(ThyBlackMan.com) The other day I was watching Empire by Lee Daniels. And, I enjoyed it, immensely. Evidently, I wasn’t alone in my sentiments because nine million other viewers tuned in. After further investigation, I discovered that not only was Empire the No.1 new show, but also the No. 2 scripted show, after Walking Dead.
The Lyon family: Lucious, Cookie, Andre, Jamal and Hakeem are all light skinned/fair skinned actors. I am not a conspiracy theorist; but, I did wonder if complexion played a part in Lee Daniel’s casting decisions. If so, it was an excellent marketing strategy. If not, I wouldn’t be surprised if it became one.
As a ten year old child, I’ll always remember when a fellow classmate called me “A nappy-headed, Black Nigga.” I was deeply offended, hurt, and even embarrassed by his remark. Other nappy-headed, Black students laughed, heartily, at his comment. However, truth be told, the Nigga part didn’t bother me at all. At that age, I thought we were all Niggas. It was the nappy headed and Black remarks that cut deeply and were psychologically damaging.
I remember running home, crying. I decided right then and there that I would never be nappy headed and/or Black again. Daily I would steal my mother’s straightening comb, heat it up on the fiery 
stove, and then try to burn, fry and cook the naps out of my hair. As for my complexion, outside of school, I would stay in the house until the simmering sun would set. I didn’t want to get any Blacker.
It never occurred to me that Black was/is beautiful. Sometimes it still doesn’t. Once I became a teen-ager, I decided to compressed my naps with pounds of pomade/grease and then suffocate them inside stocking caps/do-rags until the naps melted into waves. This usually left me with an aching migraine, but that was a minor inconvenience in comparison to having a nappy head.
It wasn’t until my first year of high school that I learned that a Black woman, Madam C.J. Walker, had become the first female millionaire by inventing combs and hair products that made Black people‘s hair look like white people’s hair. Ironically, I felt a little better knowing that I wasn’t alone while drowning in this self-loathing lake of ignorance. For a Black woman to be a millionaire a few years post slavery, I would venture to say that not many Blacks wanted to remain dark-skinned.
After high school, I expected things to get better. My expectations were soon shattered when Black college fraternities wanted my complexion to be lighter than that of a brown paper bag, and sororities wanted my sister’s hair to be straighter than that a metric ruler. My sister quickly grabbed a straightening comb. Me? I was shit out of luck.
Fortunately, for me, Spike Lee, in his portrayal of Malcolm X, espoused upon how Malcolm hated himself so much that he set his hair/head afire so that the texture of his hair could resemble the hair texture of his white girlfriend, Sophia. Malcolm called it a conk.
In any event, as a grown man, I believe: if you knew better; you’d do better. White people, directly or indirectly, taught us to hate Black people because they hated Black people. Now white people and Black people hate Black people. White murderers masquerading as cops murder Black people and Niggas, masquerading as Black people, murder Black people. So, looking back, I realized that I shouldn’t have had a problem with the nappy-head comment or the dark complexion, I should’ve had a problem with the Nigga comment, and then put all my energy in not being a Nigga, like the white man said I was.
This is why I was so surprised when Aaron McGruder (Boondocks) said that he didn’t know if the first African American President, Barack Obama, was really Black. And, I think, from Aaron’s portrayal of Black women, the only reason he made that ASANINE comment is because in his limited thinking his mind couldn’t fathom how a nice looking, light skinned, wavy-haired, highly educated, athletic, articulate Black man could bypass all of them pretty and wealthy white, Latino, and Asian Ivy League chicks and snatch up the prettiest, and highly melaninated sista who he could find.
Nevertheless, sorry to bore you; but, it’s Wednesday night and I’m getting ready to watch Empire. It’s more entertaining to watch light skinned people murder Black people. If you don’t believe me, ask Fitty Cent and his dark-skinned son, Shawn, from Power.
Staff Writer; Saint Solomon
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