On Light Skin Privilege

1. In most situations where I am with other people of color, white people will try to communicate with me first.
2. I am more likely to appear in the media, especially if my skin affords me the designation “omniracial.”  (Hello, Beyonce.)
3. People will think I am pretty. full stop.
4. I am more likely to get a promotion than my darker skinned counter parts.
5. I can write blog pieces about my skin color and not reflect on the privileges that are associated with it.  (Wallace Thurman notwithstanding, literature, films, blogs are littered with primary and secondary textual analysis of the meanings of light skinnededness.)

From Huey Newton Complexes over at Crunk Feminist Collective, which may be the second dopest blog* ever on black feminism.

This.

I’d be lying if I said my ethnic ambiguity wasn’t an advantage in the privilege Olympics. I’m the Safe Negro. That’s made especially so because I’m also a smarty-art Negro from a middle class family.

Even as I feel defensive about the labeling and the stereotype that the beige among us feel compelled to prove our blackness (‘cuz uh, my Afro started off as a cost-and-manageability issue and my blackness is rooted in 30+ years of living as a black person), I recognize that I have the ability to trade in on my color privilege at any time. (And if I’m being real, I actively trade on my class and education privilege all. day. long.)

* Pssht. Y’all BlackFeminism.org was the dopest ever.