Division Perpetuated in 'Jumping the Broom'

Hello readers, and happy Monday! I am really angry today about a movie I rented on DVD over the weekend. I simply loved the movie and really enjoyed it, but was upset about one scene in it.

The movie was "Jumping the Broom." In the scene in question, an African American man hit on an African American woman. The woman was a stunning, dark-skinned sister, and during his rap he states, "I usually don't date dark-skinned women, but I am willing to make an exception." Wait a minute! What?!? Then to boot, at the end of the movie, a white woman asks him to dance and he looked to the heaven's and says, "Thank you." What in the world is going on here? If no one else recognizes that we have a serious problem in the African American community, I don't know what to do! We will never progress as a people if we continue to have the mentality that light is better. How can we have any argument with White America, if we don't love ourselves? I know this was just a movie, but we all know this happens in real life on a daily basis. For the writers to even feel comfortable putting the line in the movie speaks volumes. This is especially true because the star of the movie was a super light-skinned African American woman.

What are your thoughts?

Misconceptions Surrounding Slavery Perpetuated

I watched an interview of Terrence Howard on one of the late night programs, and he was talking about a house that he owns. The house apparently has a 300-ft. underground tunnel that leads into the woods, that slaves used as an escape route. He spoke about introducing the tunnel to his children, and she that he explained that it was the escape route for slaves. He asked them if they would like to possibly go in, and he stated, "They said, 'Why do we have to go in? We're light skinned. We can pass.'" He and the host laughed. 

I was thinking how inappropriate the comment was, because light-skinned people endured the hardships of slavery, just as the dark-skinned slaves did. It's this type of teaching that continues to encourage the ignorance in our community about the light-skinned, dark-skinned issue.

Open Forum Wednesdays

Tell me what's on your mind... What are your experiences? How has this issue impacted your life? Were you ever on the other end of the issue...being color struck yourself?

Does Light = Nice?

I was watching a comedian on HBO, and he made a statement I was a little confused by. He was saying a lot of raunchy stuff, then after saying it stated, "I bet the audience is thinking he's suppose to be nice; he's light skinned." Things got relatively quiet after he made the comment, a few chuckled, but most seemed baffled, like I was. Sometimes, I think this problem is bigger than I even thought, because of stupid statements like that. The comedian probably actually thinks he may appear a little less threatening because he has lighter skin. Can someone, anyone, shed some light on his comment?

Open Forum

Today is an open forum. I would like to hear from you. Tell me some of your stories about the dark-skin, light-skin issue. I would like to hear from people who have had hurtful things said to them about their skin color. Then, on the flip side, I would like to hear from the people who may have said some hurtful things and why.

Black Hollywood

Do you think there are enough dark-skinned actresses portrayed in Hollywood? Stupid question, I know. But what can we do to change that? What can we really do?