Carrie Arnett

Breaking the Color Code:  African American Assimilation

While I was a freshman at Texas A&M University, I was fortunate to be roomed with a young woman who grew to be a lifelong friend.  Her name is Anthonette Okoradudu, and she is from Benin City, Nigeria.  As new acquaintances, we could not believe how much we had in common, and we acted more like sisters than roommates.  Nevertheless, we were not ignorant of our different skin colors; we just simply did not care.  Like Gary and Scott in “Like Mexicans,” color was not important; it did not matter to us.  However, I remember the night we were both painted black and white.  Late one evening Anthonette, her brother, and myself, were walking from the dorms to the parking lot.  I was leading the pack to the car, when a security guard pulled up alongside of us and asked me if I was “all right.”  I was bewildered.  Anthonette and her brother were both examining me from head to toe, checking to make sure nothing was wrong, when I saw the security guard eyeing the two of them.  I felt ashamed, enraged, shocked, and heartbroken   Even though the security guard had only spoken a few words; his eyes had said a mouthful.  I could not understand how anyone could look at Anthonette without kindness in their eyes.  Over the years, Anthonette and I have had many conversations about her life in the United States and her life in Nigeria.  From these conversations and this personal experience, I ask the question how does skin color effect assimilation and can the issue of the “color code” be broken.

Within the minority narrative, one shared problem faced by African Americans is the dominant culture’s judgment of skin color or what we have referred to as the “color code.”  Good and evil, clean and dirty, and strong and weak, are all associations given to light skin and dark skin.  One excellent source that I discovered through the library’s electronic database JSTOR, was “The Bleaching Syndrome:  African Americans’ Response to Cultural Domination Vis-à-vis Skin Color.” This source emphasizes how many African Americans, in wanting to assimilate into a light skinned dominant culture, develop an ideology known as the “bleaching syndrome” (Hall 172).  Historically, the bleaching syndrome’s name stems from creams and beauty products used by African Americans to make their skin lighter.  In Patricia Smith’s poem, “Blonde White Women,” this is evident as the speaker thumbs through her Ebony Magazine, reading the advertisements for these products that connect to the dominant culture (Gillan 79).  These products provide a way to assimilate into white dominant culture by using hair-straightening products and bleaches for the skin; reinforcing her belief that she is not accepted in the white culture.  Nevertheless, bleaching syndrome is not limited to the physical or literal meaning of whitening one’s skin.  Instead, the term goes beyond outward appearances and becomes metaphorical.  The bleaching syndrome is an internal struggle or obsession within African Americans to become accepted by the dominant white culture. 

Hall’s article outlines the different effects the bleaching syndrome can have on the assimilation process of African American’s into the American society.  Hall argues that skin color may affect African Americans in many different aspects of their lives, such as:

1.     job placement

2.     earnings

3.     marriage

4.     residency

5.     self-concept    (Hall 176-80)

If an African American internalizes light skin as the crucial factor in becoming fully assimilated into the dominant culture, then marriage becomes an opportunity for changing one’s social status.  Meaning that a person’s perception of attractiveness may change, resulting in African Americans marrying lighter skinned African Americans; bringing their children one step closer to becoming assimilated into the dominant culture.  Ironically, one effect of the bleaching syndrome is that it seems to do double damage to the African American assimilation process because it creates a double barrier.  Not only do African Americans face dominate culture labeling and judging based upon skin color, but African Americans themselves may develop a dislike for dark skin because “the disdain is an expression of dominant culture ideals” (Hall 173).  In order to answer this question, I wanted to find a first-generation African American, and interview him or her about their own personal experience with assimilation into the United States; I wanted to learn how skin color had played a role in their assimilation process.  Osato Okoradudu, Anthonette’s mother, immigrated into the United States from Benin, Nigeria at the age of 17.  During the interview, Mrs. Okoradudu explained to me that when she first came to America, she lived in New Jersey, where she was attending college.  She was living in an apartment building occupied by mostly African Americans, when she first encountered racism by a black woman who was of lighter skin than she.  Mrs. Okoradudu, a dark skinned Nigerian, was told by a lighter skinned black woman to “Go back to Africa where you came from- you dark monkey!”  This comment seems to highlight the bleaching syndrome complex because the lighter skinned woman is rejecting the darker skinned woman.  I asked Mrs. Okoradudu why she thought the woman said this to her.  In her thick Nigerian accent she answered “Perhaps she felt that we (darker skinned Nigerians) were arrogant, and thought we (her Nigerian ancestors) had sold slaves to the whites” (Okoradudu, Osato).  In Mrs. Okoradudu’s eyes she had been labeled and was stained, because of her color.  However, it is obvious that color is not the only factor in her answer, but it is still an issue.

            To find more answers, I also interviewed Anthonette herself.  After reading about the effects bleaching syndrome has on choosing partners and marriage, I was curious as to how Anthonette felt about this subject.  Before I spoke to her about the bleaching syndrome, I wanted to know how she felt about intermarriage.  Anthonette explained that her father would rather her marry a Nigerian American, but if not, the main concern from both daughter and father is the man be a Christian.  At this point I became aware that Anthonette is dating a white male; which reflects a trait of the dominant culture.  Whether or not she is aware of this or not, she has assimilated into the dominant culture.   

            How does skin color effect assimilation and can the issue of the “color code” be broken?  The first part of this question seems to come in twofold.  Meaning that to a certain extent, the answer differs depending upon rather the skin is dark or light.  Skin color effects assimilation by decreasing opportunity and marginalizing darker skinned African American.  Opportunities such as employment, earnings, and even marriage may be limited if one has darker skin.  On the other hand, a lighter skinned African American may not experience these restrictions because of shared traits with the dominate culture.  However, the most important realization is that the color code and the bleaching syndrome affect a person’s self-concept.  One perfect example is the speaker in the poem “Blonde White Women,” who at first believes that she is not beautiful and that the only way to become beautiful is to become white.  I believe that this is one effect that skin color has on assimilation; from a fear of rejection, soon evokes the fear of worthlessness, resulting in a low perception of one’s self.  However, the speaker in this poem realizes that she is beautiful.  Unfortunately, I do not believe that all African Americans who feel less because of their color are able to walk away feeling beautiful.  This brings me to the second part of my question: can the issue of the color code be broken.  As a society, there will always be security guards who judge a person based upon their color.  In a world surrounded by culture, spice, and life, we cannot become colorblind.  However, by being culturally aware and accepting of others, perhaps the foundation in which the color code was built will crack and break in time.

Works Cited

Gillan, Maria, and Jennifer Gillan. Unsettling America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.

Hall, Ronald. "The Bleaching Syndrome: African Americans' Response to Cultural Domination Vis-a-Vis Skin Color." Journal of Black Studies Nov 1995: 172-184. JSTOR. U of H Clear Lake. 10 Jun 2006 <http://links.jstor.org>.

Okoradudu, Anthonette. Personal interview. 11 Jun 2006.

Okoradudu, Osato. Telephone interview. 9 Jun 2006 .