Skinfolk

2022, Willie Jones (quoted in The Atlantic But as Jones’s career launched, he was disappointed not to find artists who looked like him. “I didn’t have too many other skinfolk to relate to, honestly, in the mainstream country realm,” he told me, “until I started really digging.”

It was, in part, this designation that Zora Neale Hurston sought to clarify with the distinction between "kinfolk" and "skinfolk" where one could imagine that all of one's skinfolk were not one's kinfolk (or lacked a good brain) and gave the skinfolk a bad name (Hurston, 1942).

“As the saying goes, not everyone who's our skinfolk is our kinfolk,” James would quip, and “it's more important to have a brother or sister in Christ than a brother or sister in skin.

Feminist analyses, critical in thinking through these myths of identity, have emphasized the methodological complications in being “skinfolk” but not necessarily “kinfolk,” to use Brackette Williams's trenchant distinction (1996), while reminding us also of the value of researchers who may be kinfolk in their depth of connection and commitment even if they are not skinfolk (Narayan 1993).

The burned scent of the police car. Flashing blue light. Strong hands grabbed his wrists, hauled him up. “The hell are you doing out here this time of night, man, with all this stuff going on up the way?” This voice was different. It rolled in a way that Jackie's ears found acceptable. He turned, eyes meeting a pair similar to his own atop a black mustache. The black cop turned his mouth into a sneer. “Leavin' work,” Jackie replied, apprehensive. Skinfolk wasn't kinfolk, especially when [they're cops.]