Skin Color: The newest trend in Detroit club publicity

In Detroit, a promoter for a club thought it would be a good idea to throw "skin-color themed" parties. The first in a series of parties he had planned was to be for light-skinned black women, Libras, and the attendees of a private party being held at the club. Once racially aware individuals within the black community were made aware of his intentions, the promoter Ulysses "DJ Lish" Barnes was bombarded with heated and harsh e-mails from offended persons. This is one of the amazing things about American "racial" society. Racialized groups have pitted their interests in ways that separate their personal goals from those of the larger society.

Barnes is African-American and describes himself as "dark skinned." The issue of skin color is an often painful and emotional among African-Americans. The history of slavery and the resulting legacy of intra-racial segregation have sometimes pitted darker-skinned and lighter-skinned blacks against one another.

What can you say about something like this? It is true that skin color is a predominant element within the organization of American society. To mark that it stretches to the point as to become offensive to persons who are categorized as part of the same race is more indicative of a racial hierarchy that, historically, is assumed to be more a part of Caribbean or Latin American culture than in American culture. Essentially, issues of race have tended to be more "Black and White."

But in a nation that was built on the backs of slavery, indentured servitude, and cheap immigrant labor - where those same people that laid the framework for the current post-industrial society - how can you eradicate the idea and fundamental construct of "race" (because race is just a social construct/imposition) without eliminating specific attributes and aspects of cultures that maintain elements of history and personal struggle that are so important to the make-up of American society? The world may never know. But maybe we could start by not fighting ourselves.

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