“Why do you talk like that? You’re so whitewashed.” Many African-Americans hear these kinds of statements from black and white people alike, but what does it mean to be whitewashed? According to people who say this, it has to do with speaking grammatically correct and having an extensive vocabulary. White people claiming the “correct” form of English is just an example of their dominance on African-American behavior. We cannot even speak a certain way without being seen as trying to conform. The dominant culture has affected African-American behavior in more ways than we realize. From skin tone, to straight hair, to rap music, white culture has affected the way we view ourselves.
To first understand the way the dominant culture affects African-Americans as a whole, we must understand what a dominant culture is. According to “A Dictionary of Sociology” by Gordon Marshall, a dominant culture is defined as “one that is able, through economic or political power, to impose its values, language, and ways of behaving on a subordinate culture or cultures. This may be achieved through legal or political suppression of other sets of values and patterns of behavior, or by monopolizing the media of communication.” Based on this definition, it is safe to assert that white people are the dominant culture in America. Therefore, this definition makes it easier to delve into the history of domination by white culture.
For example, many people don’t know where the issue between light-skinned African-Americans and dark-skinned African-Americans comes from. The idea of dividing black people based on skin tone is the idea found in the Willie Lynch speech. This speech was given by a slave owner in 1712, who claimed to have the secret for keeping slaves in line. His method was to take “so many drops of good white blood and putting them into as many n----r women as possible, varying the drops by the various tone that you want, and then letting them breed with each other until another circle of color appears as you desire.” Willie Lynch found a minor difference and was able to turn it into something that would last for more than 300 years.
Because of ideas like that of Willie Lynch, there are many different things associated with being light-skinned or being dark-skinned. Light-skinned people are usually seen as stuck-up, air-headed know-it-alls who think they are better than other black people. On the other hand, dark-skinned people are seen as “the real black people.” They are also portrayed as ratchet, thuggish, and hood. Both of these social constructs come from the white dominant culture and the historical system of colorism. Light-skinned people are usually more favored in society because they aren’t seen as a threat and are closer to “fair-skinned.”
The idea of colorism is so deep it has gotten into our American federal court system. An example of this would be the discrepancy between black people of different skin tones in prison. A study conducted by Villanova researchers found that light-skinned women were sentenced to approximately 12 percent less time in federal lock-up than dark-skinned women. They also saw that light-skinned women served 11 percent less time than dark-skinned women. The dominant culture’s influence always has a way of dividing us and keeping us from uplifting each other.
Check back for my next article where I will discuss the depth of these issues and how they manifest in different ways within the black community.
