AP
Registered: Jan 30, 2009
Posts: 25
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| | June 14, 2009 at 02:10 AM | Reply with quote | #14 |
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Quote: Originally Posted by Nationalism
"... Now that the war was over, and the
blacks were free, mulattoes anticipated the
loss of their status as being "above" blacks.
To prevent this from happening, they segregated
themselves and formed their own communities,
clubs, societies, etc. - and they used certain
tests, such as the paper bag test, the comb test,
and the vein test to keep blacks out, so that
mulattoes would stay distinguished from blacks."
I don't want to state this as fact though.
Awhile ago, A.D. Powell brought it to my
attention that this history may be false.
In the literature regarding this, there are no
names of mulattoes who were members
or leaders of these organizations.
Also, the times and reasons for the
disappearence of these organizations
is not accounted for....
The literature regarding these events will tend
to make the mulattoes at this time seem evil...
Blacks were even more angry at the fact that
mulattoes would only marry amongst themselves.
Yes -- A.D. Powell is more than likely 100% correct
in her belief that this Mulatto-Bashing MYTH is
untrue --- and the research that I have come
across also backs up what she has stated.
The Urban Legend, that the Mulattoes, or any other
groups that were of a part-Black / Mixed-Race lineage,
had practiced any sort of 'Paper Bag'; 'Blue Vein'; or
'Fine Toothed Comb' tests, simply is not in any way
supported by objective, verifiable historic record.
Other racist, Mulatto-Bashing Urban Legends &
Myths include the "Willie Lynch Letter' Hoax
(the letter has been repeated proven to have
been total fraud); the "the majority of the
'big house' slave positions were given to the
Mulatto chattel-slaves" lie (when history shows
that most of these positions -- ex. mammy, cook,
driver, etc.-- were reserved for the slaves that were
full-Black); and the lie that "most of the Mulattoes
were the offspring of the plantation Owners"
(when, in reality, what the historical record actually
shows is that the overwhelming vast majority of the
Mulatto-lineage chattel-slaves were the result of
rapes by the White plantation Overseers --- and
were not the offspring of the plantation Owners).
The truth of the matter -- as shown by the historical
record (i.e. articles, diaries, books, reports, interviews,
etc.) is that -- when many of the full-Black people
realized the extent to which most Mixed-Race former
slaves practiced 'Endogamy'* (i.e. making the choice
to marry someone who is a part of one's 'own group'),
their outrage and feelings of rejection and jealousy
caused some of them to engage in the activity of
Mulatto-Bashing and anti-Mulatto Rumor-Mongering
-- and it was often, this very activity that led to the
spreading of these urban legends and myths as
being "common knowledge" about the people
and the communities that were of Mulatto-lineage.
[* Note:
The practice of 'Endogamy' (i.e. marrying "one's
own kind") was actually very common for people
of any lineage or group (including that of
Mulatto-lineage) and, generally, no issues
were taken with it --- until the late 1960's
/ early 1970's when the appearance of the
very divisive 'Black Power Movement' (which
had usurped the very successful 'Civil Rights
Movement') suddenly began to target and falsely
condemn the practice of 'endogamy' by people
of Mulatto-lineage (and Mulatto-lineage, only)
as being "racist" and "colorist" against the
people who were of a full-Black lineage.]
Once the antebellum (chattel-slavery) era came to an
end on the continental United States of America, and
numerous communities became established, it then
seemed that certain of the various full-Black people
& families began to engage in a sharing of spurious
"tales" wherein they (or someone they knew) had
"heard about" a church, fraternity, sorority, social
club, etc. that had both either been founded by or
had a number of members who were individuals of
a Mulatto-lineage and had also allegedly rejected
a full-Black person solely for having had curly hair
(rather than straight hair); and/or for having had
brown skin (rather than tan, beige, or white skin);
and/or for having had either non-visible or visibly
'green' arm veins (rather than 'blue' arm veins).
And yet, no one ever questioned the fact that the
very features a person was alleged to have been
'rejected' for having (ex. curly hair texture; brown skin
coloring; and either non-visible or 'visibly-green' arm veins;
etc.) were the very same features that were common
to 'the average' person who was of a Mulatto-lineage
(which would have meant that the Mulattoes would have
then been the biggest 'rejectees' of such clubs -- rather
than the 'rejectors' at such clubs -- and thus, would have
also proven that these "clubs" simply and more than
likely did not and had never actually existed in reality.)
However, so popular (and quite often even
profitable) was the spreading of these
urban myths and legends, that a number
of well-respected writers who were of
Mulatto-lineage (ex. Charles Chestnutt,
who was the author of 'The Wife of His Youth
and other tales') occasionally even engaged
in the spreading of such "yellow journalism"
(no pun intended) in some of their writings.
(Hopefully, these writers were just trying
to create dialogue and 'pay their bills' and,
did not realize the public-relations damage
that would impact people of Mulatto-lineage
for generations to come as a result of the
spreading of these urban legends and myths.)
Thus -- other than the urban legends, racial myths,
rumor-mongering and "yellow journalism" about
the alleged (and unproven) existence of any type
of 'Blue-Vein' Societies or implementation of any
type of 'Paper-Bag' or 'Fine-Toothed Comb' Tests
-- no actual historical evidence has ever been
presented that has convinced most historians
that any such actual 'tests' or 'societies'
were ever implemented (at least not in any
large numbers or as a common or frequent
practice) among the people of Mulatto-lineage
on the continental United States of America.
If anyone is interested in more information
on this subject matter, please feel free to
contact directly at the email listed below.
-- AP (soaptalk@hotmail.com)
Related Links:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1602
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1691
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWIRLinc/message/17634
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SWIRLinc/message/17622
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/990
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1610
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Generation-Mixed/message/1745
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