Bobby Bleistein 

The color complex is a issue those of dark skin tone often face and have faced for years. In particular black women are very susceptible to ridicule and are in turn effected by the color complex. In both the introduction to the Color Complex and chapter 7 of the Color complex, John Langston Gwaltney shows the importance of color in the black community. And how the desire and drive for a whiter skin tone is created. 

In the introduction to the color complex, Spike Lee, a famous black director/ filmmaker, used the color complex in his plays summer daze and jungle fever. This play was important in the black community because not only did it show there was a problem of wanting lighter skin tone, but also that it is relevant in the lifes of blacks everyday.  Jungle fever, used the plot of a black man who was unfaithful to his girlfriend who was also black by cheating on her with a white woman. This was then re enforced when the black woman states “What I mean is you’ve got a complex about color. You’ve always had it. I never wanted to believe it until now… I told you what happened to me when I was growing up… I told you how they called me high yella, yellow bitch. White hinky, honky white, white nigger, nigger white, octoroon, quadroon, half- breed, mongrel…” this quote is  very interesting to look at. As a child she was be rediculed for having a lighter skin tone but that was not enough for her boyfriend, he wanted and found a woman who had his desireable white skin tone. In this the word mulato is also discussed.  It is associated wth a hybrid of a black and a white mating and having a half black/ half white child.  Often times depending on what side the child resembled the most, would connect with the level of struggle they have to deal with, being more white would be more “beautiful” when looking at the color complex.

In chapter 7 of the color complex, dating and mating is discussed in terms of the color complex.  Sexual attraction usally occurs when observing physical apperance. This I found interestng because in social media today black women are being “whitened” and “lightened”. An example of this is during one of beyonces photoshoots. (note Beyonce is married to a darker skin Jay-z) Loreal also is acused of making some of their darker models  almost white in apperaance on maazine covers. But getting back to dating, black women are constantly competeing with ofther black women who have alighter skin tone, and who are considered to be more desirable. In the case of many black men, some find the the darker the woman, the better for them. This situation is one that depends entirely on the male being viewed. But In all the tendency of white women marying black males is rising at a steady pace. Another reason people tend to marry out to to show they are “rebels”, as described in the chapter.

This reading was not suprising to me because we see tresnd like these on social media and on media in general. i feel that this color complex will continue to occur and this will be seen in the rise of interracial marrages and the number of mulano childern. The color complex will also continue to be seen but sparingly, in media continuing to lighten the skin color. Even though this cause controversy, companies willstill try to stretch the limits of what is socially aceptable.  Because the color complex paves way for white being beautiful. these chapters are very important to understanding the color complex.