MONDAY MUSINGS:TRUE REFLECTIONS OF EBONY

Through the years I have shared  special evenings spent attending UW-L's Reflections of Ebony during Black History Month.   Raised in the South I look forward to the yumminess of the 'soul' food dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens, macaroni and cheese with the necessary hot sauce followed by apple cobbler dessert.

The Reflection of Ebony programs have varied and this year Ms. Joanne Bland was invited to be the keynote speaker.  Actually she is the sister of Lynda Blackmon Lowery who spoke during our community's MLK Jr. Day's celebration. Whereas Ms. Lowery turned 15 on the march to Selma, Ms Bland was just 13. One might have assumed the evening's topic would be hearing Selma March stories but the weekend news provided a different opportunity ...

Encompassing the evening's title of  'Reflections of Ebony' the word EBONY would take on even more meaning than its dictionary description as "a color or shade of that which arrives upon the darkest or the darker shades of the color wheel. Though not consistent or in correlation with the color of black. Often used as a sensual description for a darker or deeper color of the browns."

You see weekend headline news included the actions of a white male college recruiter who had Oklahoma metro high school students line up and rank themselves by skin color and also by hair texture.  This recruiter was subsequently fired but the fact that anyone in 2020 would even think this type of activity was okay is appalling.

Ms. Bland went on to explain about the implications of skin tone (colorism) citing our country's days of slavery when the white master would create 'more 'property' as a result of raping his slaves and those lighter skin offspring would become 'household' help whereas the darker slaves would be field slaves.  Ms. Bland emphasized both did work they didn't want to do but there was that skin tone distinction.

We learned Ms Bland's eldest sister was the darkest of her family and always treated differently by society. In fact, skin tone is even a crucial consideration in black marriages to avoid a couple both being very dark skinned. Smacks of being eurocentric, studies showing hiring practices, salary, prison terms and success correlate to skin color in both male and female blacks. Discrimination based on skin color exists within black and white communities here and elsewhere.

Even in 2020 colorism obviously is still rearing its ugliness. So much 'reflect'ing work still to do especially in our Reflections of Ebony.