Saturday, July 12, 2008

Trifling Negro Of The Week.....



So, apparently this fool (some rapper named Yung Berg who nobody will remember 5 years from now) is "kinda racist" and doesn't like dating dark-skinned women (story here, and God forgive me for linking to Media Take Out). *sigh* I don't even know where to go with this one. Unfortunately, colorism still runs rampant in our community. A long time ago I dealt with this issue in an African-American studies class when it dawned on me that dark-skinned black girls have virtually no chocolate sisters to look to in the media (Gabby Union, Kelly Rowland, and diva deluxe Naomi Campbell are the only ones I can think of), and I realized that dark-skinned black men like myself simply have more positive images of us floating around. I've been told many times in a complimentary way that I favor both Chris Tucker and Wesley Snipes, both men whom I find incredibly attractive. Hell, even Out magazine, the whitest of the white gay rags, has a chocolate-skinned black model grace the cover or its layouts from time to time. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the last time I saw a black woman any darker than Alicia Keys grace the cover of a mainstream fashion magazine.

As for Yung Berg (and no, that's not a typo, just how this fool spells his stage name), I'm sure the irony that he is further perpetuating memes of white supremacy that have been disseminated throughout our society for generations would be lost on him. In fact, I'm sure that he would probably need a dictionary to deconstruct that last sentence. As a dark-skinned black man myself (and don't get it twisted by that well-lit profile pic, this chocolate is dark), it is an issue that used to follow me around a great deal. Knowing the phrase "black is beautiful" and learning how to believe it are two different things, and perhaps that is something that starts with the parents (who never taught me that specific lesson, but thankfully didn't teach me the opposite, either). I'm extremely critical of what the media is trying to portray as "beautiful", mainly because more likely than not that is something that I can physically never be, and also because many people have a lot to gain by maintaining whiteness as a standard bearer of physical attractiveness.

Anyway, what this boils down to is that black people are beautiful in all of our colors, from creamy caramel (Boris Kodjoe, Beyonce) to dark chocolate (Tyson Beckford, Serena Williams. Mmmmmmm, Tyson Beckford. *sorry*), and Yung Berg is this blog's inagural Trifling Negro of the Week for failing to realize that. *sigh* Hip hop, we have GOT to do better than this.

P.S. Grillz were over after Brooke Hogan rocked them in that wack-ass video with Paul Wall. Do you really want to look like this?

1 comment:

Roderick said...

Well I had no clue who the kid was until I saw B.Scott's outrage on YouTube. These rappers are a dime a dozen and lest we forget that they're not on TV as consultants on world peace. They are glamorizing undesirable things: jail, poverty, death, being ghetto, and promiscuous. Give the kid a break.. he needs a hug and some GED tutoring.