high yellow

{{short description|Historic American term; light-skinned person with white and black ancestors}}

File:Whistling Susanna (NYPL Hades-446469-1659660).jpg a little yellow girl, her name's Susanna, she's from Savannah, she's happy as a bird."]]

High yellow, occasionally simply yellow (dialect: yaller, yella), is a term used to describe a light-skinned black person . It is also used as a slang for those thought to have "yellow undertones".{{Cite book

| publisher = Taylor & Francis US

| isbn = 9780415371827

| last = Dalzell

| first = Tom

| title = The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English

| year = 2009

}} The term was in common use in the United States at the end of the 19th century and the mid 20th century.

Etymology

"High" is usually considered a reference to a social class system in which skin color (and associated ancestries) is a major factor, placing those of lighter skin (with more White ancestry) at the top and those of darker skin at the bottom.{{Cite book | last1 = Hunt | first1 = Y. | last2 = Augustson | first2 = E. | last3 = Rutten | first3 = L. | last4 = Moser | first4 = R. | last5 = Yaroch | first5 = A. | doi = 10.1007/978-94-007-2048-0_2 | chapter = History and Culture of Tanning in the United States | title = Shedding Light on Indoor Tanning | pages = 5 | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-94-007-2047-3 }} High yellows, while still considered part of the African-American ethnic group, were thought to gain privileges because of their skin and ancestry.{{Cite journal

| volume = 47

| pages = 1705–1885

| last = Banks

| first = Taunya Lovell

| title = Colorism: A Darker Shade of Pale

| journal = UCLA Law Review

| series = Symposium Race and the Law at the Turn of the Century

| access-date = 2013-02-14

| year = 2000

| url = http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/fac_pubs/217

}} "Yellow" is in reference to the usually very pale undertone to the skin color of members of this group, due to mixture with white people.{{Cite book

| publisher = Intercultural Press

| isbn = 9781877864971

| last = Herbst

| first = Philip

| title = The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States

| date = 1997-12-01

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UiZQH5gHuggC&q=high%20yellow&pg=PA106

}} Another reading of the etymology of the word "high" is that it is a slang word for "very", often used in Southern English, therefore "very yellow" (as opposed to brown).

Use as social class distinction

In an aspect of colorism, "high yellow" was also related to social class distinctions among people of color. In post-Civil War South Carolina, and according to one account by historian Edward Ball, "Members of the colored elite were called 'high yellow' for their shade of skin", as well as slang terms meaning snobbish.{{cite book|last=Ball|first=Edward|title=The Sweet Hell Inside: The Rise of an Elite Black Family in the Segregated South|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m39Aw5AGm4oC&pg=PA269|access-date=6 June 2013|date=5 November 2002|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=978-0-06-050590-5|page=269}} In his biography of Duke Ellington, a native of Washington, D.C., David Bradbury wrote that Washington's

{{quote|social life was dominated by light-skinned 'high yellow' families, some pale enough to 'pass for white,' who shunned and despised darker African-Americans. The behaviour of high yellow society was a replica of high white, except that whereas the white woman invested in tightly curled permanents and, at least if young, cultivated a deep sun tan, the colored woman used bleach lotions and Mrs. Walker's "Anti-Kink" or the equivalent to straighten hair.{{cite book|last=Bradbury|first=David|title=Duke Ellington|url=https://archive.org/details/dukeellington0000brad|url-access=registration|access-date=6 June 2013|year=2005|publisher=Haus Publishing|location=London|isbn=978-1-904341-66-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/dukeellington0000brad/page/11 11]}}}}

In some cases the confusion of color with class came about because some of the lighter-skinned black people came from families of mixed heritage free before the Civil War, who had begun to accumulate education and property. In addition, some wealthier white planters made an effort to have their "natural sons" (the term for children outside of marriage who were produced with enslaved women) educated or trained as apprentices; some passed on property to them. For instance, in 1860, most of the 200 subscription students at Wilberforce University were the mixed-race sons of white planters, who paid for their education.{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=James T.|title=Songs of Zion : The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfWCqvkp_OUC&pg=PA215|access-date=Jan 13, 2009|year=1995|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-536005-9|pages=256–259}}{{Cite book | publisher = Aldine Press | last = Talbert | first = Horace | title = The Sons of Allen: Together with a Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio | location = Xenia, Ohio | year = 1906 | url = http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/talbert/talbert.html|page=267 }}

These social distinctions made the cosmopolitan Harlem more appealing to many black people. The Cotton Club of the Prohibition era "had a segregated, white-only audience policy and a color-conscious, 'high yellow' hiring policy for chorus girls".{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/fromjazztoswinga00henn|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromjazztoswinga00henn/page/100 100]|quote=high.yellow 1923.|title=From Jazz to Swing: African-American Jazz Musicians and Their Music, 1890-1935|author=Thomas J. Hennessey|year=1994|publisher=Wayne State University Press|isbn=0-8143-2179-8}} It was common for lighter-skinned African Americans to hold "paper bag parties," which admitted only those whose complexion was lighter than that of a brown paper bag.

In her 1942 Glossary of Harlem Slang, Zora Neale Hurston placed "high yaller" at the beginning of the entry for colorscale, which ran:

{{quote|high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown{{Cite news | volume = 55 | issue = 223 | pages = 84–96 | last = Zora Neale Hurston | title = Story in Harlem Slang | work = The American Mercury | date = July 1942 }}}}

Image:Alexandre Dumas.jpg novelist Alexandre Dumas, père was called "High Yellow" in a 1929 issue of Time magazine.]]

Applied to individuals

The French author Alexandre Dumas père was the son of a French mulatto general (born in Saint-Domingue but educated by his father in France) and his French wife. He was described as having skin "with a yellow so high it was almost white". In a 1929 review, Time referred to him as a "High Yellow Fictioneer".{{cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,737949,00.html|title=High-Yellow Fictioneer|date=September 30, 1929|magazine=Time|access-date=2020-04-26}}

Singer Eartha Kitt was taunted by darker-skinned relatives and called that "yella gal" during her childhood.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/19/eartha-kitt-suffered-over-identity|title = Eartha Kitt's life was scarred by failure to learn the identity of her white father, says daughter| website=TheGuardian.com |date = 19 October 2013}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/arts/26kitt.html|title=Eartha Kitt, a Seducer of Audiences, Dies at 81|newspaper=The New York Times|date=25 December 2008|last1=Hoerburger|first1=Rob}}

Art and popular culture

The terminology and its cultural aspects were explored in Dael Orlandersmith's play Yellowman, a 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in drama. The play depicts a dark-skinned girl whose own mother "inadvertently teaches her the pain of rejection and the importance of being accepted by the 'high yellow' boys". One reviewer described the term as having "the inherent, unwieldy power to incite black Americans with such intense divisiveness and fervor" as few others.{{cite news|url=http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/stage.php?ak=922|title=True Colors: Insightful Yellowman at Arena Stage|author=Jolene Munch|date=March 18, 2004|work=Metro Weekly|access-date=2007-10-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050831183347/http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/stage.php?ak=922|archive-date=August 31, 2005|url-status=dead}}

In popular print media, Life published a full-page colour reproduction on page 34 of its 1st February 1937 issue of a 1934 painting by Reginald Marsh (artist) as part of an article entitled "Living Art at $5 Per Picture". Titled "High Yaller", the painting's subject is a light-skinned black woman dressed in bright yellow from head to foot walking down a Harlem street.{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUsEAAAAMBAJ| title=LIFE | date=February 1937 }}

The phrase survives in folk songs such as "The Yellow Rose of Texas", which originally referred to Emily West Morgan, a "mulatto" indentured servant apocryphally associated with the Battle of San Jacinto. Blind Willie McTell's song "Lord, Send Me an Angel" has its protagonist forced to choose among three women, described as "Atlanta yellow", "Macon brown", and a "Statesboro blackskin".{{cite web |url=http://www.umich.edu/NewsE/11_06/words.html|title=Talking about words: How Many Words?|author=Richard W. Bailey|date=November 2006 |publisher=Michigan Today alumni newsletter|access-date=2007-10-07}} Bessie Smith's song "I've Got What It Takes", by Clarence Williams, refers to "a slick high yeller" boyfriend who "turned real pale" when she would not wait for him to get out of jail. Curtis Mayfield's song "We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue" makes reference to a "high yellow gal".{{cite web|url=http://www.metrolyrics.com/we-the-people-who-are-darker-than-blue-lyrics-curtis-mayfield.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216005116/http://www.metrolyrics.com/we-the-people-who-are-darker-than-blue-lyrics-curtis-mayfield.html|archive-date=2016-02-16|url-status=unfit|title=Curtis Mayfield – We The People Who Are Darker Than Blue Lyrics – MetroLyrics|publisher=metrolyrics.com}} In "Big Leg Blues", Mississippi John Hurt sings: "Some crave high yellow. I like black and brown."{{cite web|url=http://weeniecampbell.com/wiki/index.php?title=Big_Leg_Blues|title=Big Leg Blues lyrics}}

Digital Underground's 1991 album Sons of the P featured "No Nose Jobs", a song in which Shock G as Humpty Hump opines:

"They say the lighter the righter - Oh yeah?! Well'at's tough - Sometimes I feel that I'm not black enough - I'm high yellow, my nose is brown to perfection - And if I was to change it'd be further in that direction - So catch me on the beach, I'll be gettin' a tan - But yo there's no mistake that - Humpty-Hump is from the motherland".

On the 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm by Joni Mitchell, the song "Dancin' Clown" contains the lyrics "Down the street comes last word Susie, she's high yellow, looking top nice."

On Ice Cube's album War & Peace Vol. 2 (The Peace Disc) released in 2000, the song "Hello" contains the lyrics "I'm looking for a big yellow in 6-inch stilettos".

In 2004, white R&B singer-songwriter Teena Marie released a song titled "High Yellow Girl", said to be about her daughter Alia Rose,{{cite news|url=http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Music/Content?oid=57159|title=Rhythm & Views: Teena Marie, La Doña|author=Gene Armstrong|date=June 3, 2004|work=Tucson Weekly|access-date=2007-10-07}} who is biracial.{{cite news|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/premium/0199/0199-6072319.html|title=At home with Teena Marie and daughter Alia Rose|date=July 1, 2005 |work=Jet|access-date=2007-10-07}} The related phrase "high brown" was used in Irving Berlin's original lyrics for "Puttin' on the Ritz".{{cite book|last=Steffen|first=David J.|title=From Edison to Marconi: The First Thirty Years of Recorded Music|url=https://archive.org/details/fromedisontomarc0000stef|url-access=registration|publisher=McFarland|year=2005|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromedisontomarc0000stef/page/133 133]|isbn=0-7864-2061-8}}

In 2009, Lil Wayne released a mixtape track from No Ceilings titled "I'm Good", and contains the lyrics "High yellow woman with her hair to her ass".{{cite web|url=https://genius.com/Lil-wayne-im-good-lyrics|title=Lil Wayne feat Lucci Lou – I'm Good Lyrics – Genius|publisher=genius.com}}

In 2010, Soulja Boy released "Pretty Boy Swag" which has the line "I'm lookin' for a yellow bone long haired star (star)".{{cite web |title=Soulja Boy – Pretty Boy Swag – Genius |url=https://genius.com/Soulja-boy-pretty-boy-swag-lyrics |publisher=genius.com}}

In 2021, the Dominican-American R&B singer DaniLeigh sparked controversy by releasing a snippet of a song called "Yellow Bone". She later apologized following accusations of colorism.{{cite web |last1=Gray |first1=Arielle |title=DaniLeigh's Apology for the 'Yellow Bone' Controversy Only Makes It Worse |url=https://www.glamour.com/story/danileigh-apology-for-the-yellow-bone-controversy |website=Glamour |date=January 26, 2021}}