NewAfricanWoman Issue 49 - Flipbook - Page 62
HAIR & BEAUTY | SKIN BLEACHING
Big business out of America
Thus, today, with Black America (whose
foundations is steeped in slavery)
leading the “beauty” world of the black
race, it makes sense why millions of
Black women elsewhere (in Africa and
the Diaspora) try to mimic what Black
America does, including bleaching their
skin and straightening their hair.
In fact, light skin and straight hair is
big business in Black America, not
only in terms of money but also on the
psychological and social level.
Thanks to the book, Our Kind of People:
Inside America’s Black Upper Class, by
Lawrence Otis Graham and published
by HarperCollins back in 1999, we know
of a “brown paper bag and ruler test”
which routinely regulates the lifestyle
not only of the black upper class but also
mainstream Black America via mimickry.
Graham’s book traces the history of black
America’s well-to-do, going back to the
first black millionaires of the 1890s. It
explains why one needs to have more
than money and celebrity status to be
accepted by this exclusive old-guard
black elite crowd. One needs not only to
have the right parents, school credentials,
fraternity, club memberships, BUT must
also have the right physical features.
According to Graham: “The brown
paper bag and ruler test, dramatises
the significance that many black elite
people place on physical appearance. For
generations, [the test has meant] that
one will only be accepted into the most
elite black circles if the individual’s skin
colour is lighter than a brown paper bag
and his hair texture is as straight as a ruler.
“The imposition of this standard highlights
the obsession that some elite blacks have
for non-Negroid features. Some people
accused me of this when I underwent a
nose job many years ago,” he says.
The upper class and the Black America
example
In his book, Graham, a famous corporate
lawyer and author of over a dozen other
books, reveals how the black upper
class got its start during the postslavery period in the 1870s known as
“Reconstruction” when a handful of
blacks were elected to the US Senate and
House of Representatives. By the 1880s,
Black America had had its first millionaire
enterpreneurs. Soon there were black
60l New African Woman l March 2023
colleges and universities to educate and
shape the nascent black elite.
Thus, since the end of slavery, the black
upper class has spent time and money
establishing a network of sociallyacceptable schools, churches, social
clubs, camps, and summer resorts which
are used exclusively by members of the
upper class.
And here comes the rub, according to
Graham: “Although it is not as true or
obvious as it used to be,” he says, “the
black elite until the 1960s was virtually
all light-complexioned”. They kept to
themselves and membership to their
social clubs was by-invitation only.
Graham also tells who was in, and who
was not, and who just could not be a
member of the upper class.
“Bryant Gumbel is in, but Bill Cosby
isn’t. Lena Horne is in, but Whitney
Houston isn’t. Andrew Young is in, but
Jesse Jackson isn’t. And neither is Maya
Angelou, Alice Walker, Clarence Thomas
or Quincy Jones. And even though both
of them try extremely hard, neither Diana
Ross nor Robin Givens will ever be,” he
writes in the 1999 tome.
"The subconsciousness of the enslaved, was so
much so that when emancipation 昀椀nally came,
“the light skin myth” had 昀椀rmly become part
of the fabric and the psyche of the former slaves.
Being considered ‘like them’ or ‘their
kind of people’ is not simply a matter of
how much money you earn, he explains.
“Even at age six, I knew the importance of
class distinctions within the black world.
I already understood the importance of
achieving a better shade of black.”.
“There were those families that made
what some called ‘a handsome picture’
with ‘good hair’ (wavy or straight), with
‘nice complexions’ (light brown or nearly
white), with ‘sharp features’ (thin nose,
thin lips, sharp jaw), and curiously nonNegroid hazel, green or blue eyes; and
there were those that didn’t.”
Graham goes on: “All my life, for as long
as I can remember, I grew up thinking
that there existed only two types of black
people: those who passed the ‘brown
paper bag and ruler test’ and those who
didn’t. Those who were members of the
black elite, and those who weren’t. ▶