Bravo! Thank you for writing this. My family has deep roots in New Orleans, and we know all about the paper bag test. It is an old issue, and articles like yours remind us that it is still with us.

The pandemic kept me from visiting Chicago in April to see a recent play about colorism in Africa. It’s called “African Mean Girls Play,” and it restates the premise of Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” in terms of intra-racial prejudice in an African girl’s school. One of these days, I hope to see it. In the meantime, your insights here serve as a helpful reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done to correct the malignant legacy of slavery and white supremacy.