Willie Lynch's Stereotypes In The Life Of A Black Woman

When you look at me what do you see? To society, I’m a black female who fits the stereotypical “wanna-be” black female wanting to have white hair textures. They watch carefully as I walk past them; afraid of my “black girl capabilities” solely based off of stereotypes that have been carelessly passed down from generation to generation. They think, “She’s probably unhappy with her dark complexion”. They wonder, “Why does she look so angry, it’s probably just another angry black woman.” With my big lips, high cheek bones, angled facial structures, they deem me pretty for a dark-skinned female. They view me as uneducated “like the rest”, unhappy because of family problems, as having third-grade vocabulary; simply, incompetent. Fortunately, their

Willie Lynch is a man who wrote a letter teaching whites how to stay in power. He uses the power of self-hatred to control the lives of Black people today because if one can control the mindset of others, one is able to stay in control. There have been divisions created during enslavement “divisions based on differences in skin color, hair texture and physical appearance.”** Segregation within our own community correlates to the belief ‘light skin is the right skin’, because young people see being lighter in complexion as an accomplishment since having lighter skin is accepted and promoted more in our society. This saying has taken a toll on the black community and brought up back the influence of the idea of Light Skin vs. Dark Skin emerging from the Willie Lynch letter. Willie Lynch spoke of ways to tear down Black men and women. He created a plan that would control the slaves physically and mentally for hundreds years or more if executed correctly. Willie Lynch’s plan was to take the small differences between Blacks and make them bigger so it will have a long lasting effect on them. He used envy and self-hatred for methods because jealously and insecurities can make someone hate another for years. For example: “You must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves, and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slave” (Lynch. Pg. 1). Such beliefs of light skin vs. dark skin are not forced in our minds but have become a natural thought that reigns in our head giving him and the majority power. This idea has limited the growth of the community ad has kept us stagnant because we no longer find beauty in ourselves. “Being a fool is one of the Basic ingredients of any incidents to the maintenance of the Slavery System,”** said Lynch. By making us foolish, small differences like color shade has been used to break our unity, thus the slogan light