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SMH: St. Louis residents expressed outrage this week over a “Battle of the Complexions” contest scheduled for Friday night, but the event’s promoters said they organized it to honor African-American women and regretted any “misunderstanding.” The event was set for 9 p.m. local time (10 p.m. ET) at a nightclub in St. Louis. Promotional materials, including the poster pictured at right, promised a contest to see which African-American women are most attractive — those with light skin, those with brown skin or those with dark skin. “This is the most debatable topic of the year, whats the sexiest skin complexion?? So ladies come out & lets settle this!!” the promoters — Mack TV, a video and music promotional company, and a local “men’s entertainment” promoter calling himself Nelly Da’Celeb — said on a Facebook page for the event, which msnbc.com is not linking to because of extreme language. Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP, said the event “raises the … hair on the back of people’s necks like me and some other folks.” “Folks who buy into it, support it, feed into it, they’re just assuring that using race — using the skin complexion of women, devaluating women and things of this nature — is going to continue to happen, because as long as people spend money to take advantage of it, somebody’s going to use it as a promotional tool,” Pruitt told NBC station KSDK. After the contest was highlighted this week by Kevin C. Johnson, a music writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, negative reaction was swift and loud. Camille Houston, an African-American woman from St. Louis, told KSDK that she found the promotion offensive because it perpetuates historical divisions in the African-American community centered on skin tone. “Some guys will say, ‘I don’t like talking to dark-skinned girls,’ or, you know, some girls will say. ‘I don’t like talking to dark-skinned guys,’” Houston said. In a post Thursday on Nelly Da’Celeb’s personal Facebook page, Mack TV and Nelly Da’Celeb said they understood why some people were upset but that the event would go on: MACK TV WOULD LIKE TO CLEAR UP THE MISUNDERSTANDING OF OUR CONCEPT FOR THIS PARTY…ITS NOT TO DEGRADE WOMEN OR DIVIDE SKIN COLORS. ITS SIMPLY TO SEE WHICH COMPLEXION OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN RACE REPRESENTS THE MOST (lightskinned, caramel-brown, or darkskinned) AS A WHOLE , MALE & FEMALE! I CAN SEE THE MISUNDERSTANDING WITH OUR PROMO…..WE COULD HAVE USED A BETTER CHOICE OF WORDS….WE DID NOT MEAN TO OFFEND THE OFFENDED ITS BLACK HISTORY MONTH , SO WE MADE A PARTY THEME DEDICATED TO OUR AFRICAN AMERICAN CROWD. THE YOUNGER GENERATION IS LOVING THIS PARTY BECAUSE HERE’S THE FIRST TIME EVER YOU CAN COME OUT & BE PROUD THAT YOU ARE BLACK!! REGARDLESS OF YOUR SKIN TONE SORRY FOR THE CONFUSION & MISLEADING INFO. ITS BLACK HISTORY MONTH , SO LETS BE PROUD OF THE SKIN WE’RE IN!! REPRESENT YOUR COMPLEXION! Thoughts on this?!?!?! Source Photo: Facebook More On Bossip! Smackdown! The Chris Brown/CM Punk Feud Is Getting Pretty Intense! “I Will Choke You” And Breezy Responds! Can’t Get It Up: 10 Foods That Might Be Choking The Life Out Of Your…Libido Tell ‘Em Why You Mad: Janet “Aunt Viv” Hubert Writes An Open Letter To Wendy Williams Blaming Her For Whitney Houston’s Downfall Cake Cake Cake Cake! The Stars With The Wildest Birthday Parties

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For Discussion: “Battle Of The Complexions” Party In St. Louis Says It Was To Honor African-American Women Pissed People Off Instead