The Mulatto Advantage Summary

“You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves”, Willie Lynch speech says. This statement Willie was giving, was advice to his “people” about controlling black people. When you look at today using “dark skin

The purpose of the article” Shades of Difference: theoretical Underpinnings of the Medical Controversy on Black-White Differences in the United States, 1830-1870”, was to show a difference between beliefs and sound theory’s that are based on medical debates on slavery, racial differences and disease, and black inferiority. Throughout the article conflicting doctors raised the same scientific findings but let their predisposed assumptions, reach biased conclusions. From 1830 to 1850, doctors argued the legitimacy and clarification of their conclusions.

of the differences in how Blacks are treated with in their race how light skinned were treated

Historical archives discovered by Dorman show that colorism had tangible boundaries within the African American community during the 1920s (47). It is stated that blacks often divided themselves into four subcategories which consisted of “black”, “brown”, “light brown”, and “yellow” Negros (Dorman 47). The above ranking would be listed in a hierarchy from “black” being at the bottom of the socially accepted hierarchy to the “yellow negro” being the most revered and desired socially.

Looking back in time, slaves were differentiated into mulattoes and pure blacks. Pure blacks did most of the outside labor leaving the house labor to mulattoes. For mulattoes, being a house servant brought advantages including food, shelter, and clothing. Mulattoes were trained for skilled occupations and these skills allowed mulattoes to separate themselves from other blacks. The light skinned blacks were exposed to cultural views and practices such as proper speech, dress, and mannerisms. Once a mulatto was emancipated, he/she was better prepared for negotiating with whites because mulattoes knew how to handle them. Mulattoes had a sense of being superior over the darker slaves. Because of the color similarities between mulattoes and whites, the mulattoes were the middle class between blacks and whites.

Chapter 2, “Drawing the Color Line”, poor British whites and black Africans worked with each other as servants. They tried to form relationships with each other, but laws

The early nineteenth century saw a heightened interest, particularly in the Southern states of the U.S., in the equality of men relative to the white land owners and their African slaves. In a nation that was founded on a document beginning with “all men are created equal”, it became time to genuinely step back and ask if that “self evident” truth was really applied in real life. After all, if the black slaves were equal in essence compared to their white owners, slavery then becomes a severely moral issue. If there were evidence of genetic difference, then the slave status of the African could be seen as “natural”. (Lurie, 230) Or, if the opposite were believed to be true, and all humans were equal and slavery was abolished, had the Africans been ruined by slavery, what was to be done about racial mixing, how would society recover from this long practice and “conceptualization of race”. (Dain, viii) Scientists on both sides of the argument jumped into the scene toting evidence to support either a unity theory to suggest equality between all humans, or a separate unity theory that seemed to place the races in a hierarchical scale of

The mixing of races in the rural South was frowned upon up by society beginning as early as the start of slavery. Although the practice of mixing races was seen as a taboo, slave owners often had children with their slaves. The children of the slave owners and slaves were of mixed race, known as the mulatto, having half black and half white genetics. When races continued to be mixed, measurements were created by the Creoles of Louisiana as a system of determining how mixed an individual was. This caste system was used as a universal understanding of how much “black” a mixed person had in their genetics. The issue of race was not simply based on the color of skin, it was about the genetic make-up and history of the individual. Having any percentage of black heritage was seen as a distasteful.

Identify and explane the cause and effects of the afercan slave trade in the alantic world.

The concept of racial differentiation and slavery was originally non-exist within the early 1600s. Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans were used as ‘indentured servants’ for unfree labor, such as farming cotton and tobacco. During this time, blacks and whites worked together under their masters and even bonded. However, the elites despised this relationship and “had to teach Whites the value of whiteness in order to divide and rule their labor force” (Buck, 24). Rules and regulations were implemented to display superiority of the whites over blacks. Due to this, race had slowly developed over time, starting from colonial Virginia to the early 2000s.

Skin color in America is a precursor to how minorities are treated. This concept of what is considered acceptable depicted by what is considered the white norm. Colorism affects all minorities, but at different degrees. Women in minority communities are affected more harshly than men when it comes to this construct. Colonization and slavery have created disadvantage were the wellbeing of individual’s lives are beyond their control.

Jablonski goes into detail on the extremely complex labels and politics that formed in order to classify slaves by color. “Skin color became the standard by which slaves of African descent were judged suitable for various types of work” (Jablonski, 2012, p. 148). She explains how these had become so complicated that white society had begun to fear “invisible blackness” (Jablonski, 2012, p. 154). Many people strived to become more lightly pigmented in order to pass as white and some succeeded. Jablonski describes the various atrocities committed against people due to the color of skin.

In the 19th century, the racial aspects between dark and light skinned people of the United States increased. This was evident in the taking of dark skinned people from their homes in Africa and bringing them back to America to work as slaves on farms. Fortunately after the Civil War, the United States freed all the slaves and allowed them the same rights as everyone else. Dark skinned people are not slaves today,

In fact, light skin complexion was added to slave’s population due to white slaves owners having unconsented sexual relations with African women (Russell, Wilson, Hall, 1993). At any day or time female slaves was subjected to sexual relations with their masters or white slaves’ owners. This act of sexual relations created generations of descendants of lighter shades of skin. Light skin complexion was referred to as “Mulattos” in which they were half African and half white (Hall, 1992). This goes back to how lighter complexion was stable working in the house instead of the field due to having certain privileges, such as: working in the house, attaining education, and access to personal possessions. Researchers found that mixed race slaves were

The article consists of three parts where the reader is able to see author’s explanations, arguments, and claims.