{"id":8372,"date":"2012-07-10T02:24:36","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T02:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=8372"},"modified":"2019-05-04T20:03:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T20:03:53","slug":"the-paper-bag-principle-class-colorism-and-rumor-and-the-case-of-black-washington-d-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=8372","title":{"rendered":"The Paper Bag Principle: Class, Colorism, and Rumor and the Case of Black Washington, D.C."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Paper Bag Principle: Class, Colorism, and Rumor and the Case of Black Washington, D.C.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Tennessee Press<\/a>
\n2006-07-15
\n136 pages
\n9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
\nCloth ISBN: 1-57233-462-2
\nCloth ISBN-13: 978-1572334625<\/p>\n

Audrey Elisa Kerr<\/a><\/strong>, Professor of English and Women Studies
\nSouthern Connecticut State University<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Paper Bag Principle: Class, Colorism, and Rumor in the Case of Black Washington, D.C.<\/em> considers the function of oral history<\/a> in shaping community dynamics among African American residents of the nation\u2019s capitol<\/a>. The only attempt to document rumor and legends relating to complexion in black communities, The Paper Bag Principle<\/em> looks at the divide that has existed between the black elite and the black \u201cfolk.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a few studies have dealt with complexion consciousness in black communities, there has, to date, been no study that has catalogued how the belief systems of members of a black community have influenced the shaping of its institutions, organizations, and neighborhoods. Audrey Kerr examines how these folk beliefs\u2014exemplified by the infamous \u201cpaper bag tests\u201d\u2014inform color discrimination intraracially.<\/p>\n

Kerr argues that proximity to whiteness (in hue) and wealth have helped create two black Washingtons and that the black community, at various times in history, replicated \u201cJim Crowism<\/a>\u201d internally to create some standard of exceptionalism in education and social organization. Kerr further contends that within the nomenclature of African Americans, folklore represents a complex negotiation of racism written in ritual, legend, myth, folk poetry, and folk song that captures \u201cboundary building\u201d within African American communities.<\/p>\n

The Paper Bag Principle<\/em> focuses on three objectives: to record lore related to the \u201cpaper bag principle\u201d (the set of attitudes that granted blacks with light skin higher status in black communities); to investigate the impact that this \u201cprinciple\u201d has had on the development of black community consciousness; and to link this material to power that results from proximity to whiteness. The Paper Bag Principle<\/em> is sure to appeal to scholars and historians interested in African American studies, cultural studies, oral history, folklore, and ethnic and urban studies.<\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n