thanks for the trackback *sarcasm* we broke this on the 9th and detroit news covered this last week….

this topic is a sensitive issue. i am a brown skinned woman that depending on who i’m standing next to can be considered both dark skinned or light skinned so i can advocate for both sides of the fence but the matter here is, why in this day and age are we still dividing our community up based on skin color. is it not bad enough that regardless what shade we may be, the white community will always look at us as black and therefore inferior but now we have to have this division amongst our own community. With all the sacrifices that our ancestors had to make in this country to get us to where we are right now (which isnt anywhere much farther think jena 6) why are we out there publicly promoting advancement for light skinned women instead of all black woman. Is that because light skinned women deserve priveleges that dark skinned women dont? Unfortunately this behavior dates back to years of oppression when white male slave owners showed favoratism towards the fairer skinned women because they were more sexually appealing than their dark counterparts and our community is still holding on to those misconceptions. We have to learn to break the behavior that has been instilled in our community for generations from white european men and learn to love one another. Remember that the reason they (the white man) divided us in the first place was to break our unity and make us hate one another. by doing so it gave him more power to control us and unfortunately this still lingers today. whats even more unfortunate is that we dont realize it.

I agree with both with LM and S Dot Stylus. Both views need to be considered it is possible to enbrace what connects us as a people as well as to celebrate our uniquenes. That is part of what makes African Americans so special as an ethnicity; within ourselves we make up a lovely spectrum of color. As a darker skinned woman I have to say that I think the idea of a segregated party was extremely flawed and rather hurtful. Segregation of any kind should remain a regretable part of our past not to be unearthed for any reason.

However, to address this strictly from the marketing standpoint and angle which remained unexamined until now to my knowledge. If the promoter’s personal preference is lighter skinned women that is fine, but he should not have made it a prerequisite for entering the event. I am friends with a very successful promoter in my area and it is no secret that good looking women are usually the target audience for these parties , the more the better as they bring in the guys who buy more drinks, etc.

Attractive women come in all complexions and lots of men prefer darker skinned women, so they would decline attendance to any event where we were not invited. Thus it is possible that he would have been doing more harm to himself than good anyway. By excluding people you also exclude revenue and word of mouth publicity. This was not good business AND more importantly not good for society as a whole, especially the African American community.

I’ve been itching to respond to this all day.
Thers’ alot that can be said about this. S Dot I agree with you on some levels. This is a freedom of speech and expression question. As the promoter Barnes has the right to call the party what ever he wants and give discounts to whom ever he chooses. He was not saying the party was only for light skin shorties. Admission was granted to all. So are people mad that he was not doing the typical free till whatever time promo..

There is also the issue of wording. We as black,african american west indian whatever you want to identify yourself as have an issue with words and connotation. I believe if he had used different wording this would not have received the level of attention that it has. It is the same like a person saying these niggers are cool versus that same person saying these black people are cool. The latter would receive a much better response than the previous and that is a known fact.
Personally I think this is all bull-ish. People are always blowing things out of porportion. rather than question and understand why he chose the words he did, people rather strike and take money out of another man’s pocket and food out off his mouth.
I think you people ( and I am ablack man saying this) are overly sensitive.It was an effing party. and Like S Dot said no one beefs when the bouncer at Lotus decides he is not letting you in b/c of how u are dress. how about you raise some noise about that. this is all about preference and that was preference for the opening of his theme parites. There are parites like this all over New Yok they are just worded differently. this is not a race thing.

I think that point that is most important is that if he said dark skinned women get in free then no one would have been upset. In fact some people would have been proud and light skinned women would have attended the event and paid. If you look at the flyer is light skinned and libra’s free all night. So regardless of skin color libra’s were getting in free. And he was not rejected women of different complexions just charging them. Is it fair? Do we like it? No, but its not illegal. And more importantly we can’t except one form of discrimination and not the other. If you get upset about this, then you need to get upset about sexy chocolate night.

That being said, I think this issue has more to do with our problems as a racial group to accept and love each other. I am honestly tired of people trying too hard to make darker skin or more African features the ideal of beauty for black women. There is no celebration of differences right now. If a man admits to liking light skin then he is thought to have an oppressed mind, stuck in slave days. That is BS! A man can appreciate light skin and dark skin all at the same time. I am not going to think less of myself because I am light. I also don’t think my skin color makes me prettier than someone that is dark. S Dot suggested that we embrace our differences. I agree.

Also, darker skinned black men have always been appreciated by all women and no one feels the need to build up the esteem of our light skinned men. Darker skinned men are thought to be strong, masculine, sexy. Light skinned men are “pretty” or “punks”. And everyone seems completely comfortable with that.

Interesting topic that obviously draws many different opinions. Highbrid nation i think that you should continue to post more thought provoking and conversational posts, not that the fatty of the day posts aren’t wonderful too.