Senior Moments: Sacramento African Americans Discuss ‘Black Don’t Crack’ Adage

Telling someone they don’t “look their age” is typically received as a compliment. For African Americans the flattery goes deeper than face value.

Outward appearance doesn’t necessarily reflect what is happening on the inside, but rather broadcasts a person’s best hopes for how they want to be received and respected in the world. Black Americans are often taught not to show the world their personal struggles. The ability to look timeless, to age more gracefully than others and to appear unbothered gave birth to the adage “Black don’t crack” or “good Black doesn’t crack.” 

We asked several locals to share their opinions. Is “Black don’t crack” fact or fiction? Motivation or misnomer? Here’s what they had to say.

This statement has always had multiple meanings to me. First, on the physical level, the melanin in our skin offers some protective benefits when it comes to being in the sun. Though we can get sunburn, it typically takes longer to happen. Over time, our skin, on average, preserves very well and tends to look youthful longer. Having said that, when we get skin cancer, it tends to be the most aggressive and life threatening. Another meaning to the term is metaphorical in my opinion. We are one of the most resilient cultural groups in the world when you consider what has been heaped upon us historically as African diasporic/Black people. However, internally, and due to centuries of pervasive, consistent and nefarious injustice, inequity, oppression, and white supremacy, among other things, our health measures are “cracking” inside and we are dying from a variety of diseases at higher rates than other populations. Hence, we are looking beautiful as we age, but living shorter lives on average. This is something we must change. 

– Sandy Holman, author and culture historian

My understanding is that Black-hued skin doesn’t crack (show aging wrinkles). Because I was not blessed with beautiful Black skin I probably won’t experience that benefit of strong melanin. However, I must say that at 67, I do not have wrinkles. However, I do have plenty of ugly, crinkly cellulite everywhere, no matter how hard I work out or eat healthy foods. Must be my chocolate addiction.

– Kathy Lynne “Kanika” Marshall, artist, author, genealogist 

I don’t know whether it’s because I’m Belizean, or if it’s a Caribbean thing, or just my daddy who is full of spice, but I was taught: “Black don’t crack, but the sun do burn.” One of my relatives fell asleep on the beach in Belize and parts of his shirt had to be cut from his skin. So I was raised to wear a hat, hide under an umbrella, slather on sunscreen, and moisturize twice a day – and this was back in the ’60s and ’70s when none of that was popular in the San Francisco Bay Area. I got teased a lot until high school when a new student joined my class, another Black girl whose mom had the same be-careful-of-the-sun rules for her daughter and of course she became one of my best school friends.

My mom was really into natural skincare, which she had practiced back home in Belize. So I learned early how to grind raw almonds with a mortar and pestle to make exfoliation scrub and when alligator pears (avocados) were in season, saving the skin and using it to exfoliate. On the inside, avocado skin is slightly rough and with bits of emollient avocado attached, it really did wonders on faces, elbows, knees, and feet. We did it all—egg white facials and coconut oil masks for our hair, drank a lot of water and ate what my dad raised in his organic garden. 

But as the years pass, I notice bias in the medical profession and on social media. When I had a mini-stroke an astonishing number of people on Facebook told me that I was too young to have a mini-stroke. I protested and stated my age. Then the darn post responses became about how young I looked while I wondered why people didn’t know that strokes can happen at any age. A baby can have a stroke. So can a teenager. If we argue with reality by insisting someone is too young for the condition they’re experiencing, it’s going to be very difficult to recognize when someone is in crisis and needs our help. 

When I asked my doctor about a physical therapy referral for my knees and added that I thought I had arthritis, I was told I was too young to have arthritis. “I’m 62,” I said. “You’re not 62,” the doctor said and checked my chart. “Oh, well, everyone gets arthritis as they age,” the doctor replied. That isn’t true either. It’s not inevitable, but the medical profession is too often dismissive of our needs.

– Joey Garcia, author, platform and relationship coach 

Beginning in my late 40s, finally embracing rather than hiding from my genetic disposition for premature white hair was personally freeing physically, mentally and emotionally. Eliminating the stress of having to constantly dye my telltale white roots allowed me to ease into my advancing age. Something I had viewed as a negative for years became a welcomed and healthier positive, with new compliments on the beauty of my white hair. I proudly joined my white-haired ancestors and the legacy we all share, in being exactly who we are in the moment, comfortable with my mature status and comfortable with who I now am.”

– Vicki Boyd, community advocate 

I’ve witnessed so many women age through the years. Some do everything “right” and fall to pieces in their 60s and some do all the seemingly “wrong” things and live to be a hundred-plus. Seems to be the luck of the draw, genetic makeup, lifestyle, relationships, etc. I give thanks to the Most High Creative Energy in the Universe that after surviving many health challenges, I am doing just fine at 81.

– Staajabu, poet and author