneyPotTrap

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Interesting read. That the skin colour seperation in the black and other race/ethnicity communities continues to happen is very sad . I'd never heard about modern studies comparing the wealth, education and job benefits of different shades although you would kind of assume it based on what you know historically. It's sad there were/are prominent groups that practice seperation who are black themselves when white people can no longer afford you any better treatment -you have to work for benefits rather than be the chosen one, so it's a little ridiculous.
I wonder how all this compares to countries in Africa whereas while there was occupation of whites, the black population was not a minority and yet there are still complexing issues over there. I imagine it's less of a stress over there but I wonder if there were similar groups practicing paper bag tests
etc.

There are mixed European ancestored and other creole populations in African resulting from the colonial era where this same legacy continues to exists (Angola), or once existed (Nigeria).
 

mmmmmmmm

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But since dark is considered negative, and light is considered positive, it's highly unlikely that the lighter shade folks would want to be a part of something with those of a darker complexion. They simply wouldn't want any part of it, seeing it as inferior so that wouldn't happen.

Im not quite sure about that..I imagine that at that time dark skinned people were the majority out of us and light skinned folks the minority..its never easy being a minority, especially in those days. They would have needed to associate with darker skinned folks whether they liked it or not cause the whites werent exactly friendly with the lighter skinned folks. I dont think they could just isolate themselves and survive those days.
 

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Ever consider what would have happened had the dark skinned people used a brown paper bag as a determining factor for entry..barring those lighter than the bag.

Hahah.

That'd never work.

But I like you ! You've got hutzpa
 

31savage

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But since dark is considered negative, and light is considered positive, it's highly unlikely that the lighter shade folks would want to be a part of something with those of a darker complexion. They simply wouldn't want any part of it, seeing it as inferior so that wouldn't happen.

They wanna be apart of it when it means they get a role in a movie, or video, or some other favoritism. People will claim black for the benefits but denounce it when it no longer suits them ... not saying that is the case with everyone :dazed:

Like another poster said .... "Blue Vein" society and all these backwards ***** were more likely than not a small percent of the "black" population. They were the minority. The buffer between white and black races.

Like most "mixed "people they enjoy proving their distate for black people to the white man. There is a longggg history of this type of sh!t in Africa, in the islands and here.

Frankly, I don't give a damn. All these bastards are rotting in their graves and everyone who thinks like them should follow suite. The world is a better place with all these narrow minded step n' fetch it ***** furthering the agenda of white supremacy for a pat on the head.

And their own emotional gratification
 

Ace Attorney

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This still exists today with the Light vs Dark Club Nights, #Light and #Dark on twitter, and even on the Tom Joyner cruise when they were dividing teams for a game they did it based on skin color...

To be honest I didn't know it was such a big thing until I would visit black blogs/websites/etc, light and dark wasn't talked about in my house...
 

lovemymarine

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My Indian friend just asked me the other day about some cream to lighten the blemishes in her skin. (Mind you, I did NOT see not nary a blemish). I told her about Fair & Lovely, a bleaching cream hugely popular in Indian countries.

Then she starts going on about how light skinned is the preference and dark skinned people are looked down upon. :no:

Sadly, she's about the color of a paper bag herself.

OMG, this is so true. I have an Indian friend, as well, who shares very similar stories. Her gym is in walking distance from her home in the ATL. When her mother calls, she always stresses that my friend walk with an umbrella or drive to avoid the sun!! The gym is literally a hop and a skip from her house...
 

eggcellence

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Ever consider what would have happened had the dark skinned people used a brown paper bag as a determining factor for entry..barring those lighter than the bag.

that’s a good idea
 

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