Everybody's brown. Different shades of brown, to be sure, but have you ever seen a human whose skin was really any other color? The lightest of us are never truly white, the darkest never truly black. I've never seen true yellow or real red on a person either, although I've met many people from the groups often called yellow and red.

It's not easy being any of these shades of brown, that's certainly true. It will get simpler when we all accept, once and for all, that skin pigment is one of the least important character traits anyone could possibly have.

In fact it's not even a character trait at all. It's just the trivia of genetics, like eye color or hair color.

My dark haired Scotts grandmother was once heard to comment about my equally Scotts but black haired and relatively tan tennis-playing mother to my blond haired and pale skinned Scotts/Anglo father - in a hushed voice - "she's awfully dark, isn't she".

Of course, this is the same woman who brought what were apparently for all intents and purposes indentured servants over from Ireland because she was afraid to have black people in her house - and the creepy thing is that she had some sort of white slavery connection that let her keep acquiring new Irish thralls as late as the 1980s.

But she was a great grandmother to us kids.

Fascinating, thanks.

But while "the West" still has a long way to go in dealing with its issues over skin colour, they are far, far more pronounced, and bias on this basis is utterly respectable, in most parts of Asia.

Maybe you're bumpin into too many white folk.

Get-outta-heeyah-alredee

As a white conguero, who has lived in may overseas countries... from Africa, Southeast Asia to the FSM, to the Carib, it's tough to measure up. Until I start playing. Then the heads nod, the feet tap, the ladies start the dance.

I get offered a plate, and a beer, it's all good.

Take a vacation down to the carib dude, relax, it's like livin' in the country or something.

You need to git the hell outta NYC. It's killin' you.

Thanks for the comment, Joey. I'm pretty happy here, tho. P.R.'s an awesome place to visit but once you move there it stops being a vacation and starts being real life. I'd rather leave the fantasy intact in my head.

Good article, I found it interesting, somewhat agreeable, but mostly enjoyed greatly. Im from Puerto Rico, (yes I was actually born there), I was raised in the Bronx as well, but when I turned 18, my family and I moved to the Buckeye State called Ohio, and yes there are quite a few Puerto Ricans here, but I have found that the PR's over here are better educated and more into the middle class, of course thats just my opinion because I have not known anything outside of the Bronx, but I have heard recently that PR's in NYC are becoming affluent and better educated. But let me tell you that here in Ohio there does exist racism but as we continue to be educated and more "American" in this great state we see that Ohioans accept us more and more, of course not all will like us, and just like there are little hints of racism in NYC, that exist here as well, but we all just need to continue on and progress ourselves and be the best we can be. Again your story is great, thank you for posting it.

My normal mission throughout life is to enlighten as much as possible. Mr. Star, your terrific posting has inspired me to step away from it momentarily and say what I normally wouldn't dare say, because I believe you'll understand:

I am brown, aussi, by virtue of the fact that the color of my skin is brown. My ancestors come from all over the globe, but frankly, I don't give a fuck about genealogy, although it's kind of neat that my family seems to have made an Olympic sport out of miscegenation. Anyhoo, whatever erroneous label any ignorant, covertly bigoted fool insists upon conferring on me against my will, when I look at my arm, it's brown (unless I have sunburn; then, it's red), so I say it's brown. Because it is; that's a fact, and only a fool, a bigot, or a brainwashed mainstreamer would say otherwise. I'm a mutt and it doesn't matter -- a rose is a rose is a rose. Blue, purple, or chartreuse, I'm me. But the arm is brown; I'm not blind to what is right in front of me. It's brown and it's stupid to call it anything else.

At any rate, Mr. Star, you absolutely rock. Good for you for sticking it to the ignoramuses! I LOVE fucking with people's minds over their stupid propensities to label and to assume (99 percent of the time incorrectly) and over their pigheaded insistence on relying on lame stereotypes like the narrowminded jerks they are. Gives me all kinds of glee to deflate their balloons: No, I'm not a rap fan; I prefer Rachmaninoff, see? No, I don't know about any 'hoods save for the one connected to my Motorhead sweatshirt; I'm a type-A, honor-society, college-educated professional who uses phrases like "peachy keen" and "heavens to Betsy" and who grew up in an affluent rural/suburban Republican town. No, I believe OJ is as guilty as sin and that melanin-based affirmative action is "racist" by definition and therefore immoral. It's like, try again, asshole, what kind of stupid assumption will you make when the ones you have made so far are proven to be so hideously off the mark? They look like brokenhearted kids being told that Santa is a lie and that reindeer don't really know how to fly. Boo-frickin'hoo. Their tiny world deserves to fall to smithereens around them. Serves 'em right, fuckin' creeps.

I am usually extremely polite (or try to be), but these people who manifest their "little" bigotries try my patience to no end. They're SO lucky that I'm a pacifist, because otherwise, I would be in and out of jail for popping people in the schnozz.

Thanks. Had to get that off of my chest.

Love,
NR Davis
Frustrated Humanist Don't-Wanna-Be Misanthrope

Some people get enlightened only by fire. Rock on, Natalie, and you too, Star. Keep shaking up the closed minds, and you might be able to rattle some of them open. Maybe they'll be more inclined to give peace a chance after they've gotten a tiny little glimpse of just how much deep trouble they'd be in if you were inclined to war.

The only weapons necessary: facts and truth. It helps to be extrenely articulate -- they can't stand that.

Oops, extremely. Luckily, typing proficiency isn't necessary...

As far as skin color goes, I've got no problem with the natural pigment of anyone I meet during a given day, but I do find aging bottle blondes who artificially tan themselves the color of a kola nut to be bizarre and creepy.

Dave

Yeah, I gotta agree with you there, Dave. Especially once they've started injecting ass fat into their lips and plucking their eyebrows to just this side of a few molecules wide - BRRRRRRR!! - gives me the willies.

Thanks for all the support, all. Glad you enjoyed. Maybe one day a brown guy will be president...

then we can REALLY show 'em what a tyrant looks like!!

HE, HE!!!

It's my understanding, that when one travels it's polite to initiate conversation it the native tongue. One might start with "Do you speak English." but, if it's a short phrase like "Where is..." then cutting that corner is warranted. I supposed you'd prefer it if white people came up to you and spoke in that 'too slow, too loud' way which denotes cultural insensitivity?

ummm... Yeah. I live in America. Specifically Manhattan. We speak english here.

Let all you white folk out there hold hands and tell Star how brown you think you are.

Ready.... empathize!

Really wish there was a psychologist in the ranks to figure this group out.

Hang in there Star. Remember You're OK, I'm OK.

If someone has a problem with you, it's THEIR problem, not yours.

isnt BROWN used to describe people from south asian descent? (india, pakistan, bangladesh, sri lanka,etc...)

hispanics are too diverse, they have white people and black people among them as well, and not all of them even originate from Spain. They aren't a race, they are just people who claim to be from south of the U.S. border.

so whoever you are that wrote this about "its not easy being brown", you arent south asian so you arent brown, youre just some hispanic guy living in new york who laughs at latino jokes made by his wife.

not to be rude or anything, i have nothing against anything you wrote...good article by the way.

#16 wth? - Brown can be anything you want it to be, and yes I do partially fit 'your' description so don't get all narky.

My story is a little similar to yours - you know, it was hard being brown when I was a kid and just having moved to Australia from the UK. Didn't exactly sound the way I looked according to the yobs here. For some people, I was too brown. For others, not enough. You can't win.

But being brown, now, to me is great. The people who probably picked on me in childhood are now putting their health in jeopardy by tanning in summer or visiting solariums, and oh boy is the sun harsh in Australia. Not to mention having one of the highest incidences of skin cancer in the world. Mind you, I still burn. I still get hassled (though not by fair-skinned folk, but those of Asian and Indian origin). I rather like being brown, as have several objects of my affection.

What bothers me about my mixed racial heritage is that instead of feeling like you 'belong' to all these wonderful, diverse places, you often end up feeling like you don't at all, not fully. It might sound silly, but it can be alienating, or lonely. I know that the mix is a gift, but it makes it near impossible to construct a family tree, and that sort of stuff really interests me.

It's totally not an issue for me now, in my home city, Melbourne. It really celebrates its cultural diversity, or, rather, the people I tend to associate with do very much.

Good article, by the way. Dammit, why can't I keep my comments short?! Sorry about that.