Shades of Black

Keziah Knights 01/24/11 English 102 Dr. Gavin Shades of Black -Mary Mebane Shades of Black is an excerpt from Mary Mebanes first autobiographical volume. In it, Mebane writes about the different types of lightlessness and the depictions of them in society. More specifically, how women of color are viewed and treated. Views of stark charr have changed since the civil rights movement. From the mid-fifties to the 1970s, the views of portentous beauty have changed from one of reverence to one of disgust.Many different problems and obstacles present themselves to woman of color. Mebane writes about the ways in which black black girls and lighter skin African American girls were treated and viewed. Mebane stated, by the twentieth century, really black skin on a woman was considered ugly(Mebane 239). During the advance(prenominal) 1900s, black woman were not really desired. At one point, they were though. Around the civil rights movement, black men considered black woman beautiful.As M ebane mentions, there is no definite date for the shift from beautiful to ugly, but it is undeniable that a shift did occur. This shift from desired to no desire could be referred to as the black consciousness movement. Between the 1960s and the 1970s, darker skin woman were not looked at much. Instead, black men chased after lighter skin woman and woman of a different decent. Woman of a darker shade faced a new problem. They were already part of the minority, now they were placed even lower.Because of their color, darker women had difficulty finding partners as well as jobs. In order to be recognized, darker women had to either befriend a light skin beauty, or turn to sex. correspond to Mebane and others, sexual acts were the scarce advantage a black woman had in getting ahead. Because they were no longer considered beautiful, black women were only good for sex. In regards to having a career, or even a job, black women actually had to have skill. Since they were not very appeali ng to the eye, darker skin women had to be appealing on paper.Training was the only way in which a darker shade of African American woman could land a job. She had to be trained better than the lighter skin women in order to be hired. Sometimes, training was hard to receive since they were not very wealthy. If darker skin women were able to receive training, they were not treated fairly because of their color. Therefore, black black women had to fight through in order to get enough training. African American woman faced a lot of problems in society during the twentieth century.Although they were once thought of as beautiful, for most of their lives their color took away from what they could have been capable of. Lighter skin African American women were not as care-laden by their color as black black woman. Being educated, finding a partner, and landing a job were amongst some of the problems darker skinned women faced among the civil rights movement and the black consciousness mov ement. Again, there is no definite point of change, but there is no denying that there was a shift and unluckily it wasnt a positive one.