Light Skin Baby Warriors Light Skin Baby in Warriors Jersey

NOTE: This is the first of two consecutive commentaries by Michael Eric Dyson on Stephen Back-scratch, his family and their influences on questions of race, color, family and faith.

It was a brisk May night in Oakland, California, when the Golden Country Warriors vanquished the Portland Trailblazers to snag a second consecutive berth in the 2016 Western Conference finals.

Before the game, reigning MVP Stephen Curry one time again hoisted the Maurice Podoloff Trophy recognizing him every bit the league'southward almost-heralded player. As the glee gently took hold in the locker room and spilled into the hallway exterior, I spoke to Back-scratch and most of his family unit — his father, the xvi-yr NBA veteran Dell, his enchanting mother Sonya, his brother and current NBA role player Seth, and his resourceful wife Ayesha. I discussed with them a broad range of bug — faith, fatherhood, feminism, and family values — seeking to gauge how they affect Curry and his loved ones.

Now that the Warriors are entering the NBA Finals to play the Cleveland Cavaliers, Curry'southward profile as the league's all-time player volition be further elevated.

But in that location is a vexing issue I didn't raise with Curry and his family unit — an event that his glory has shined new light on: the difference ane's visibility makes to the race, and to the larger globe, if one is light-skinned or night-skinned.

The politics of shade take adumbral black folk from the time we gear up human foot in N America. Curry'southward fame has upped the ante: Suspicion surrounds him because of his light skin, and because he's been lauded past both the NBA and media establishments. The subliminal bulletin has get explicit: Curry is a brother nosotros may not be able to embrace because the powers that be embrace him too. Curry is not the outset black man who makes some blackness folk uneasy because America loves him as much as nosotros exercise, just he may be the most pop contemporary figure evoking that dilemma. And Curry'southward color is at the heart of that dilemma.

In that location'due south little question that Curry's peel has inflamed a racial wound that may exist invisible to folk outside the culture: the plague of colorism, or skin tone, that has yet to be conquered. Curry'due south light skin and its relation to — some would debate the crucial reason for — his broad cultural appeal has non gone unnoticed.

"James Harden doesn't stand a chance to win the MVP," a college professor on the Westward Coast proclaimed in his class when I visited his school in 2015, referring to Back-scratch's closest competitor for the award. "He's too dark and 'too blackness.' "

It should exist noted that not all the mentions of Curry's calorie-free skin are equally dramatic or negative. Curry appeared on a console with Harden of the Houston Rockets, Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Pelicans and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma Urban center Thunder in 2014 to promote the release of the NBA2K video game, where Durant recalled first meeting Curry when they were both 10 years old while playing on the AAU circuit.

Stephen Curry of the Gilt State Warriors poses for portraits as office of 2015 All-Star Weekend at in New York.

Nathaniel South. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

"I thought he was white," Durant said. "He was this yellow kid, correct? I'm just being real now, right? Where I come from, in the hood, we don't encounter that. We don't come across the lite-skinned guys around. It was all guys like me." As the darker-skinned Durant told the story, Curry was engulfed in guffaws every bit he rested his left hand on Harden'southward back, who was bent over in laughter. There was clearly no offense meant or taken.

Still, in that location is a premise or two suppressed in the logic of Durant's remarks. First, " 'hood" and "nighttime" imply an inverse relation to "light" and "suburban," or somewhere that is definitely non the ghetto. Grade distinctions grow in Durant's observations.

"I thought he was white," Durant said. "He was this xanthous child, right? I'm merely existence existent now, correct? Where I come from, in the hood, nosotros don't encounter that. We don't see the calorie-free-skinned guys around. It was all guys like me."

2d, " 'hood" in the coded speech of black identity means "existent." Durant channels what passes for common sense among many blacks: that a "existent" black may be the darker 1, and the lighter black is suspect and inauthentic because his or her skin reflects symbolic, if not literal, ties to the white world. There would be no light peel if there weren't white peel in the game — either through the raping of black women on slave plantations, or in less-volatile relations between blackness men and white women.

The retired Philadelphia 76ers superstar Allen Iverson recently took to the airwaves to laud Curry. "That light-skinned dude," Iverson said in praising Curry'due south skills as the radio host laughed. "I never seen anything like this in my life. I was a certified serial killer. But this dude has it all." Iverson, like Durant, was clearly displaying affection for Curry. Even so, the comments of both stars reveal a third suppressed premise of race: that low-cal-skinned players accept different — read lesser — athletic ability, the reason in office that Durant and Iverson were both surprised by Curry's skills.

Earlier this year, Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant admonished his lighter-skinned teammate Jordan Clarkson for driving to the handbasket similar a "low-cal-skinned dude," presumably soft and hesitantly, leading Clarkson to annotate that "I've got to start doing it similar a dark-skinned [dude]" — presumably hard and authoritatively.

The retired Philadelphia 76ers superstar Allen Iverson recently took to the airwaves to laud Back-scratch. "That light-skinned dude," Iverson said in praising Curry'southward skills as the radio host laughed. "I never seen anything like this in my life. I was a certified serial killer. Only this dude has it all."

The subconscious injuries of race come into view beneath the barrack of athletes. Many blacks beyond the sports arena are far less playful well-nigh the matter of skin tone.

"I would like to think that Steph Curry's apparent marketability has nothing to exercise with it, but if I made that faux supposition, that would be as silly equally me thinking that Beyoncé is the pinnacle woman in music because she actually sings better than Jill Scott or Jennifer Hudson," TayJordan wrote on the website theBlackJuice.com. "I mean who cannot notice the media's clear favorability to Stephen Curry? He's of fair complexion … and his eyes are a pretty cool color, too."

Stereotypes about color harm blacks in hidden ways

Iverson and Durant's comments, every bit well as those on the Internet, nod to a pecking order where lighter-skinned blacks were perched atop the racial hierarchy of rewards. "Light, brilliant and damned near white" is an expression that captures the superior social appeal of fair-skinned blacks, who were believed to be biologically and culturally closer to white culture. Lighter-skinned blacks were deemed to be smarter and more culturally refined; darker blacks were believed to exist dumber and cruder.

Blacks take ofttimes internalized in our minds and cultures the vicious stereotypes associated with pare colour. We have often circulated harmful beliefs near ourselves that are tied to skin tone: deferring to some blacks because their peel is lighter, demonizing other blacks considering their shade is darker.

I remember several years ago speaking at a higher educational activity briefing where I was praised by a blackness attendee for existence much lighter in person than I appeared on television. I argued in a CNN documentary on black America that I idea my imprisoned brother Everett, equally as bright equally me, but darker-skinned, wasn't nearly as encouraged in his studies as I was. And I witnessed immediate how whites, and many blacks, likewise, disparaged my blue-blackness male parent, Everett Sr., for no other reason than his nighttime skin.

Intraracial politics of color can have an opposite, if not equally punishing, result. The resentment by darker blacks of the perceived and quite real advantages accorded to lighter blacks has sometimes led to a wholesale repudiation of all fairer-skinned blacks. At that place is, however, a big deviation between asking for racial transparency in light privilege, and the unvarying handling of fairer-skinned blacks as automatically guilty of exploiting their status.

But permit's exist honest: Often, ane needs to do no more than be lite-skinned to reap the rewards of light privilege in a civilization that remains profoundly color-struck. All the same at that place are many lighter blacks who have sought to unmask the privileges that come up their way and to discourage a society congenital on a pervasive colour hierarchy.

Then also, the unconscious correlation of pare tone with mental or physical power is a bugaboo that cuts both ways. Back-scratch is assumed to be white, or to "play white," because he lacks commanding physical presence, considering he'due south more finesse than forceful, and considering he'southward a towering shooter, a trait some more readily associated with white players such as Atlanta Hawks forward Kyle Korver and Curry's bus Steve Kerr, than gratis agent Ray Allen, retired Indiana Pacer Reggie Miller or Curry's father Dell. Such anecdotal observations well-nigh Curry'south nonblack style of play are easily challenged with the argument that Curry's "handles" are uber-black — every bit in Curly Neal, Harlem Globetrotter black. In that location'southward no shame, but plenty of "ghetto," in his game.

Stephen Back-scratch, No. 30 of the Golden State Warriors, shoots against the Oklahoma City Thunder during Game four of the Western Conference Finals during the 2016 NBA Playoffs on May 24 at Chesapeake Free energy Arena in Oklahoma Urban center.

Andrew Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images

In that location is also a worrisome, knee joint-jerk reaction to the pare tone effect, a reaction, however, that is certainly non equal to the unconscious preference for lightness-as-whiteness but which roils below the surface and occasionally flares. It is the belief that all lighter blacks are willingly and consciously complicit in the color hierarchy that offers undeniable rewards to fair-skinned blacks.

Often, without proof, lighter blacks are indicted for the sin that their peel suggests they've committed — the sin of collusion with white society to derive reward from their elevated condition. In such a view, their choices are narrowed to either eagerly embracing light privilege, or disdaining low-cal skin every bit the mark of racial heresy — a sign of the denial of authentic blackness at the level of the epidermis.

This troubled logic leads us to conclude, for instance, that Beyoncé must desire to be white because of the acclamation she wins for her talents — a belief fueled by rumors that her magazine covers are getting lighter and lighter over the years. Given Scandal actress Kerry Washington's recent complaint about being photo-edited on the cover of Adweek, and the brouhaha over Serena Williams' photograph-edited epitome in People mag, darker-skinned female person celebrities are prey to the cultural want to lighten their skin or reshape their bodies.

The recent case of rapper Lil Kim dramatically lightening her peel — and the retired Dominican baseball game star Sammy Sosa doing so before her — reminds us of the perils of self-detest in its nigh common expression among blacks: finding a way to lighten ane's peel, and therefore, lighten one's load as a human beingness "damned" to darkness.

Light or dark, Black Skin Matters

In that location are surely welcome cracks in the edifice of light privilege alongside the need for a more complicated and nuanced agreement of race and shade.

Beyoncé has emerged as a prominent feminist and a strong advocate for black pride and political freedom — much like other lighter-skinned celebrities of the past, including extra Lena Horne and singer Harry Belafonte. And light-skinned leaders such as New York politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Muslim leader Malcolm X in the past, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and former NAACP president Benjamin Jealous in our day, take not only fought racial injustice, but have provoked reflection on how black folk have been, and as well often remain, color-struck.

This recognition doesn't deny the legitimacy of light-skinned privilege and the demand to gainsay its unsafe premises — and the benefits and advantages information technology offers to those of us who are lighter. But it as well suggests circumspection in ascribing to lighter blacks complicity with a color regime that in unlike and unequal manner has harmed all blacks.

Of form, the reason that such quarrels over the politics of blackness skin affair is because Back-scratch is arguably the most uniquely gifted and widely celebrated player in the league today. Information technology will undoubtedly not help him win a single game, but he must be credited with perhaps his biggest help: getting under our peel and forcing us to openly and honestly address an ancient injury to our black psyches. When information technology comes to blackness, Curry may be lite-skinned, merely he'south no lightweight.

Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown University Sociology professor, and author of 18 books, about recently The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America, is a former shooting guard who hooped on the outside courts in Detroit with his cousin Bobby Joe, a local playground legend.

jessennothembeffe.blogspot.com

Source: https://andscape.com/features/light-skinned-vs-dark-skinned/