But Not Too Black: Difference between revisions

[[File:loreal 640.jpg|link=Beyoncé|frame|[[Department of Redundancy Department|Yes, L'Oréal lightened the]] [[Unfortunate Implications|light-skinned Beyoncé]].]]

 

 

After a long struggle in gaining visibility and acceptance in the entertainment world, ethnically-African actors and actresses have many more opportunities in Hollywood and on television than they ever had had before. Some have become huge stars in their own right. Unfortunately, as these new opportunities grew, a new dark side of 'racial' bias emerged.

* Somewhat strange case, considering anime is not exactly known for its racial diversity and wide assortment of skin colors to begin with, but in the manga version of ''[[GetBackers]]'', Kudou Himiko was originally shown to have slightly darker skin than the rest of the cast. As the series progressed and gained a serious [[Art Evolution]], her skin got darker and darker until, by the time the manga ended, she was closer in skin tone to black characters than the rest of the white cast. (Her race or ethnic background is never addressed, and her brother was drawn with a similar skin color.) The anime kept her at "slightly darker than the main cast", looking more like she just had a tan than she was of a different ethnicity than the main cast.

* A case of this appears in the adaptation of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' from manga to anime. In the manga, Egypt, being of course an Arabic nation, has sandy-coloured skin. However, when he appears in the anime, he has the the same white/caucasian skin as the European nations.

* [[Inverted]] in ''[[Hellsing]]'' Ultimate.

** Integra's skin looks darker compared to the manga.

* In ''[[Berserk]]'', Casca is the resident [[Ambiguously Brown]] character, suggested to be of [[Sim Sim Salabim|Kushan heritage]], so she is depicted to be fairly dark-skinned in both the manga AND the first anime adaptation. However, previews of the newer anime series shows her to be considerably more light-skinned. [[Internet Backdraft|And the fanbase has responded.]]

* Anthy Himemiya was a racially ambiguous (though likely Indian) love interest in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' with noticeably dark skin and kinky, wavy hair that made her stand out against the rest of the lily-white cast; the video game supplement to the series even made her skin ''darker'' than it was in-series. However, when [[The Movie]] rolled out, Anthy's design was completely overhauled, and her previously dark skin was lightened to the point of looking barely tanned, and her hair was apparently attacked by an army of flat irons.

 

== Comic Books ==

* In ''[[Half Life]] 2'', if the player weren't shown Alyx Vance's father (who is an example of this trope himself), boards would probably be awash with debate around whether she was supposed to be Hispanic or just have a tan - which is because she's half-black, half-Asian.

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series:

** You can also accuse Screaming Mantis and Raging Raven of this...they're portrayed by fair-skinned women who aren't even the same nationality - Screaming Mantis is South American played by a Slovakian model and Raging Raven is Indonesian played by a Japanese woman.

** Fortune from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' is African-American, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne270nxf7rM and her in-game model] is pretty brown-skinned (if not chocolate-toned, she's definitely not light skinned.) The official art for the character tells a different story, as [http://media.photobucket.com/image/fortune%20metal%20gear/Nathaneal_2006/mgs2/chara_fortune.gif she is very fair-skinned]. She and her father are both blond (with blond eyebrows) and with blue eyes.

** Though after apartheid they did not receive any Affimative Action benefits. As one person said "Not white enough for apartheid; not black enough for ANC". They in some ways had it the worse in South Africa, along with Asians who were in a similar position with them (except for Japanese, South Koreans and Taiwanese people. Their countries were quite close (economically) to the apartheid government so, to avoid embarassing race issues, their citzens were declared "honourary whites"—the same thing hapenned to the (very rare) African-American singer who was willing to tour in South Africa).

** Recently this was supposed to have changed with the introduction of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE); but since few Coloureds are members of the ANC, and "empowerment" is most often used as a (transparent) blind for nepotism, it hasn't made much of a difference.

** Again, recall the cultural stereotypes mentioned in the ''Saved By The Bell'' example. Kim is often classed as "shallow rich girl," which is not a cultural type commonly associated with Asian/Middle Eastern women.

* Every now and then, the pages under [[Race Tropes]] show a banner ad for interracial dating site afroromance.com. Fair enough, except that the "black" girl in the photo looks like a white girl with a deep tan.

* [http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Dark-Skin/248025271385 Averted with this Facebook Group]

* Averted with [http://arabiguitar.blogspot.com/2007/05/our-world-hirsi-alis-challenge-to.html Ayaan] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120717035713/http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2007/07/ayaan_hirsi_ali.html Hirsi] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110816203703/http://www.cnn.at/2007/WORLD/americas/10/11/ww.hersi.ali/index.html Ali], who is Somali, and pretty [http://synergistic.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/ayaan-hirsi-ali-is-doing-it-again-and-richard-dawkins-is-on-her-side-battling-fundamentalic-islam/ damn hot].<ref>You may have to scroll for a couple of those.</ref> Also rather [[Hot-Blooded|passionate]].

* [http://gawker.com/5560215/american-apparels-new-standard-no-uglies-allowed Gawker wrote recently about AA’s (American Apparel) looks-based hiring policies], leaking internal documents that discuss AA’s “New Standard”: “Classy-Vintage-Chic-Late 80s-Early 90s- Ralph Lauren-Vogue-Nautical-High end brand.” Their employees are the front line of the brand’s new image, and should represent the company accordingly. So who are they looking for to help represent the new look? The more important question is (and always should be in cases like this), who aren’t they looking for?

{{quote|“None of those trashy [black girls],” said one e-mail from corporate. "We’re not trying to sell our clothes to them. Try to find some of those classy black girls, with the nice hair, you know?"

By "nice hair", AA means ''natural'' hair; hair that is not chemically relaxed to permanent straightness. Ironically, among African Americans, natural/kinky hair has traditionally been known as "bad" hair, associated with being "too black" (some derisively call kinky hair/roots "letting your Africa show"). So-called "Nice hair" or "good hair" is pin straight. }}

* ''Outliers: The Story of Success'' is a book by Malcolm Gladwell that looks into how systems and cultures can accidentally create bias where none might otherwise exist, predisposing some people to succeed and others to fail. The most dramatic example is in the Canadian Youth Hockey League (in Canada, hockey is [[Serious Business]] and begins at an early age), where the majority of players are born in the early months of the year. This is because each league is age based and the cut-off date is January 1. Children born earlier in the year are older, larger, and better coordinated than children born later in the year and as they progress, continual sifting and selection gives them better coaching and more practice such that by the time they're 17, when the accident of birth no longer matters in terms of native talent, the cumulative effect of all that extra work has made them into elite players. The theme of accidental success is personal for Gladwell. Generations earlier, one of his African ancestors was purchased to be a concubine in Jamaica, thus granting all her descendants extra whiteness. Jamaican racism, as described by Gladwell, differentiates with acuity based on the skin color, and he credits much of his own success to the easier successes of each generation of his family. His mother grew up relatively affluent, which allowed her to get a better education, eventually studying in London before moving to Canada.

* In the documentary ''Afro-Punk'' (a film about black punk rockers, and fans) covered this issue. Some stated that they felt that other white kids liked them for the wrong reasons.

* Racial Identity also can become a issue when this trope comes into play. You'll get people splitting hairs when it comes to describing their ethnicity. Some cultural critics say this is because of a negative racist stigma African Americans have thanks to negative stereotypes. Like negative depictions of blacks in mainstream media such as film, news, and [[Hip Hop]] probably didn't help (especially [[The Scapegoat|rap videos]] ). So it's no surprise that some black folks would like to sub-divide themselves from black Americans and black American culture anyway they can (especially immigrants, and even second gen black immigrants). Making being black a type of [[Mark of Shame]] metaphorically speaking. Of course, white Americans have this introductory ritual where they specify what bits of Europe their ancestors came from and express it in terms of fractions. There's no reason black Americans who have any way of knowing shouldn't do their own versions of this...except that for the majority they really can't know. "Probably somewhere within several hundred miles of the Bight of Benin" does not help.

* It can, and has, been argued that the whole concept of relaxing (straightening) your hair relates to this.

* Averted in a Harris Interactive Poll that in 2001 named Martin Luther King and Colin Powell as two of the top three choices of hero/role model for Americans (the other one was Jesus).

** And Jesus was probably as dark as either of those two gentlemen. If you want to talk about famous people who are "lightened" in most depictions, you can start with him.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Characters and Casting]]

[[Category:Double Standard]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]

[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]