Don't Play in the Sun: One Woman's Journey Through the Color Complex (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "I am ten, standing before the gilt-framed mirror over the mahogany cabinet where the silver and good china are stored..." (more)
Key Phrases: color complex, black female body, bleaching creams, African American, New York, Cicely Tyson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Golden paints an intimate self-portrait of her life as a dark-complexioned black woman and invites readers to take a behind-the-scenes look at the twisted and emotionally charged path of color-based discrimination that began when she was warned not to play in the sun. She succinctly details how the "light is right, black get back" mentality has permeated the African diaspora, its invasion of black institutions and how it sits just below the radar in Hollywood, athletics, news coverage and music videos. She includes stories from dozens of friends, acquaintances and experts, which as a whole suggest that blacks the world over may have been traumatized as much by colorism as they have by racism and colonialism. And with the grace of being faithful to one's own experience, Golden firmly plants her audience in her controversial dark skin. During a fifth-grade square dance, a popular young white boy rejects her black hand in disgust. At 19, in the wake of the black consciousness movement, Golden checks her face and Afro in the mirror and for the first time, "weeping with appreciation," "loves" what she seesâ€"and goes on to form her own prejudices (since worked-through) against the lighter-skinned. Erudite, self-aware and thorough, Golden makes a knowing guide to thorny psychosocial territory.
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From Booklist

Golden, who has authored several fiction and nonfiction books on race and women's issues, offers a deeply personal account of growing up as a dark-skinned black woman. She had to cope with the internal politics of a social hierarchy based on color complexion among blacks that mirrors the hierarchy between blacks and whites in general. Golden recalls her mother's admonition not to play in the sun too long, for fear that she'd darken even more and hurt her prospects in life. Golden also recounts the liberating "black is beautiful" culture of the 1960s and 1970s that elevated black consciousness but ultimately didn't change the hierarchy. Recounting the progression from the paper-bag tests of black sororities through the "mulatto follies" that continue to dominate film images of black beauty, Golden applauds some recent developments, including the popularity of singer India-Arie and her anthems celebrating the beauty of dark brown women. Golden's account of her personal journey to an appreciation of her looks offers a revealing look at a topic that is rarely discussed so openly. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (April 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385507860
• ISBN-13: 978-0385507868
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,059,773 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thing of Beauty!, November 18, 2004

By	Kola Boof (USA) - See all my reviews

Marita Golden, as always, writes in an elegant, understated fashion...and this time brings to the fore what I and many African women consider to be the #1 problem facing our people today...the much denied hatred for dark skinned people, and in particular--FEMALES--who are "authentically" black.

I didn't, however, give the book five stars for tackling such an important subject. I gave it 5 stars for the author's subtle handling of YEARS of heartbreak, disappointment and "forced coping". I gave the book five stars, because Golden so carefully layers and allows her own personal beauty to spotlight the fact that color prejudice is both insidious and cancerous. Amazingly, Golden does this without rage or reciprocal hate.

By hating the darkest of black women...we are essentially proving that we ourselves have become White Supremacists who hate the womb of our beginning and ALL BLACK PEOPLE. What could be more important for black people in 2004 to wrap their minds around?

I myself come from Sudan and was put up for adoption at age 8 by my Egyptian grandmother...because she felt that my skin color was "too dark" for me to be included in my father's Egyptian family after he and my mother were murdered for protesting slavery in SUDAN.

I am the child of a "charcoal colored" African beauty and an Arab father.

Naturally, the trauma of such a rejection and such an event cannot be conveyed with mere words, but as a mother of 2 young boys who will someday be grown black men...I am grateful to Marita Golden for providing yet another powerful and important art work (to go along with Morrison's BLUEST EYE and my own LONG TRAIN TO THE REDEEMING SIN) that can aid us all in the dismantling of this troubling and horrific insanity through which white supremacy continues to hack away the limbs of our sacred being.

Black is not only Beautiful--Black is the genesis of humanity and deserves to exist. And Marita Golden continues to be a lush, velvety voice in the static, sometimes frivalous NEW world of black literature. I highly recommend this book, and as always...I so deeply love Golden's care, class and intelligence.

Kola Boof (...)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Look In The Mirror - You Are Beautiful - No Matter What, May 23, 2004

By	Carmen Matthews "The Serene Samurai" (San Diego, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We often read of "garbage messages" that are universal to all children, or, as John Bradshaw labels as "shame-based messages."

And in this book, by Marita Golden, we read how those of color pass on messages to their children, that from a child's view is an attack. From an adult view, it is both a warning of how one is measured by those in power, and it is something that is blindly passed on - not questioned, just accepted as fact, much like the unspoken messages that generation after generation mothers pass on to their daughters about their limitations.

I selected this book because I read, years ago, "Migration of the Heart," and "Skin Deep," by Ms. Golden. And I continue to be moved by her written messages. She speaks to your soul!

As a child, I do remember conflicting messages of, "Go outside and play," shortly followed by, "If you stay in the sun too long you will be too black."

"Too black" in the 60's, during the Civil Rights Movement - at times when we were saying, "Say it loud. I'm black and I'm proud?"

Yes. It was a statement unconsciously spoken. And it continues to be spoken, whites worry about the dangers of tanning salons, and blacks search for ways to "blend in."

Another reason why I was drawn to this book is that Ms. Golden uses Zora Neale Hurston's (read "Their Eyes Were Watching God," and her other books) messages from the first page, throught the book, to encourage change.

Thank you Ms. Golden, for telling your story, and for believing in your purpose, and for contributing to race relations being an inside job.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, February 21, 2006

By	Mario M. Vittone (Chesapeake, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book has made it on my list of must-reads for my children and must-haves in my library. It is a strikingly impressive work. As a middle-aged white man, I can only offer that I learned a lot about the author's culture (and was revealed a lot about mine) but put aside completely the topic of the book for a moment...it was one of the most beautifully written things I have ever read. I believe Marita Golden could write about the dynamics of drying paint and hold my undivided attention. Her skill as a writer alone makes the book a more than worthwhile read.