Who Gets to Decide Who Is Black?

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

“They even passed over a half-black man for promotion because he didn’t look black enough…We wanted to hire someone in the department a few years ago now, who was half black but didn’t like appear half black. And there was a creative executive who was like, ‘We’re not, like, that’s not, that’s not what wanted.’” — confessions of a senior executive at a major U.S. corporation

It is wrong to not hire a man because he doesn’t look black enough for one’s taste. Aren’t we better than the reverse paper bag test today? And who made you, creative executive, the arbiter of who is Black? This raw prejudice is the natural consequence of the times we live in.

Acts of skin color prejudice and bigotry will tear apart black American families. There is a spectrum of skin color in every Black American family I know of. And my black family has been around the block since at least 1790. One will find dark-skinned uncles beloved as family and one will find white, bright and almost white cousins and ancestors loved as well. My founding father, Daniel Brown (1833 - 1885,) had no physical characteristic of his African heritage. Daniel Brown, a black man, founded a black American family. Once upon a time in our dark past, we cared about skin color until we wised up to love our ancestors and cousins and parents indifferent to color.

I repeat my question — who gets to decide who is Black in corporate America?

Identity politics does not bode well for blacks who do not look the part. Light and fair-skinned blacks face discrimination and exclusion and marginalization if they don’t look Black enough. Who says such a thing in these modern times? Who refuses to hire a Black man because he has the wrong skin color? Must people appear a certain way? The Light, Bright and Almost White Black

In his book, Professor Glenn Loury writes about his best childhood friend, Woody, who appeared white. Woody self-identified as black as did his parents. Woody could have passed for white but he chose to be who he was. If Woody had applied for a job with this “Reverse paper bag test” company, would the creative executive have tossed Woody’s resume into the trash car with the dismissive “ we are looking for blacks who appear a certain way?”

Is it ok to discriminate against Black people because they do not look a certain way? Would this company have hired Rev. Lemuel Haynes, Alexander Twilight, John Mercer Langston, Thomas E. Miller, and Congressman Joseph H. Rainey, all proud and strong black American men? I want to know.

The roster of heroic and accomplished black American men is long beyond compare. Perhaps, 1/3 of our greatest black leaders and pioneers were fair-skinned, light-skinned and light, bright and almost white before 1900. Once again, who gave the creative executive the moral authority to decree any black Man doesn’t look the part? It is insulting beyond belief.

I have complied the following yearbook of men who would have failed the look of blackness in the mind of the prejudiced creative executive:

1. Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908 - 1972)

   

2. Norris Wright Cuney (1846 - 1898), the Black Political Power in Reconstruction Texas

   

3. Walter White (1893 - 1955), First Black President of the NAACP

   

4. Mordecai Johnson (1890 - 1976), First Black President of Howard University

   

5. John Hope (1868 - 1936), First Black President of Morehouse College

   

6. Spottswood William Robinson III (1916 - 1998) Chief Judge of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals

   

7. George Lewis Ruffin (1834 - 1886) First Black Graduate of Harvard Law School

   

8. Charles Chesnutt (1858 - 1932) Famous Black Writer

   

9. Jean Toomer (1894 - 1967) Famous Author of Cane

   

10. P.B.S. Pinchback (1837 - 1921) Acting Governor of Louisiana

    

11. U.S. Senator Edward William Brooke III (1919 - 2015)

    

12. Ernest Nathan Morial (1929 - 1989), First Black Mayor of New Orleans

    

    Conclusion: Who gets to decide who is Black? Certainly not a faceless creative executive at some nameless company. A man himself decides his people in life.