Sex and Race, Volume 3. J. A. Rogers

‘straight as palm trees and beautiful as moons.’ The only drawback was their hair—the short, crisp hair of the Negro race—but in all other points they might be exhibited as the perfection of beauty which Central Africa can produce.” The king, however, said Stanley, did not think these three girls any more beautiful, or “superior, or even equal” to his other flat-nosed, black wives and that one day when he pointed them out to the king as being especially beautiful the king “even regarded them with a sneer.”⁸

      In Negro Africa, the married women shun a white man “like the devil,” roundly abusing those who make advances to them, fearing visible proof of unfaithfulness. On the other hand, in America, it is no uncommon sight to see a married woman with a child very much lighter than herself or her husband.

      1 Ward, L. F., Pure Sociology, pp. 358-60. 1911.

      2 For good treatment of caste within the white “race” itself see Prof. E. A. Ross, “Caste and Class,” American Jour. of Sociology, Vol. 22, pp. 467-76; 594-608;

      3 Johnston, H. H., Negro In The New World, pp. 462n. 1910.

      4 For how one Negro potato-peeler, posing as a prince, fooled the American 400, see Sex and Race, Vol. II, pp. 359-62 1942.

      5 For additional confirmation of this, see Sex and Race, Vol. 2, p. 403, 1942, especially what Lady Dorothy Mills says.

      6 For the exact quotation and additional instances, see Sex and Race, Vol. II, pp. 260-62. 1942.

      7 Kafirs of Natal, p. 1. 1857.

      8 Through the Dark Continent, Vol. 1, p. 308. 1878.

       Chapter Eight

      THE MIXING OF NEAR-WHITE AND BLACK

      IN refutation of what was said about the preference of some colored women for white men, so far as having children is concerned, it might justly be objected that throughout the United States the tendency of the “light” women is to marry, or to be seen in public with men considerably darker in color than themselves. In the case of Negro couples seen on the street in perhaps seven cases out of ten the woman is lighter in color than the man, so much so that one is led to think that Negro females have a tendency to be born “light,”¹ or that black women must go unmated. Whenever a prominent black man marries it is hardly necessary to ask what color the bride is. In many cases the wife is so white that some of the white people are almost as white as she is.

      The reply is that, in this case, we have to deal with that important characteristic of the feminine mind discussed in the last chapter: The desire for masculine appreciation and support. The “light” girl, like the daughter of the well-to-do white man, is often no more endowed by Nature for earning her own livelihood than the black one, and as men, regardless of race, have the superior economic position, it is they who generally do the selecting. In most parts of the world, a man buys his wives directly. In Christian countries the same thing is done but in a “respectable” manner.

      In the West Indies, where colored women are free to marry white men, a fair colored girl no more thinks of marrying a black man than a white Southern woman does. Indeed, I think the latter is the less prejudiced of the two if I am to judge by the number of white Southern women I have seen married to, or living with, very dark men. Wealthy West Indian girls prefer a white man, even if he is poor to a colored one, even as the rich American girl, at least of a generation ago, was so eager to marry some moth-eaten count or duke in preference to a rich countryman of theirs. But in the United States where intermarriage is unpopular light girls will marry dark men. As was said, whiteness is a standard of social value, and certain black men, feeling greatly the handicap of color, desire to identify themselves with white, and failing that, as near to white as possible. Besides, to be seen with such a woman makes them the envy of certain other Negroes.

      Wishing to give their children a better start in life than they themselves had is another reason for selecting such women and in order to get them, they are willing to give more, that is, more appreciation, gifts, and all those little flatteries dear to a woman’s heart, than a light-colored man would be inclined to give. Black men, in short, win “light” women for the same reason that plain men are usually more successful suitors than handsome ones. The former, in endeavoring to atone for what they consider a defect, are less proud and more considerate. I have this statement direct from the lips of many of these “light” women themselves. One of them told me that there is hardly anything black men will not do for her. Another who “passes for white” told me that she was prompted to accept her husband not because she really loved him but because he was so very attentive. “Kindness,” she said, “goes a long way toward winning a woman.”