Yellow vs. Brown

In "Cotton Comes to Harlem", Himes separates the characters into groups based on their skin tones. of course there is the obvious black and white categories but within the black community there is another separation, based on whether the person has dark brown or yellow skin. An example of this is the physical and mental differences between Mabel and Iris. Mabel is said to have dark brown skin, while Iris has yellow skin. Mabel has a sweet temperament, and while she is gullible and quite frankly an idoit, her intentions are always good. On the other hand, Iris is a backstabbing and violent woman, who always uses sex to get what she wants. This is also seen, like when Grave Digger and Coffin are at a bar, they are approached by a "yellow whore". What is interesting is that the yellow tinted skin is closer to white than the dark brown, and all the yellow skinned characters are bad people.