A Lot About Nothing

I seriously thought this flyer was a joke when I saw it posted on a message board several days ago. “Light Skinned Women & All Libra’s Free Entry All Night”, states the (badly designed) flyer.

Detroit promoter Ulysses “DJ Lish” Barnes apparently cancelled the event that was supposed to occur last night at Club APT after getting a furor of angry calls and emails when word of the party spread to the net.

Barnes, 27, said that he “didn’t think there would be a backlash”. Really? He didn’t think that Black women of ‘darker’ shades would have felt ostrasized by an event that stated that only light-skinned women (and Libras!) got in to the party with no cover charge? According to a Detroit News story Barnes said:

I didn’t mean to offend anyone. I had planned a party for other shades (of black women). We were going to take a shade of color each week. Next week was going to be a party for ‘Sexy Chocolate’ and the week after that ‘Sexy Caramel.

That seems like a bold-face lie. He probably just said that to try and save face. Regardless of how many ’shaded’ parties he planned on throwing, he’s still being ignorant.

How could he have believed that he wouldn’t offend anyone with an event titled as such? What was he gonna do? Stand at the doors of the club and verify that the light-skinned women who wanted to get in free were actually light-skinned and take out a brown paper bag to make sure?  I could just picture it now: “I’m sorry.  You’re too dark-skinned.  You have to pay the cover charge.”  What if two “light-skinned” women were to show up, one being a bit darker than the other–where do you draw the line?

It’s probably not surprising to some that Barnes happens to be a “dark skinned” black man. I bet if there was a party being thrown for free entry for all the light-skinned brothas out there, he’d understand why there was such a backlash. It’s sad to think that as a ‘Black’ community there’s so much prejudice within our own race.

Well I guess something good came out of this situation: On DJ Lish’s MySpace page he’s now presenting “Controversy” as next Friday’s themed event. Everybody free entry all night.