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Light-skinned vs. dark-skinned
NEW YORK -- One of the
dangers that the victims of centuries
of racism in the United States need
to be cautioned about is the pseudo
struggle between light- skinned and
dark-skinned Afro- Americans.
One of the basic- strategies of
the powerful and oppressive forces
of this society is to divide and sub
divide racial and ethnic communi
ties against themselves. The history
of the United States is a history of
racism.
Unfortunately, the victims of
racism sometimes get caught up in
their own victimization by fostering
- the continuation of racist stereo
types and myths along the color
line.
The established media take
. great delight when a chance is given
to expose internal contradictions
within the Afro-American commu
nity. In a recent front-page article in
The, New York Times , titled "Law
suit Raises Issues of Color Bias
Between Blacks," the issue of con
flict between light-skinned and.
dark-skinned Afro- Americans was
highlighted"
The fact that there persists in
some communities a contrived
notion of bitterness and envy
between light-skinned and dark
skinned Afro-Americans is a sad
commentary. One of the achieve
ments of the civil rights and Afro
American cultural revolution of the
'60s was the re-evaluating of the
relationships between all members
of the Afro-American community
without prejudice due to skin color.
descriptions to describe the bone of
contention speaks to the depth of
the problem. Who would believe
that in 1989 two sisters would be
squaring off in a federal court
because of the perception or the
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL
By BENJAMIN CHAVIS JR.
Interestingly, it is out of the
city of Atlanta, a place where Afro
Americans in particular have made
great progress, that a recent lawsuit
is advancing in the federal courts.
The two plaintiffs are both Afro
American women. One is dark
skinned and one is light-skinned.
Tracy Lynn Marrow, an
employee of the Atlanta office of
the Internal Revenue Service, has
sued the IRS and Ruby Lewis, who
is the dark-skinned supervisor of
'Ms. Marrow, who is light-skinned.
Ms. Marrow contends that she has
been discriminated against in her
employment at the IRS by Ms.
Lewis because of Ms. Lewis' "prej
udice against Ms. Marrow because
of her light-skinned color."
The fact that I have to use these
reality that skin color is the prob
lem? ? . ?
All-Afro-Americans as well as
all peoples in this world have been
created equally by God. If Afro
Americans continue to carry forth
the racist myths and stereotypes of
this society, then the resulting divi
sion and internal conflicts will only
serve to further perpetuate the
exploitation and oppression of the
community.
It matters not what color you
are. What matters is how you use
your life to ensure that justice and
freedom are for everyone.
Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. is exec
utive director of the Commis
sion for Racial Justice of the
United Church of Christ.
There is something bothersome
criminals and victims in our society.
But until we acknowledge and
attack it as a society, our present
system simply will continue to
become less sensitive, less humane .
. . and less effective.
For "traditional" victims of
criminal acts we often feel a sense
of relief, justice or vengeance when
the perpetrators are captured and
punished. But we must not permit
our views to be so myopic that we
are sensitive only to the "tradition
One non-traditional example is
a young lady, whom I will call
Susan, who was an honor student at
Florida A&M University. Her
brother became addicted to drugv
eventually consented to enter a
treatment program and Susan had to
virtually baby-sit him when he was
allowed to return home. 5ne missed
so many classes that she eventually
had to drop out of school. She was a
first-semester senior.
Just how much sympathy
~ should go to the brother, I don't
know. But I think some is due this
young lady with such a bright mind
who became a victim of her broth
er's drug abuse. She is not back in
school yet; perhaps she will return
soon.
The point is, though, that she is
willing to make that kind of sacri
fice for a brother she dearly loves.
Somehow, that's just not fair to her.
But it is love.
Too often we tend to overlook
the Susans and focus on the
abusers. But Susan's brother abused
her love for him as much as he
abused himself with drugs.
She is a victim, too. So are the
other members of their family. So
are we as a society.
A recent traditional example is
the case of James Leon Simpson, a
Forsyth County man convicted of
brutally murdering Shirley Ann
Ford, his ex-girlfriend.
The Ford family has been
* mg ordeal that the jus
Chronicle
that must be done. The many thank
yous to sponsors and supporters
were repeated many times over dur
ing the course of the festival, but we
want to lake this opportunity to offi
cially say "Thank You."
First and foremost, the biggest
thanks goes to all of our regional
committee members, steering com
mittee members and volunteers,
most of whom not only put in hours
of manual labor over the Mayfest
weekend, but some of whom were
also involved in the thousands of
al.
seems finally to be
ending. For themvno grief can com
- pare to that they have suffered, par
ticularly when the 12-gauge sa wed
off shotgun blast did not leave
enough of Ms. Ford's head to be
reconstructed for viewing at her
funeral. Instead, they had to place a
photograph of her on the casket.
One would have to look long
of her hands and saying to no one in
particular, "I can't helieve it, 1 can't
believe they did this to him. I just
don't believe it."
Then she fainted and was out
cold for about a minute, sitting in
the corner on the floor. Later, she
suffered seizure-like attacks and
appeared to have trouble breathing,
GUEST COLUMN
By ROOSEVELT WILSON
and~hard to find anyone to sympa
thize with Mr. Simpson, a man who
? ofUy a fe^w months earlier had
attacked the same woman with a
knife.
But Mr. Simpson's family
cares.
}
It is obvious what a victim's
family suffers and we are rightfully
quick to sympathize with them. But
somehow in our society we have
developed an insensitivity toward
the families of the perpetrators and
have come to view them as people
who should share our feelings 6f
outrage.
But it simply does not work
that way.
Because a family member com
mits a criminal act, the rest of the
family should not be expected to ~
in fact, cannot - simply stop loving
the father, or brother, or sister, or
mother, or whatever.
All of the Simpson family
members in the courtroom cried
when they heard the guilty verdict,
but two of the women took it excep
tionally hard.
One said while sobbing aloud,
"James didn't do all those things.
Oh, James! He didn't do all those
things." She tried to follow as Mr.
Simpson was led from the court
room. She almost collapsed three
times and had to be assisted by
paramedics.
The other paced back and forth
as if in a daze, staring at the palms
an tne wnue noidirig ncr trembling
hands just in front of her facer^
? What docs all of this say? Is it
wrong to feel sympathy for these
people? All they are guilty of is lov
ing. That is not a crime.
The real culprit here is Mr.
Simpson. Because of him, not only
will the six Ford children have to
grow up without their mother; not
only Will Ms. Ford not see another
birthday; not only will the Ford
family have to live the rest of their
lives without their loved one; but
also, the Simpson family have one
they love locked away, and their
family will never be the same again,
either.
The Simpson family are vic
tims too. In a sense, we arc all vic
tims.
As a society we should not tol
erate insensitivity in such instances.
We should reach out to all victims.
And, as corny as it may sound,
if we really cared about each other,
and reached out and touched each
other more often, probably there
wou1 J be fewer reasons for people
to commit offenses, whether against
themselves or others.
And certainly we would have
fewer victims.
Roosevelt Wilson is working
with the Chronicle this summer
as the T. Thomas Fortune fel
low.
Mailbag
From Page A4
hours of planning which went into
the making of Mayfest International
'89. It is common knowledge that
without our committee members
and volunteers, there simply would
be no Mayfest To you go the Urban
Arts of the Arts Council Inc. awards
for Service Beyond the Call of
Duty!
Next, we wish to thank the resi
dents of Stratford Apartments for
their cooperation in the last-minute
re-mapping of the festival compo
nents. Having the beer garden right
next door couldn't have been the
best environment for low noise lev
els, but they indulged our intrusion.
To all of you go the Urban Arts of
the Arts Council Inc. award for
Neighbors of the Month!
Our profound apologies go out
to the participants in the European 1
and Asian regions. We hope that
you all understand that we were
forced into reorganizing the entire
festival with less than three weeks
Please see page A8
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