{"id":84,"date":"2006-10-30T22:35:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-30T22:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/2006\/10\/30\/84\/"},"modified":"2006-10-30T22:35:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-30T22:35:00","slug":"84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=84","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

FEAR of DARKNESS?:<\/span> It seems pretty apparent to me that a dark skinned person (of any race, but especially applicable to those of African descent) doesn\u2019t have the same chance to make it in America as a lighter skinned person. Not to say that there aren\u2019t exceptions, but I honestly think that a general trend exists, despite the ideal of color-blindness which our system espouses \u2013 on its better days. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know of any scientific studies that prove this. I suppose there aren\u2019t any, because it would be politically incorrect as hell. So here\u2019s my two-bit attempt at an unscientific analysis. I gathered some digital photos of African American men and women arrested over the past two years for violent crime, and isolated a block of space on one side of the person\u2019s temple, where the lighting was even (between the glare of the flash and the shadows). I managed to find thirteen such color samples; I didn\u2019t pick and choose, just used whatever I found. Then I found relatively well-lit pictures of five nationally acclaimed political leaders of African American heritage. Same thing, I isolated an evenly-lit block from the face, usually the temple. Then I put these blocks side by side. It\u2019s fairly clear to see that on average, the criminals have darker skin tones. <\/p>\n

Again, I don\u2019t claim that this \u201canalysis\u201d has any scientific validity. It\u2019s extremely quick and dirty. My criminal picture selection process attempted to be random, but it could still be \u201csystem-biased\u201d. And my \u201cnational leaders\u201d selection is not random at all. It\u2019s a very small cohort; if you expanded it to 30 or 50 top black political leaders, you would get a broader range of skin tones. That range of tones would expand even more if you included other successful blacks in academia and industry. But you do have to admit, the people I did select are the most well known black leaders nationwide, at the moment. <\/p>\n

If my \u201canalysis\u201d were to hold up under a more rigorous methodology, it would still be a comparison of the extremes. But if the extreme social failures (violent criminals) are, on average, darker skinned, and the extreme social successes (national political leaders) are significantly lighter skinned, it would indicate that the playing field is not level, that it does tip against darker skin. I think it would be good for some gutsy academian who isn\u2019t grinding any axes but is merely in it for the truth (hope there are such people!) to do a real study like this, and then investigate the mechanisms by which darker skin tones are disfavored. Oh, and do it on a cross-cultural basis, including dark-skinned Asians and Mediterranean peoples. America needs to learn that it shouldn\u2019t fear the dark; such fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FEAR of DARKNESS?: It seems pretty apparent to me that a dark skinned person (of any race, but especially applicable to those of African descent) doesn\u2019t have the same chance to make it in America as a lighter skinned person. Not to say that there aren\u2019t exceptions, but I honestly think that a general trend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}