IndigoCLCTV_FINAL

THE GOOD KIND OF
BLACK
Vanessa Boreland
“You must be mixed, you’re too pretty to be JUST
black,” some drunk white boy screamed at me over the
shitty music at the crowded bar.
I was at a loss for words. Not only are you implying my
black isn’t beautiful, but that my black is only acceptable
because it’s offset by something more, “appealing.” This
drunk idiot was trying
to compliment me and he had done anything but. As a
biracial woman I am faced with the fact that I’m valued
more because I’m not viewed as, “just black.”
Nowadays we’re living in a climate of complicated racial
relations that we haven’t seen since the 50s and 60s.
Every day you log onto Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
and see another police shooting,
another protest or some other racially
charged incident. Some would say we
are living in a whole new era of civil
rights movements, and I completely
agree. Yet, I walk the line between
parties, white and black.
Between Black Lives Matter and All
Lives Matter; let me tell you it gets
harder all the time. Everyone wants
you to pick a side but you can’t
because every day you wake up and
live in a parallel.
Being mixed has never been easy for
me. Growing up I struggled with
my racial identity. I was never black
enough for the black kids, but I was
too black for the white kids. I denied
my blackness for so long, because I desperately wanted
to fit in with the “cool” kids, and big surprise, majority
of the cool kids were white. Don’t get me wrong, there
were a handful of token black kids that we’re part of that
crew, but almost all of them were biracial.
“ghetto” enough to be entertaining, but not to the point
of being, “ratchet.” The, “good” kind of black doesn’t
take pride in its own blackness, but fits into the mold of
what society has constructed.
Here’s a perfect example of this concept; let us not
forget Feb. 6 2016. A day that will live infamy. The day
Beyonce dropped “Formation.” From SNL to Twitter,
the, “white people
just found out Beyonce is black” jokes ran
rampant and were honestly hilarious. Then
came the Super Bowl, and the shit really hit
the fan. Beyoncé’s Black Panther tribute was
no longer a laughing matter. People (white people)
were actually pissed. For the first time beautiful, light
skinned, blonde haired, Beyoncé was proudly and
unapologetically displaying
her blackness. How could this be? How could this icon
not fit into the mold that was
constructed for her?
by the #TeamLightSkin vs. #TeamDarkSkin hashtags,
the latter being the “losing” team. Even within the black
community, it’s still better to be light.
I need to mention the role black men play into this
concept. Every day I’m scrolling through my timeline
and I see an alarming amount of slander against black
women coming from black men. Black men praise
the light skin, the Latino, the, “foreign” and the
white woman while calling the dark skinned female,
“cockroaches,” “ratchet,” “bad attitude” and “angry.” I
wonder why they’re angry? Maybe because since the day
they’ve been born they’ve been pitted against the, “good”
kind of black woman? I’d also like to casually remind the
black men saying these things that
most of them were birthed and raised
from the type of black woman they
find so disgusting…
So what can we do? How do we
move away from this, “good”
black person and just celebrate our
blackness? For me, it happened when
I stopped caring about what other
people think of me. I stopped caring
where people wanted to put me on
this, “blackness spectrum.” All of a
sudden I just started to love myself,
and I refuse to let anyone take that
self-love away from me.
So for all my light skinned, dark
skinned and any shade skinned in
between black people, don’t be afraid
to love yourself. Be as black as you want. Be as white as
you want. Be whatever the fuck you want. We are ALL
the “good” kind of black.
Which brings me to this unfortunate but glaringly
obvious occurrence in our society…it’s okay to be black,
but only if you’re the, “good” kind of black. The, “good”
kind of black has a light complexion; a 2a to 3b curl
pattern and light eyes. The, “good” kind of black is just,
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to attack white people.
The concept of the “good” kind of black isn’t only
something that happens between black people and white
people. The “good” kind of black is valued among black
people as well. A few years back Twitter was taken over
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