"Black is Beautiful" and the Color Preferences of Afro-American Youth

Skin color has been a convenient basis for discrimination and stereotype in the history of man. America, as part of the white Western culture, has been a focal participant in skin color discrimination and valuation. Accordingly, white Americans have devalued black skin color. Blackness in general has been associated with discouragement, despair, depression, coldness, the unknown, the haunting shadow, and the nightmare. This negative blackness concept, no doubt originating from the associations with day and night, has fused with skin color devaluation. The American Negro long ago adopted this negative blackness concept. For several reasons, he identified with the white ego ideal. Thus, for decades within the American black culture, the owner of black skin resigned himself to the fact that he was ''negative, inferior, and less attractive. The social result from accepting negative blackness was devastating. American Negro, in this country, has been defined and segregated as a person who has at least some known trace of Negro inheritance. For this and other sporadic reasons, Negroes in this country vary widely in skin color. Thus, besides the acceptance of the white ideal and negative blackness, American Negroes have utilized skin color to discriminate among themselves. Accordingly, the lighter skin among Negroes has been more preferred. The lighter-skinned Negroes have invoked the negative blackness concept against darker-skinned Negroes. They have discriminated against darker-skinned Negroes. This discrimination has been a force against social unity and identification among Negroes.