Lighter skin has privileged Black Americans since slavery

Evidence

Within the Black American group, my coloring has historically led to a privileged position, because I am something known as “high yellow.” The lighter skinned blacks have received benefits dating back to slavery, often because they were the master’s illegitimate progeny. They may have become “house niggers” instead of field hands. Apparently, the only slaves former President Thomas Jefferson freed upon his death were the children of his long-time slave mistress, Sallie Hemmings. Several of these children immediately passed over into the white world, and the whereabouts of their descendants are unknown. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1172

Categorization

• SHARE: The Jefferson detail — that he only freed Hemmings’s children who then passed into the white world — is a striking nugget a history-buff friend would appreciate.