A Redbone with Green Eyes

By Charles Mombo

I was clearly able to picture this beautiful voluptuous redbone woman based on the description so explicitly described by my fellow Chicago transit passengers. What a difference a bus ride can make.

I thought I had heard it all; Black Americans being called “color,' “negro,” “Creole,” “black,” and “African American,” but redbone was not a word I was familiar with. I had passingly heard the word redbone used in sentences before; especially by older African-American males. From their conversations, I could figure out the meaning of the word from its context.

According to Urban Dictionary, a Redbone is “A southern slang word that's became popular around the nation. A light-skinned mixed person (black and white). They also have Native American ancestry, giving their skin and hair reddish undertones. A true redbone is all three ethnicities. A yellow bone is a light skinned mixed person. No Native American blood to give the reddish coloring.”

Urban Dictionary also adds that,”redbones often inherit the best traits of all three races (good hair, big pretty eyes, and natural womanly curves are all dominant), and are generally, as a "race" unbelievably good-looking.”

Even Lil' Wayne mentioned redbone in the lyrics of his song, Every Girl, when he said, “Uh, I like a long hair thick red-bone open up her legs to filet mignon that {blip out}.”

Why am I doing a post about Redbone?

Around 7:30 am last Saturday, I boarded a CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) bus #15-Jeffery Local headed east to get on the CTA green-line train heading downtime Chicago. Without turning my Ipod on, I put the head plug in my ears simply to drown-out any noise since I needed to concentrate and review my presentation. I was heading to a university in Chicago's loop to give a presentation on “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing". SEO is the process of improving the visibility of one’s website within search engines listing or returns and Social Media Marketing is the process of using social bookmarking, social networking and back channeling to promote one's website, product, or service. As an example, in Google search, if you were to type, “best African American blog,” you will notice out of 2M returns, the first return will be this blog.

Anyway, I digress. Now, back to why I am doing a post on redbone. As I boarded the bus and started to review my presentation, two apparently young, but over-aged looking and loud talking African-American males enter the bus. My first thought was why are they so-loud and energized this early in the morning? They sat in the seat right in front of me. It didn't take but a second to determine their sources of energy and loudness. As they took their seats, I was immediately hit with the sickening odor of stale alcohol. I decided to change my seat and head to the back of the bus which had available seats. As I decided to change my seat, one of the men loudly said to the other , “I just met this fine redbone with green eyes”. Instantly, I resigned myself to stay put and listen to his description of a redbone with green eyes. His description of the redbone with green eyes was illustratively vivid; from her natural locs to its length, to her approximate height, weight, hips size and even her perfectly curved booty. He also mentioned something about, “tearing that arse out,” but I was not sure what he meant by that.

Now, I understand how the Italian artist, Michelangelo, who's best-known for two of his outstanding works, the Pietà and David was able to create a sculpture from imagination. I felt as though I was a Michelangelo of the ghetto. I was clearly able to picture this beautiful voluptuous redbone woman based on the description so explicitly described by my fellow Chicago transit passengers. What a difference a bus ride can make.

Oops, did I hear the bus driver say 51^st and the Green line? Oh, sh*&, this is my stop! Open the door, please!