Ep 11 | Somebody's Wife: Colorism in Romance... Shall We Discuss?

Welcome back to Flip the Page. We're back with episode 11 of the pod, talking about Robbie Renee's 'Somebody's Wife', and y'all.. this is not what I want... this is not what I planned. I was so ready to get elbows deep in a good ole cheating trope, yet here we are instead, discussing colorism in literature...

Somebody's Wife centers around Dr. Jemma Holiday, a well-respected Black woman at her university. Jemma is married to her university sweetheart, Quinton. When they were younger, they were well-known in their school, Quinton being a top track athlete and Jemma coming from a well-respected legacy family. After they got together, Jemma became pregnant while in school. They kept the child and stayed together, with both sets of parents helping raise their daughter while they finished college. They got married and were very much in love for a few years, both currently employed in high positions at their alma mater. That is, until the sparks fizzled out, leaving Jemma stuck in an unloving marriage with a man who constantly cheated on her. When she meets Dr. Ezekiel Green, it’s love at first sight as passion erupts between the two. Suddenly, Jemma finds herself debating whether staying true to her marriage to maintain a facade of a happy marriage for their extended family and careers is worth it.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:17 Content Warning
• 1:23 Overview (spoiler free)
• 3:40 Breakdown (spoilers)
• 11:26 Flip or Skip

Transcript

0:01

[Intro Music][Intro Music] Hey, y'all. Welcome back to episode 11 of Flip the Page. I'm your host, Zo. Honestly... I did not think I would get an episode out this week because I was out of town. See what we can accomplish when motivated by anger and frustration? Anywho, in today's episode, we're going to be talking about Somebody’s Wife by Robbi Renee and colorism. Yay! Everybody cheered. More specifically how colorism seeps into literature published via this book. If it isn't right in your face. Trust. If you squint and tilt your head, you'll find colorism’s ugly ass hiding in some nook or cranny. I can already tell you, based off this fact alone this will not be my first, nor the last time talking about colorism on this podcast. I'm even surprised you took 11 episodes for me to talk about it, because... well, I did talk about it in Yinka technically kind of sorta. Content warning for colorism, mention of colonialism, slavery and dismemberment. So Robbi Renee's Somebody’s Wife Here I was ready to get into some trifling, cheating ass mess. Because the girls who know know I love a cheating trope. Ha! Oh. The girls who know they know I love a cheating trope in a book. But here I was ready to get into some trifling cheating ass mess. But of course, here the author and industry's colorism comes rearing its ugly head and slapping me across the face and any enjoyment I thought I’d derive from this book. Oh, I'm crying. I'm getting right into the drag. Hold on. Let me run y'all a quick synopsis of this book. So this story centers around Dr. Jemma Holiday, a well-respected Black woman at her university. I don't remember what her role was at the university, and frankly, I don't give a damn. I'm crying. I don't give two shits. Anywho. She's married to her university sweetheart, Quinton. When they were younger, they were well known in their school. Quinton being a top track athlete, and Jemma coming from a well-respected legacy family. After they got together, Jemma became pregnant while in school. They kept the child and stayed together with both sets of parents helping raise their daughter while they finished college. They ended up getting married and were very much in love for a while. Both currently employed in high positions at their alma mater. That is, until the sparks eventually fizzled out. Such is young love... Just kidding. Oh my God. People probably think I'm the most unromantic bitch. I love a good romance, okay, I do, I do. I'm a romantic at heart. So the sparks fizzled out, leaving Jemma stuck in an unloving marriage with a man who constantly cheated on her. When she meets Dr. Ezekiel Green, it's love at first sight - whatever that means - as passion erupts between the two. Suddenly, Jemma finds herself debating whether staying true to her marriage to maintain a facade of a happy marriage for their extended family and career is worth it. Spoiler warning. Although I'm not really getting that much into spoilers if I'm being so honest. So I think it's safe for you to go ahead and stream, even if you don't want spoilers. That was the synopsis. Now where was I before that? Right! How I entered this book ready to see a good little cheating trope, only to be met with colorism! But what can I expect, really? A society and consequentially, industry, that being the publishing industry, built on colorism that fails to do any checks and balances is sure to perpetrate colorism in the stories it produces. Apologies, by the way, if this episode comes across a bit ranty... Actually. Pause. I'm not apologizing for shit! Cause, I'm not sorry! I don't give a damn. Somebody needs to check y’all. Y'all are lucky I'm even focusing on the characters in this book and not dragging the industry for the disparities in books published by Black authors. And what those authors look like, because disparities do exist along the color line when it comes to the skin tone of Black authors published. And whether they're mixed or not. And I'm not even going to get into what Black authors are even allowed to publish, because there are limitations on what stories they can tell. But let me refocus and get my dragging materials together. Okay. Let's really dig into the colorism running through these pages like the tomb raider. The most blatant display of colorism in this book, were the couples highlighted in the story. One basic tenet of colorism is that dark skin needs to be redeemed. If you have dark skin, you must separate yourself from it and gain access to the privileges of those with lighter skin. Oftentimes due to colorism creating this desire to reconcile this affliction or failure of having a darker complexion, you see, darker skinned people seek out lighter skinned partners. Y'all know the tea! Please. This is not this is not breaking news to anybody! This is reflected in media we digest as you find darker skinned Black people paired with Black people of lighter complexions or non-Black people. And trust. You were never going to see someone dark skinned paired with someone of the same or a darker complexion in this story. No, I fear that it'd be just a little too much Blackness for the girls to take. You have Jemma Holiday, a light skinned Black woman ultimately being paired up with Ezekiel Green, a dark skinned Black man. Next to them. You have Roni, Jemma's best friend and Quinton, Jemma's husband, sister. Roni and Quinton are multiracial. The book describing them as similar in appearance with an alabaster skin tone and babes. It don't get much whiter than alabaster. In the story, Roni is coupled with two men. Jamal in her youth and Ezra when she's older. Somebody guess the complexion of the two of these men. That's right. They're both dark skinned Black men. You'll notice this recurring theme where you're seeing light skinned Black or multiracial woman paired with darker skinned Black men in this story. This intersection of skin tone and gender is a facet of colorism and anti-Blackness. Historically in colonial and post-colonial society, to achieve upward mobility in society, complexion becomes a means of currency for Black men. And I'm speaking specifically about the relationship between dark skinned Black men and how they achieve upward mobility, because that is what the focus is on this book before someone comes and jumps me. All right. To advance economically and increase social capital in a colonial or post-colonial society, dark skinned men will seek out partnership with women of lighter complexions. You see this social dynamic mirrored within the pages of this book, with the couples that are chosen and paired together. Another tenet of colorism is the fetishization of dark skinned Black people. The fetishization of darker complexions, specifically in Black men being tied to objectification and perceptions of dark skinned men, as hypermasculine and virile, stronger and aggressive in Somebodys Wife. The author ensures to let you know thoroughly throughout the novel that Ezekiel, Jemma's love interest, is a dark skinned man. Continuously harping on his skin tone whenever she gets the chance. To the detriment of the writing of the story, unfortunately. On multiple occasions, she refers to Ezekiel using chocolate descriptors, and I know a lot of my Black people are guilty of this. I need y'all to free yourself from the shackles, okay? Free yourself from the chocolate descriptor shackles. A bitch is tired. And I feel like a lot of people, like, think it's a compliment for, like, dark skinned people. No babes, I don't know. It gives very much stripping the humanity of someone a lot of the time. On multiple occasions she refers to Ezekiel using chocolate descriptors. In one instance Jemma states and I quote“It was one thing to communicate and occasionally flirt with him online, but now I would have to work with that tall, dark chocolate god of a man every day.” On another, when describing him, Jemma says, and I quote.“His cocoa colored skin complimented the tan suit, crisp white dress shirt and purple and gold tie.” These descriptors literally being less than a page apart. Even Jesus rested. Likening darker complexions of Black people to food, especially chocolate, has colorist and anti-Black roots within a historical context, which is why I just don't like it. I don't like it when non-Black people do it, and I don't like it when Black people do it. I don't feel like it's complimentary, even if it's a Black person on the other end of the compliment. Hang it up. A tie exists of cocoa production to colonialism and slavery of Black people that still persists to this day. Mind you. Colorism plays a hand in this, as you see, those suffering the most tend to be those of a darker complexion. The physical dismemberment and death of Black people forced to produce chocolate is reflected in the chocolate products sold by these companies and corporations, as they used caricatures of Africans in their ads to sell their chocolates, and even modeled their chocolates as dismembered parts of African’s bodies... Like those chocolate hands that are popular in Belgium. Just thinking about this was getting me hot. Trust. King Leopold is catching these hands one way or the other. I don't care if I got a trek to hell my damn self and beat that ass. But again, the objectification and dehumanization of dark skinned Black people with these colorist and anti-Black descriptors can't be ignored within the context of the world we exist in today. Even if it's to engage in some silly cheating trope romance, colorism and anti-Blackness do not exist in a vacuum, and these descriptions and depictions of Black people in literature are harmful. There are a lot of other examples of colorism in this book. Certain descriptors emphasizing Ezekiel's size and imposing stature and presence. The mistress being dark skinned. The perception of light skinned Black women as being delicate and in need of saving. Oh, this book was truly stereotype central. Just when you think they've been worn out, here another one comes like we're playing an endless game of stereotype whack-a-mole. I could go on and on, but I'm trying to get this episode out to y'all, so I'm gonna rest here. With that... Flip or Skip. Y'all already know what the answer is, please. Skip and I gave this book zero out of five on Storygraph with a clear conscience and a smile. One thing about me, it ain't nothing to give a book a zero. I don't give a fuck. Outside the colorism. The dialogue was corny as hell. The writing was plagued with a strange fixation on skin tone and cringeworthy descriptions of body parts. I went into this book with high expectations, not necessarily for the quality of the writing, but at least the enjoyment of the plot, and left with nothing but a deep sigh of irritation and regret. That's it for this week's episode of the podcast. Thanks so much for watching. I'm not sure if I'm too happy with this episode, to be honest, because I kind of rushed it out, but I'm trying to get comfortable not being an anal perfectionist. So this is what we're rolling with today. Hope you enjoyed the episode regardless, and I'll catch you next week. Hopefully we have more fun. Buh bye.