“Cripping” over rugs or rocks.
Alice Walker defined colourism (also spelled colorism) as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color” in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Colourism prevails intraracially and interracially for Black people because of the same reasons; the dominance of Eurocentric beauty myths via White supremacy, external racism by Whites and internalized racism by Blacks, and rigid notions of femininity and masculinity as it pertains to race and complexion. Though these 6 reads above present a plethora of topics, revealing the intersectional experiences of Black women, all of them elaborate on colourism quite well and are critical reads. The first two are non-fiction, latter 4 are novels. MUST READ.
I’ve also written a few essays that elaborate on colourism and its impact on beauty and more (and some of these essays on natural hair also touch on the topic):
- Black Women Do Not Have To Reject Any Mention Of Beauty To Be Womanist/Feminist
- Black Couples In Television/Film - Casting and Colourism
- “Keep That Talk On Colourism Quiet!”
- F*CK Nude And Flesh-Toned
- Hierarchy amidst the WoC Label?
- Black Women and Erasure
- Before Whites Wag Their Fingers At Colourism and Black Hair Politics…
- Politics and The Blackness Police
- Bigotry Aside, Why Not Go For Aesthetic Truth? (In Reference To Zoe Saldana Portraying Nina Simone)
- Black Girls, Black Women and TV Commercials
Going to add these on my “to-read” list.
#8! Thanks Tumblarians!
You told LJ about over 390 of your favorite Tumblrs. Here they are, from most to least popular:
- thelifeguardlibrarian, with 29 mentions
- libraryjournal, with 16 mentions
- fishingboatproceeds, with 13 mentions (sorry John Green, Kate & LJ won this battle)
- librarianproblems, with nine mentions
- nypl, with six mentions
- oupacademic
- schoollibraryjournal
- todaysdocument
- motherjones, with five mentions
- neil-gaiman
- slaughterhouse90210
- theatlantic
- theparisreview
- therumpus
- betterbooktitles, with four mentions
- bookriot
- chicagopubliclibrary
- darienlibrary
- doctorwho
- edwardspoonhands
- ilovecharts
- johndarnielle
- laura-in-libraryland
- libraryadvocates
- mentalflossr
- nprfreshair
- shortformblog
- theartofgooglebooks
- unypl
- wilwheaton
Duke Ellington was distraught over the 1967 death of Billy Strayhorn, his songwriting and arranging partner of 28 years. But Ellington took Strayhorn’s passing as an impetus, born of necessity, to increase his own productivity. Here are five highlights from his twilight.
Photo: Central Press/Getty Images
