How Colorism Affected the Life of Bob Marley free essay sample

Applebee’s and his light-skinned African American supervisor. In the suit, Burch alleged that during his three months at the restaurant the manager repeatedly referred to him as â€Å"tar baby† and â€Å"black monkey†. Burch also alleged that the manager told him to bleach his skin and that he was fired when he threatened to report the man to Applebee’s head quarters. Burch was subsequently awarded $40,000 to settle the suit. Reported by Alex P. Kellogg, BET. com Staff Writer). In the case above, Burch experienced what several black scholars refer to as colorism. Colorism is discrimination within the black community based on skin tone (B. Maxwell). It is the belief that a person’s â€Å"goodness† is inversely related to the darkness (sometimes the lightness) of his/her skin. My family comes in all shades: My father dark coffee, my mother mocha, my brother milk cocoa and I’m simply cocoa. Because we lived overseas, my experience with co lorism is relatively limited. Yet I do recall family gatherings in the US where a few of my relatives would marvel over my brother and pay little attention to me. Until recently, I thought it was because he was the younger one. My mother was highly in-tune with color issues in black society. She made sure that my brother and I knew that we were equally handsome, talented and bright and that we should be there for each other. When I was about 8 years old, I remember walking into a restaurant with my mother and brother. A black waitress walked over to us and told my mother â€Å"wow, isn’t he a cute one†, pointing to my brother. My mother quickly snapped, â€Å"Don’t you mean, isn’t he a light one? † and walked us out of the restaurant, assuring us that we were equally cute. Colorism is neither new, nor exclusive to one part of the world. It affects almost every black person directly and indirectly. My paper looks at the ways Bob Marley’s mixed heritage subjected him to the positive and adverse effects of colorism in Jamaica and the United States. I will examine the ways in which the colorism Bob faced as a youth, affected his decisions to adopt the religion of Rastafari and raise his fist for black power. The roots of colorism can be traced back to the days of slavery where white slave masters would rape their African slaves who then bore children of â€Å"mixed† skin color. These children were typically disliked by the African slaves, and later the African Americans because their light-skin reflected the absence of some of the, so-called, â€Å"negative† traits of blackness that the oppressors had associated with evil and inferiority (K. Michelle Scott, 1). Many dark-skinned black people had absorbed and internalized these negative messages and thus light-skinned blacks were often thought to be smarter, prettier and superior to those of darker skin (K. Michelle Scott, 1). Public policy and societal tendencies, however, would make being light-skinned in Jamaica different from America. In the United States, the government was aware of the fact that miscegenation would soon bring into question the ethics of slavery. In order to avert this, they ruled that one-drop of black blood was enough to make a person â€Å"Black† in the eyes of society. This meant that light-skinned blacks were given no alternative but to identify as black. In Jamaica, however, such laws were not adopted by the government. White slaveholders typically recognized their biracial children and arranged for them to study in Europe (Stephens 167). Gradually, a â€Å"brown† level emerged between black and white. Successful Brown Jamaicans typically distanced themselves from their â€Å"inferior† black counterparts by living in exclusively brown areas. Though Bob grew up in Jamaica, he had little contact with his father and was reared by his mother in the predominantly black Trench town slum. Bob’s environment provided biracial children next to none of the social privileges that they could have in other parts of the country. And Bob was often ridiculed by his peers for not being black enough. The authors of Songs of Freedom write: â€Å"Considered a white boy, his complexion would often bring out the worst in people: after all, why was this boy from ‘country’ living down in the ghetto and not uptown with all the other light skin people† (Boot and Salewicz, 63)? It was this anti-mulatto sentiment Bob experienced growing up, that made him desperate to prove himself as a black man. Author, Scott Gurtman, believes that Bob’s experience with colorism defined his career as it made young Bob Marley strive to become a black icon. Once again I emphasize the fact that Bob Marley’s experiences with colorism are not isolated. Color prejudice has been affecting black men and women for decades. In addition, colorism has been the theme of several African American poets and screen writers. The following passage is taken from a poem by Maya Angelou. â€Å"Wouldn’t they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond, would take the place of the kinky mass that Momma wouldn’t let me straighten? . . Because I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother , who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big negro girl, With nappy black hair, broad feet, And a space between her teeth that could hold a number two pencil. † -MAYA ANGELOU I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Countless Black girls in the United States share the fantasy of being White (Russel, Wilson and Hall, 41). How could they not, in a society whose ideal beauty is blond, with pale-skin and blue or green eyes – everything an average black girl lacks. Though several black men have felt the effects of their dark skin, dark-skinned females have suffered far more. A dark-skinned man can use intelligence to compensate for his â€Å"unfortunate coloring† if he becomes financially stable he will be able to marry a light-skinned female, thereby improving his social status and that of his children (Russel, Wilson and Hall, 42). A dark-skinned black woman, however, may feel that she has nothing to offer society no matter how intelligent she is. According to psychiatrists William Grier and Price Cobbs, authors of Black Rage, every American Black girl experiences some degree of shame about her appearance. Many try to achieve the â€Å"white† or â€Å"more presentable look† by devoting hours to painful hair combing rituals and as they grow older they start to use products designed to straighten kinky, unruly hair and to bleach dark skin. Some blacks even resort to surgery to alter their African features. For a few thousand dollars, an undesirable nose can be made arrower; a couple more thousand dollars can provide a chemical peel, permanently making the skin lighter. Bob Marley was also insecure about his look, yet instead of desiring a more European look he desperately wanted to appear â€Å"Blacker†. Rita Marley explains that he would often ask her to rub shoe polish into his hair to make it darker. In addition, Bob would lie in the sun for hours to darken his skin. For reasons contrary to those of the y oung black girls in America, Bob felt that his complexion and euro-features were not attractive. In 1962, Bob entered a relationship with a young girl from Trenchtown called Esther. His mother Cedella recalls, â€Å"†¦this little girl, living in the same yard. They were in love. Bob give me sign and I saw her pass Sledger (Marley’s cousin) a love note for him. † The relationship ended abruptly because Esther’s older brother was wary of Bob’s mixed heritage and light complexion. Cedella explains that â€Å"Her brother say to Bob, ‘We don’t want no white man in our breed. ’ Her family kill off the romance. Them style Bob as a white man. That made a difference in our yard. Several other light-skinned blacks share similar painful experiences. In an episode called Blackaphobia, VHI posed the question, â€Å"why is it that some of the most militant, most angry, most threatening blacks have also been the ones with the fairest skin? † Bob Marley, Malcolm X and Angela Davis were used as examples. Russell, Wilson and Hall tried to answer this question in their 1992 book, The Color Complex. They explain that by the time African – Americans become teenagers they have developed well-defined stereo types about skin color. Charles H. Parrish was one of the first people to explore the nature of racial stereotyping among black children. He found that in the 1940s, black junior-high students used as many as 145 words to describe skin color, including, â€Å"yaller†, â€Å"high yellow†, â€Å"fair†, â€Å"red-bone†, â€Å"light brown† â€Å"medium brown†, â€Å"dark brown†, â€Å"chocolate†, â€Å"dark†, â€Å"ink spot†, and tar baby†. Each term was associated with a particular stereotype. Light to medium skin tones were usually linked to intelligence and refinement, while dark skin tones suggested toughness, meanness and physical strength (Russell, Wilson, Hall, 66). Some light-skinned Black males try to compensate by exaggerating their masculinity and acting tough and streetwise (Russell, Wilson, Hall, 66). In an article in Essence magazine, entitled â€Å"Who is Black†, writer Itabari Njeri, describes the plight of his cousin Jeffrey, who looked liked singer Ricky Nelson, but wanted to be â€Å"The baddest nigger on the block†. Jeffrey ended up dying young on the streets as he tried to prove he was not the â€Å"enemy†. And, Michael Marriott, a reporter for the New York Times wrote an article recounting his experiences growing up as a light-skinned African American in the sixties. He explains that â€Å"black cool dictated [his] every rhythm†. Throughout high school Marriott sported a large Afro, bodacious swagger, and high-top Converse shoes. He also developed an obsession with black music, dance moves and an ability to cite Malcolm X flawlessly. He writes: â€Å"A light-skinned teenager could not afford to get caught slipping when it came to the required black behavior [and] if you did you were very likely to get stoned with the hardest rock in a black teenager’s rhetoric arsenal: Someone might call you a whiteboy†. In Jamaica, a teenage Bob Marley faced similar plight. His wife Rita Marley recalls that Kingston â€Å"toughs† would taunt Bob on account of his absent white father (Stephens, 169). â€Å"Having come through this white father caused such difficulties that he’d want to kill himself, she says. † She then explains that Bob was â€Å"lost in that: not being able to have anyone to say it’s not your fault, or that there’s nothing wrong in being like you are†. In an attempt to dodge the â€Å"tragic mulatto syndrome† Bob did everything in his power to â€Å"act black†. As a young adolescent he adopted the rebel, or â€Å"rude boy† attitude. And developed close relations with various neighborhood gunmen and Rude Boys (Davis 48). Bob was considered tough and often feared; his rough persona helped him establish himself as the â€Å"ultimate champion of the Rude Boys† when he and the Wailers released Rude Boy in 1965 (Davis 51). As Bob grew older, however, the â€Å"Rude boy† fad started to disappear and he once again started to get lost; confused about where he stood racially. He desperately needed a new ideology that would solidify his stance as a black man to himself and those around him. This ideology came in the form of the religion of Rastafari (Davis 72). Marley privately converted to Rastafarianism in 1966 (Davis 72). Here was a â€Å"black religion that held that Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was the black king whom Marcus Garvey had prophesied would deliver redemption for the black race† (Davis 62). By adopting Rastafarianism, Bob was telling himself, and the world, that he was a black African. He grew his hair into dreadlocks and incorporated Rastafarian teaching and ideals into his songs; eventually establishing himself as a black Rastafarian prophet in his own right. Though colorism helped motivate Bob Marley to become the Legend that he is today, it is definitely a highly destructive issue. Unfortunately, we are not at a point where black people freely address the issue. Bringing up colorism is frequently regarded asâ€Å"airing dirty laundry†. For those who believe that certain matters are better left unsaid, maybe I have. However, for those who have the legitimate belief that if Whites know about colorism in the black community they may take comlaints of white racism less seriously. Some whites may declare â€Å"If Blacks cant take care of their own problems with discrimination how can they expect us to do any better? † While, such reaction are possible. The only way to truly deal with colorism is by accepting that it exists and adressing it head on. Unfortnately, because colorism is multi-faced and deeply rooted in the nation’s history it is not subject to a â€Å"quick fix†. Yet if black parents were to teach their children about colorism and how to react to it, and Americans of all races were to work together to dispel racial stereotypes we could greatly minimize the damage of colorism on future generations. Works cited: Davis, Stephen. Bob Marley. Doubleday Company, Inc. : Garden City, New York, 1985. Stephen’s book is a biography that describes Bob’s life from childhood to adulthood. This book was especially useful because it drew parallels between Bob’s childhood experiences with colorism and his adult decisions. In addition, it allowed me to find examples from Bob’s life to justify my assertions, i. e. his rudeboy phase. I felt that because it covered so much material it lacked some justification and I felt that the author could have expanded on some of his theories. Gurtman, Scott. The Influence of Bob Marleys Absent, White Father. Retrieved, April 19 from: http://debate. vm. edu/dreadlibrary/gurtman02. htm This was another informative piece. Gurtman’s paper addresses the affect that Norval Marley’s desertion had on his son Bob Marley. The paper suggests that many of Bob’s decisions stemmed from the scar left by his father’s rejection. I contrasted Gurtman’s belief with my thesis, that the majority of Bob’s decisions were a result of the colorism he felt growing up. Maxwell, Bill. The Paper Bag Test. Times Staff Writer  © St. Petersburg Times, published August 31, 2003 Bill Maxwell is a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times and he reported the case of Dwight Burch vs. Applebee’s. I used this case to start my paper because I felt that it would captivate the readers, encouraging them to learn more about the history of colorism and ultimately how it affected Bob Marley. Colorism goes far beyond Bob Marley and it still very alive today using modern examples allowed me to show this in my paper. Russell, Kathy, Midge Wilson and Ronald Hall. The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. 200 pp. This book was very important for my paper because it analyzed color-discrimination in the black community. Colorism is still very alive today and it has several manifestations. Colorism affects the relationships/friendships people chooses to their career choices and public persona. I wanted my paper to draw a connection between modern colorism and the colorism that Bob faced in his life. This book gave me many of the details I needed to learn about and later address modern day colorism. S