Hey guys. I'm exhausted from talking about colorism at this point lol
So I was having a conversation with someone on colorism this morning, and the concept of pointing out light privilege = questioning Blackness came into play. When I mentioned that I found this to be a strange and confusing concept, the person I was talking to basically said that many light-skinned people equate Blackness with struggle and oppression, and so when you say they have privilege, they feel you are taking away from their struggle- aka you are taking away from their Blackness.
I was shocked. Privilege comes in all manner of adjectives (thin privilege, male privilege, and pretty privilege all immediately come to mind), and none of those forms take away the essence of who a person is. To me, if you're Black, you're Black, and no one can take your Blackness away. Diving deeper into the issue, I came to the conclusion that the real problem many lighter-complected Black people have is not that someone is questing their Blackness by pointing out that their struggle (or lack thereof) is different than a dark-skinned person, but that the burden of the guilt they feel over being light enough to have privilege in the first place causes them to lash out and attempt to deflect people from talking about their privilege. They are in a state of denial because they don't WANT to have benefited from slavery.
The feelings of guilt and shame over having a privilege that one didn't earn are understandable, but denying it with cries of, 'We are all the same!' or 'This is divisive' doesn't lessen the impact of light privilege or make it go away. Lighter skinned people need to be able to say, "Yes, I am Black, but I do recognize that I have light privilege. I accept it and will work to check my privilege and hold myself and others accountable." This does not have anything to do with struggling more or less, or being more less or less Black (especially in the eyes of white people, who may give light-skinned people privileges but STILL recognize that they are Black) but rather, with recognizing that we live in a racist, white supremacist and Eurocentric society that has placed an inordinate amount of importance on skin color. We are all Black, but all our Black is not equal.
PSA: No one is questioning your Blackness.
Thanks for watching.
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