High yellow, occasionally simply yellow, is a term used to describe a light-skinned person of white and black ancestry. It is also used as a slang for those thought to have "yellow undertones". The term was in common use in the United States at the end of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century, and is reflected in such popular songs of the era as "The Yellow Rose of Texas". It is now considered offensive and outdated.
Etymology
"High" is usually considered a reference to a social classsystem in which skin color is a major factor, placing those of lighter skin at the top and those of darker skin at the bottom. High yellows, while still considered part of the African-American ethnic group, were thought to gain privileges because of their skin and ancestry. "Yellow" is in reference to the usually very pale undertone to the skin color of members of this group, due to mixture with Europeans. 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".
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, 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. In his biography of Duke Ellington, a native of Washington, D.C., David Bradbury wrote that Washington's In some cases the confusion of color with class came about because some of the lighter-skinned blacks 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" educated or trained as apprentices; some passed on property to them. For instance, in 1860, most of the 200 subscription students at Wilberforce College were the mixed-race sons of white planters, who paid for their education. These social distinctions made the cosmopolitan Harlem more appealing to many blacks. 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". 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: 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 mulattogeneral 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". Singer Eartha Kitt was taunted by darker-skinned relatives and called that "yella gal" during her childhood.
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. 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". 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 girl". In "Big Leg Blues", Mississippi John Hurt sings: "Some crave high yellow. I like black and brown." Digital Underground's 1991 albumSons 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 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, who is biracial. The related phrase "high brown" was used in Irving Berlin's original lyrics for "Puttin' on the Ritz". As recently as 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"
