The Skin I’’m In: Genetics, Skin Color and Issues of Race: Skin Color Transformations, Black Like Me and ＂Watermelon Man＂ Explored

When all is said and done, it's about the color of the skin. We are taught that "all politics is local," but the statement would be more accurate if it was, "all politics is racial. Because when you look around the world, wherever the white man has been or is currently in power, racial issues are out of control even though he's calling the shots and the white folks in those areas are faring well. It's the bruthas - black, brown, red and yellow - who you find segregated in some slum, living in the ghetto, the barrio or trapped on the reservation. And the Chinatowns and Japantowns are just as dense in population, but at least the Asians turn their economic transactions into self-sustaining activities and money touches hands at least seven times before heading out. The issue of "skin color and racism" was raised and addressed in this book in far more analytic and in-depth detail than the public discourse taking place in and around America. Bullshit programs and projects like "Table Talk," where a local negro will sit around a dining table with some white people and discuss race, although none of them knows what the hell they're talking about. This farce gives the negro street cred and makes the white appear "committed to social justice." But in the end, nothing gets done, there is nary a solution, and everybody gets jacked off and staggers home to go to sleep. As Malcolm X taught, how am I going to sit at a table with you when you eating and I have no food, and you call me a "diner"? Chapter two addressed the concept of the "flesh-colored palette" and it is a subject that has long been swept under the rug, avoided or otherwise accepted and further imposed on young children, implying that "skin color," as it appears in the crayon boxes, in the packages of stockings and under garments for women and even in the makeup, is the same color as the white man and woman. While they seek to tan their pale skin they nevertheless consign the skin color of other people to a category of inferiority. The book Black Like Me and the subsequent film were analyzed to share with you, the reader, an example of how skin color can be exploited and then twisted to create a fa ade of social justice. The review and analysis of the comedy. "Watermelon Man" took skin color and, under the directorshop of a progressive thinking black man (Melvin Van Peebles) drove home cogent points about white racism, human interaction, and black people's response to both. This book seeks to open up dialogue about race and skin color, two issues this society wants to sweep under the rug or otherwise shroud with such scam approaches as "multiculturalism," "diversity," "inclusion" or "community engagement." Seek and ye shall find ... Ask, and it shall be opened unto you. ENJOY

Matthew C. Stelly is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee working on a degree in Urban Education and Community Policy. He holds three Master’s degrees: Urban Studies (1982), Urban Education (1983) and Political Science (2000). He is the former editor of the Milwaukee Courier newspaper, former director of the Great Plains Black Museum and the Plano (TX) African American Museum, and lead archivist for The Black Academy of Arts and Letters (TBAAL) in Dallas, Texas. Stelly has more than 2,500 articles in print and has won two national essay competitions. He is the founding director of the largest African-American neighborhood group in Nebraska, the Triple One Neighborhood Association and Parents Union. He is the father of five children - Mandla, Malik, Clariece, Charisse and Shannon -- and remains actively involved in community organizing and neighborhood development in several cities, including Milwaukee and Omaha.