The Significance of Skin Color in Ebony Magazine DISSERTATION
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MMag. a Simone Puff What’s in a Shade?: The Significance of Skin Color in Ebony Magazine DISSERTATION zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktorin der Philosophie aus dem Studium der Anglistik und Amerikanistik Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften 1. Begutachter: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Heinz Tschachler Institut: Anglistik und Amerikanistik 2. Begutachterin: Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. in Brigitte Hipfl Institut: Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft August 2012 EHRENWÖRTLICHE ERKLÄRUNG Ich erkläre ehrenwörtlich, dass ich die vorliegende wissenschaftliche Arbeit selbst- ständig angefertigt und die mit ihr unmittelbar verbundenen Tätigkeiten selbst er- bracht habe. Ich erkläre weiters, dass ich keine anderen als die angegebenen Hilfs- mittel benutzt habe. Alle aus gedruckten, ungedruckten oder dem Internet im Wortlaut oder im wesentlichen Inhalt übernommenen Formulierungen und Kon- zepte sind gemäß den Regeln für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten zitiert und durch Fuß- noten bzw. durch andere genaue Quellenangaben gekennzeichnet. Die während des Arbeitsvorganges gewährte Unterstützung einschließlich signifi- kanter Betreuungshinweise ist vollständig angegeben. Die wissenschaftliche Arbeit ist noch keiner anderen Prüfungsbehörde vorgelegt worden. Diese Arbeit wurde in gedruckter und elektronischer Form abgegeben. Ich bestätige, dass der Inhalt der digitalen Version vollständig mit dem der gedruckten Version übereinstimmt. Ich bin mir bewusst, dass eine falsche Erklärung rechtliche Folgen haben wird. ……………………………………… ……………………………………… (Unterschrift) (Ort, Datum) For my Grandma (1925 – 2012) Black is beautiful, White is too, Depending not On what’s in view, But what’s beneath And deep within That black or white – Encasing skin. ~ Mary Turnbull, Ebony 1970 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi PREFACE xv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xx INTRODUCTION : “I F YOU ’RE LIGHT , YOU ’RE ALRIGHT ” 1 1 THE (E N)G ENDERING OF (S KIN ) COLOR : A SOCIO -HISTORICAL CONTEXT 12 1.1 TRACING RACE : THE GENEALOGY OF AN ILLUSION 16 1.1.1 How It All Began: The Creation of the Black “Other” in Europe 17 1.1.2 Is This How It Ends? The Meaning of a Construct in the United States 20 1.1.3 The “Other Side of Racism”: Unpacking White Privilege 28 1.2 COLOR CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY : A CHRONOLOGY 32 1.2.1 Planting the Seeds: The House, the Field, and the Back Door 33 1.2.2 The Jim Crow Era: Of Paper Bags, Hot Combs, and the Black Middle Class 38 1.2.3 Say It Loud: Black Is Beautiful … Or Is It? 42 1.2.4 Lashing Back: Reviving Light vs. Dark 46 1.2.5 Post-Racial What? Colorism in the Age of Obama and Beyond 51 1.3 BLACK WOMEN AND COLORISM : A SPECIAL CASE 57 1.3.1 Two Sides of a Coin: Black Femininity as the “Other” 58 1.3.2 Commodifying Beauty: Who (Hue) Is The Fairest of Them All? 62 1.3.3 Hair-Stories: The Straight, the Curly, and the Afro 66 2 THE (D IS )A DVANTAGES OF SKIN COLOR : RE-VIEWING RELEVANT LITERATURE AND RESEARCH 72 2.1 BI-RACIAL BEAUTIES , BERRIES , AND BLUE EYES : LITERARY TROPES OF COLOR 73 2.1.1 “Lighten up de Race”: (Un)Tragic Mulatto/as, Passing, and Being Color-Struck 75 2.1.2 “No Place in the World”: The Plight of the Dark-Skinned Black Girl 79 2.1.3 “From Jet Black to Pure White”: Being Manly or Being Fine 81 2.2 INSTITUTIONS AND IDENTITIES : STUDYING SKIN COLOR IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 84 2.2.1 The Family 85 2.2.2 Education 87 2.2.3 Economic Institutions 88 Contents x 2.2.4 Political Institutions 90 2.2.5 Religion 92 2.2.6 Identity 93 2.2.7 Problems with Existing Research 95 2.3 IMAGINING THE VISUAL , CONTEXTUALIZING THE WORDS : ANALYZING SKIN COLOR IN THE MEDIA 98 2.3.1 Print Media 100 2.3.2 Advertising 101 3 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS METHODOLOGY AND METHOD 104 3.1 THE THEORETICAL LENS : CDA THROUGH THE EYES OF OTHERS 106 3.1.1 Text, Discourse, and Context 108 3.1.2 Power, Knowledge, and Ideology 109 3.1.3 Discursive Events, Limits, and Discourse Strands 111 3.1.4 Collective Symbols, Metaphors, and Intertextuality 113 3.2 THE ANALYTICAL APPROACH : RESEARCH DESIGN 116 3.2.1 Guiding Questions: Along the Circuit of Culture 117 3.2.2 Data Identification: Relevance and Accessibility 120 3.2.3 Data Collection: Key Words and Systematic Approaches 122 2.2.4 Data Analysis: From Structural to Detailed to Synoptic 123 4 DIFFERENCE , DIVERSITY , AND THE DISCOURSE (S) OF COLOR : LIGHT VS . DARK IN EBONY MAGAZINE 125 4.1 WRITING AGAINST THE ODDS ?: JOHNSON PUBLICATIONS AND THE BLACK PRESS 128 4.2 DISENTANGLING BEAUTY AND IDENTITY : FROM A DEFINITION BY OTHERS TO A DEFINITION OF SELF 137 4.2.1 Towards a Sense of Black Beauty: From “Skin Deep” to “More than What Meets the Eye”? 138 4.2.2 Policing Identity: Will the “Real” Black People Please Stand Up? 151 4.3 FROM PROBLEM TO ISSUE ?: “F EATURING ” SKIN COLOR IN “B LACK AMERICA ” 173 4.3.1 Writing about the Black Body: Still, No Longer, or Again? 174 4.3.2 Visualizing the Complex: Hierarchies and Ambivalences 187 4.4 EXCURSUS : WHEN THE READER WRITES BACK 197 CONCLUSION : THE MORE THINGS CHANGE , THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME ? 203 POSTSCRIPT 213 WORKS CITED 215 APPENDIX 240 Acknowledgements xi Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it. ~ William A. Ward 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS After almost four years of working on this project I have come to refer to my disser- tation with the metaphor of a giant jigsaw puzzle: It was made of a million tiny pieces that came without the picture on the box. When I first started out, the task seemed daunting at best, discouraging at worst, and downright impossible in be- tween. After shuffling and re-shuffling the heaps of puzzle pieces, some began to stand out. Slowly, I could group more and more pieces around the ones that seemed to fit together. One by one, individual sections took shape, and finally, I started to see the proverbial bigger picture. As bell hooks 2 maintains, “[t]rue intellectual work is done in solitude. It takes hours of thought, study and reflection, then it takes time to write” (2010, 139). While I agree with the importance of solitude in principle, I could not have done anything without a number of people who helped me to em- bark on this long but exciting journey with the final destination called Ph.D. First and foremost, I wish to thank my thesis advisers at my alma mater, Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt in Klagenfurt, Austria. Dr. Heinz Tschachler from the Department of English and American Studies and Dr. Brigitte Hipfl from the Department of Media and Communication Studies provided their academic and personal support for this dissertation. I have benefited tremendously from their comments on chapter drafts and paper proposals for conferences, as well as general advice on “Do’s” and “Don’ts” in the academic world. It took me a while until I could follow Dr. Tschachler’s main maxim: nulla dies sine linea – No Day Without (Writing) a Line. Once I got into the habit, however, it did the trick. Along the lines of Joan Bolker’s somewhat ironic statement, “[d]ates in calendar may be closer than they appear” (1998, 131), a simple “hurry” from Dr. Tschachler reminded me of the looming deadline. I am especially grateful to Dr. Hipfl for allowing me to reg- 1 Quoted from ThinkExist.com . 2 She intentionally spells her name with lower-case letters, a practice that I respect throughout this work. Acknowledgements xii ularly present my work in her dissertation seminar and for always finding encour- aging words that left me with a restored sense of self-confidence after each and eve- ry meeting with her. I would also like to thank Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt for helping me finance two three-month research trips to the United States. I am especially appreciative to my department head, Dr. Jörg Helbig, for allowing me to re-schedule some of my classes so I would be able to go abroad. Next, I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my mentors in the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. After having already been vital supporters for my master’s thesis, they once again took me under their wings while I was a graduate student scholar in residence at Syracuse University from August to October in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Dr. Linda Carty carved out time from her busy schedule to lend this project her un- conditional support, share with me her invaluable wisdom, and provide me with intellectual stimulation whenever I sat in her office. Her unwavering faith in my academic and intellectual capabilities as well as the occasional “Relax, girl!” were what kept me going. I am also eternally grateful for both the scholarly and personal support from Dr. Rennie Simson. She generously donated time to lend her expertise to my project and was indefatigable in giving me feedback on outlines and draft versions of this dissertation. Her kindness extended way beyond the professional realm and her warm words of encouragement always helped me to get over whatev- er hurdles I thought I could not overcome. My debt to her is incalculable. I must also show my appreciation for Angela Williams, librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Library at Syracuse University. She located books and articles for me, no matter how old and obscure. Moreover, she also helped me to organize a trip to do archival research on Essence magazine at the Fashion Insti- tute of Technology Library in New York City.