COLOR STRUCK

SOUL FOOD/ BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION/ 12/7/ 2006

SOUL FOOD is a series that all can watch but it is for predominantly Black audiences. It has to do with the politics of color in the Black Community. The story begins with a young lady who is very light and has hazel eyes. She finds relationships in the dominant white community go swimmingly. Her sisters who are darker get passed over by Black men. Her one darker sister has a son who is light brown and goes to a predominantly white private school. He by passes a darker girl for a much lighter one and his mother is upset. She finds that her son is doing the same thing to girls of darker color that was done to her. The mother and son have a confrontation. The son asks "should I just date darker girls?" The mother is caught off guard and she has to revisit her feelings. The son ultimately dates the lighter skin girl.

"High yellow" used to be the term for Black folks who could not pass as white, but could pass as rich and Black. Senator Bruce Cabot, one of the first Black men to serve in the U.S. senate during

reconstruction was light and his young wife was even lighter. Recently, the was a dedication to him in the U.S. senate. No one came. All relatives were advised of the celebration but had passed into the white community and they did not want to out themselves. "Color Struck" is the name for Black men obsessed with White women and Light African women. It is a subtle form of racism or a subset of the conflictions and contradictions in inter- racial relations. SOUL FOOD is one account.

Another is LANDLORD (1970) a young Scandinavian lad from a very wealthy family and without work is given a family property to maintain. He becomes the landlord for a building that is composed mainly of poor Black folks. He has an affair with one young lady who is married. From their adultery a baby is conceived. The child is white. In the end, he takes his child and the Black lady gives up parental rights. The young man is extremely white Scandinavian and his new love interest is an African girl who can easily pass with cross over make up. She finds relationships

at a grand reception instigated by the young man's parents an easy one. She is white girl with dark hair.

Ah, color, it is the pattern of race in the western world and perhaps far beyond. For Asians in the states, the same prevails.