The Most Tragic of Mulattos: AD Powell

AD Powell is what we call a mulatto militant. I believe she is currently operating under the the web handle “APGifts” as well. I enjoy reading her on-line ramblings because I can feel her dedication. I find her postings even when I’m not looking for them-on youtube ( she drops messages in my inbox), on HBCU newspaper sites, on ANY site with even the slightest reference to biracialism. It’s only a matter of time before she ends up gracing us with her presence. How am I sure AD Powell is APGifts? No one bombards the world wide web with propaganda in the particular style that AD does. It’s unique. It’s manic. It’s….tragic.

AD is a anti-Black White mulatto with a serious psychological handicap. You see, judging from her HS photo I’m guessing she is well over 40 years old, and probably has no idea that the mixed race identity isn’t nearly as contentious as it was when she was a child. Perhaps her White appearance (but her non-White social circumstance) fostered some bitterness that she has yet to resolve. Often, people who feel dis-empowered by their circumstances end up blaming others who are also socially dis-empowered for their condition. It makes it easier than having to look in the mirror, being nearly white (as she is) and saying to one’s self “If White people wanted me to be White, I WOULD be, and Black people would have no control over that”. It’s easier to blame Black people for “holding her back” rather than asking why White people haven’t “pulled her forward”.

Aside from being humorously tragic, AD may also be quite effective. When you blitz the internet with misconceptions, SOMEONE is bound to take what you’re saying as truth. And I believe this is the case. I will be addressing a few of her inaccuracies and *hypocrisies* on this blog. I have one to address now.

AD Powell (AKA APGifts) writes Darker Blacks hate Lighter Blacks or Mulattos:

It’s interesting that — in the majority of the discussions which concern the allegation of “colorism” — seldom does one ever have a chance to hear about the issue from that of the perspective of the many light-complexioned people who have been discriminated against, harrassed by and even physically assualted by people who are of a dark-complexion.

Generally — in said discussions — one is only allowed to hear about those very rare
occasions when a light-complexioned person (often as a reactionary self-defense to having suffered a lifetime of unprovoked harassment by people who are of a
dark-complexion) verbally strikes out.

What is almost never discussed is the fact of the ‘silenced’ numerous cases of
lighter-complexioned people having suffered severely at the hands and words of people who were of a darker skin-complexion.

Presenting the issue of ‘Colorims’ only from the false perspective of “dark-skin=innocent victim” / “light-skin=guilty perpetrator”
is not only both unfair and false — but it, in and of itself, is an anti-‘light
skin’ / colorist double-standard.

In actuality, we hear this anti-light skinned/biracial story ALL THE TIME. This “dark people hate me narrative” is far more common (especially) in White dominated media than the other way around. It helps to perpetuate the “jelluz darkies/full blackies myth” (check out my earlier post on that).  Rhianna, Rashida Jones, and P Diddy’s side piece Cassie have all given White media outlets their “Black rejection” stories. The majority of people who actually hear the complaints of darker Blacks are… Black people. I’m not going to get into who does it more…how would I really know? What I DO know is that it happens on BOTH sides, but one narrative receives FAR more exposure amongst non-Blacks than the other.

AD Powell (AKA APGifts) writes Lighter Blacks or Mulattos never excluded Darker Blacks:

In addition, it should also be noted that the Urban Legend, of the so-called “light skinned Black” people (i.e. people who were of Mulatto or any other groups that were of a part-Black / Mixed-Race lineage) having practiced any sort of ‘Paper Bag’; ‘Blue Vein’; or ‘Fine Toothed Comb’ tests — is simply not in any way supported by any objective, verifiable historic record.

It IS correct that many of the blue vein stories are Folkloric. They are nearly impossible to verify. BUT that doesn’t mean they are untrue. Not to get philosophical, but historical records are known for their inaccuracies as well. That’s why we have so many historians. Even something documented can be debated. What we DO know (and what AD admits) is that some lighter Blacks and mulattos did cluster and form micro-communities (within Black communities). Keep in mind that the US is diverse, and there is no single narrative for any particular group of people. What happened in Louisiana probably didn’t happen in North Carolina.

Other racist, Mulatto-Bashing Urban Legends & Myths include the “Willie Lynch Letter’ Hoax (the letter has been repeated proven to have been total fraud); the “the majority of the ‘big house’ slave positions were given to the Mulatto chattel-slaves” lie (when history shows that most of these positions — ex. mammy, cook,driver, etc.– were reserved for the slaves that were full-Black); and the lie that “most of the Mulattoes were the offspring of the plantation Owners” (when,
in reality, what the historical record actually shows is that the overwhelming vast majority of the Mulatto-lineage chattel-slaves were the result of rapes by the White plantation Overseers — and were not the offspring of the plantation Owners).

It is true that the Willie Lynch Letter is a hoax. But isn’t it funny how AD likes to use the “proximal whiteness” argument when it fits her cause? I am dying to see these historical records. We can’t even come to an official agreement on the lineage of Jefferson’s Black descendants, and he paraded his mulatto mistress around town…can we really trust that a plantation owner would shame his family and document his transgressions for posterity???? What we DO know is that mulatto slaves were often freed upon the death of the slave owner (Jefferson’s case), and had access to resources that other slaves did NOT have. Why? Make of that what you will….

The truth of the matter — as shown by the historical record (i.e. articles, diaries, books, reports, interviews, etc.) is that– when many of the full-Black people realized the extent to which most Mixed-Race former slaves practiced ‘Endogamy’* (i.e. making the choice to marry someone who is a part of one’s ‘own group’),their outrage and feelings of rejection and jealousy caused
some of them to engage in the activity of Mulatto-Bashing / anti-Mulatto Rumor-Mongering — and it was often, this very activity that led to the spreading of these urban legends and myths as being “common knowledge” about the people and the communities that were of a Mulatto-lineage.

The practice of ‘Endogamy’ (i.e. marrying “one’s own kind”) was actually very common for people of any lineage or group (including that of Mulatto-lineage) and, generally, no issues were taken with it — until the late 1960’s / early 1970’s when the appearance of the very divisive ‘Black Power Movement’ (which had usurped the very successful ‘Civil Rights Movement’) suddenly began to target and falsely condemn the practice of ‘endogamy’ by people of Mulatto-lineage (and Mulatto-lineage, only) as being “racist” and “colorist” against the people who were of a full-Black lineage.]

This is a perfect example of AD’s hypocrisy (and humor).

1. How can someone of so-called mixed race be endogamous? Your very existence is the result of exogamy (by your definition)! Historically, people were RELIGIOUSLY and CULTURALLY endogamous. What DISTINCT culture did mulattoes have by which they could be culturally exclusive? None.

2. First you say that mulattoes never had “blue vein societies” or practices by which they excluded those who weren’t like them, THEN you say they practiced endogamy. How do you forge a distinct identity without differentiating between yourself and those who are not like you? ***By creating social networks that practice color/feature based exclusion***. These blue vein societies may not have had actual addresses and club charters, but the social practice existed….YOU SAID IT YOURSELF.

Once the antebellum (chattel-slavery) era came to an end on the continental United States of America, and numerous communities became established, it then seemed that certain of the various full-Black people & families began to engage in a sharing of spurious “tales” wherein they (or someone they knew) had “heard about” a church, fraternity, sorority, social club, etc. that had both either been founded by or had a number of members who were individuals of a Mulatto-lineage and had also allegedly rejected a full-Black person solely for having had curly hair (rather than straight hair); and/or for having had brown skin (rather than tan, beige, or white skin); and/or for having had either non-visible or visibly ‘green’ arm veins (rather than ‘blue’ arm veins).  And yet, no one ever questioned the fact that the very features a person was alleged to have been ‘rejected’ for having (ex. curly hair texture; brown skin coloring; and either non-visible or ‘visibly-green’ arm veins; etc.) were the very same features that were common to ‘the average’ person who was of a Mulatto-lineage (which would have meant that the Mulattoes would have then been the biggest ‘rejectees’ of such clubs — rather than the ‘rejectors’ at such clubs — and thus, would have also proven that these “clubs” simply and more than likely did not and had never actually existed in reality.)

LOL, this doesn’t prove anything that people who pay attention to mulatto movement rhetoric don’t already know: Many mulattos are racist and colorist, even against their own. If you acknowledge that “paper bag practice” would have alienated mulattoes, wouldn’t it have proportionally alienated MORE “full blacks”?

Mulattoism isn’t about “genetic accuracy”.  It’s about racism and colorism. It’s about the APPEARANCE of racial ambiguity and difference, not your ancestry. That is why mulattoes in Brazil IN THE SAME FAMILY can have 5 different racial classifications. That is why Vanessa Williams will always be pined after and whined about by the multiracial movement, but Don Cheadle won’t. BOTH have White ancestors. One doesn’t “look” like they do.

It is often a surprise for people to learn that, in reality, there is actually No Such Thing As a “Light Skinned Black” person, at all. The term “Light Skinned Black” is really nothing more than a racist oxymoron that was created by White Supremacists in an effort to forcibly deny those Mixed-Race individuals, who are of a Multi-Generational Multiracially-Mixed (MGM-Mixed) Lineage, the right to be able to fully embrace and to also received public support in choosing to acknowledge the truth regarding their full ancestral heritage. The people who have been slapped with the false label and oxymoronic misnomer of “Light Skinned Black” person are simply Mixed-Race individuals — whose family have been continually Mixed-Race throughout their multiple generations.

Being a light skinned Black is no more of an oxymoron than being an olive-skinned or darker skinned White. Many mulatto militants like to use the same scientific racism that justifies the one drop rule, to justify their mulattoness. It is OKAY to identify as mixed race, but it is NOT OKAY to impose your racism or your personal identification on other. As AD Powell has mentioned, many people identified as mixed race even AT THE HEIGHT OF THE ONE DROP RULE. Some even identified as White, as they were close in appearance to “mediterranian Whites”, and decided to live as such.  AP’s logic is an example of the double standards that are rampant in multiracial rhetoric. It also presupposes that people who are not dark skinned don’t/can’t identify with a Black social experience.

It’s important to critically examine a lot of the revisionist multiracial rhetoric that is saturating the internet. While some of it comes from a place of honest misconception, most of it is nothing more than racism repackaged.