Article: The Paper Bag Principle: Of the Myth and the Motion of Colorism

This article, extracted from a larger study, is attentive to the national folk culture of African-American communities-especially rumor and legend-in a number of city centers. The study begins with Washington, D.C., as a representative model to examine the role of complexion-related lore in black neighborhoods, organizations, and institutions, and then extends outward to other urban areas. Complexion lore, the article argues, functioned as a sophisticated negotiation of racism, wherein black residents complicated American urban principles of inclusion and exclusion by integrating color notions into institutional oral history.

Attention to the content of the rumors, however unsettling, ...

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