Well i must admit that i agree with the four previous writers.one time many years ago on 125th St their was two sisters one light and one dark. and all of the brothers were flocking all around the lighter one and the darker one was left standing to the side.

You are beautiful...but you are not what I would consider light-skinned. You appear to be brown-skinned.

I, on the other hand, happen to be VERY fair. I'm biracial. I have white skin, European features, and long hair. Very few people can tell that I have African blood in my veins. Most people seem to project their insecurities onto me because of my physical appearance. When I dated a dark-skinned guy, the reactions from other people were ridiculous. Other black females were pissed because they thought he was with a white woman. His mother did NOT like me because of my color. I can state that without a doubt. This is one reason I did not wish to continue a relationship with him. That, and the constant abuse he inflicted on me.

I can relate to what you are saying and I agree with you to an extent...but like I said, you aren't light at all. No one, let alone other black people, would ever question what race you belong to. Women are probably being hostile because you're attractive. You have lovely hair and beautiful features. You also seem to be extremely intelligent. I doubt that it is entirely about your color. Most women tend to be insecure around ANY woman who is prettier, sexier, more intelligent, etc. It is rare to see a woman who is secure within herself and not trying to belittle others to make herself feel better. Some people are simply jealous of others for different reasons.

I appreciate your defense of all black women, including light-skinned sistas. Black women are beautiful, like James Revels said. We need to see beauty in ourselves and one another. We need to have some unity.

Dark-skinned women who dislike lighter women are insecure because they perceive us to be more privileged in society. This is not true, at least not in my case. I have NEVER looked down on a darker woman in my life or believed that I was superior because of my fair skin. I have no control over the lack of melanin in my skin. I have no control over my ancestry or the fact that I look like this. I'm sick of assumptions being made about me. I have experienced racism from all kinds of people.

We are all one people. Some of us might look different. Some of us might be lighter or more non-black in appearance. Some of us might have blond hair, blue eyes, white skin, and fine features. But in this society we are still black, because most racists do not care how much European blood is in our veins. Black folks in general have severe hangups when it comes to skin color and hair texture. We need to stop disrespecting one another and start loving one another.

We are diverse. We are beautiful. We come in snow white, ivory, butterscotch, honey, caramel, cocoa, dark chocolate, and blue-black. Some of us have woolly curls. Some have lovely kinks. Some have hair like silk.

Black people are gorgeous...yet we can be so vicious and cruel to one another.

I see this in school ALL the time.It hits me hard because i'm A dark-skinned black girl.I give my boyfriend a hand job it's,''You know how easy those dark skins are''.My (used to be 2 high yellow(mixed)and light skinned)friends could have a lesbian,cock sniffing party in front of the school.They'd be called naive,and ''helped'' with their problem.It doesn't make it better that statistic wise,a black man will actually marry them,(apparently my chances of 1 of my own black men marrying me are as bad as me owning a home in today's market),whites blood pressure rising over 5 percert when i walk into a room,(which shows how uneasy they still fill next to us),add on the facts of black studies and jobs going back to 1975,i can have all the master's degrees,and recommendation's in the world,If some one of light africian town makes the employer i'm screwed.This is something that won't be fixed until were bred out of exsistents.Which will be in about 321 yrs.AND i'm talking WORLDWIDE.

Yes, I am "dark skinned" and yes as a young woman I felt it lessened my chances for finding a mate. To some, not all having a family is what it is all about. However, that didn't mean I took it out on a light skinned person who had nothing to do with this brainwashing. You have to realize many of us come from families with both light and dark complexions and also biracial families. So why would we hate light skinned women. That would be like hating your family. It is much more complex than just light vs. dark skinned girls and I wouldn't consider you light skinned. I notice people claim light when they are medium complexioned. Stop watching those videos. I don't watch them or anything else that will brainwash me into hating ourselves. I feel you have had a couple of bad experiences and therefore it is YOU doing the assuming. You are out of touch. It seems more of the light skinned girls are bringing this topic up. The rest of us have moved on with that issue. The bottom line is all women want to be desirable and the fact is caucasian is what you see on the billboards, magazines, movies, etc. in abundance and those who have never been married, never got to have a family, and not willing to settle for Willie the wine-o or Tyrone the jail bird, question why would the professional black men overlook their own women light or dark, to have a family with.

Well i must admit that i agree with the four previous writers.one time many years ago on 125th St their was two sisters one light and one dark. and all of the brothers were flocking all around the lighter one and the darker one was left standing to the side.

You are beautiful...but you are not what I would consider light-skinned. You appear to be brown-skinned.

I, on the other hand, happen to be VERY fair. I'm biracial. I have white skin, European features, and long hair. Very few people can tell that I have African blood in my veins. Most people seem to project their insecurities onto me because of my physical appearance. When I dated a dark-skinned guy, the reactions from other people were ridiculous. Other black females were pissed because they thought he was with a white woman. His mother did NOT like me because of my color. I can state that without a doubt. This is one reason I did not wish to continue a relationship with him. That, and the constant abuse he inflicted on me.

I can relate to what you are saying and I agree with you to an extent...but like I said, you aren't light at all. No one, let alone other black people, would ever question what race you belong to. Women are probably being hostile because you're attractive. You have lovely hair and beautiful features. You also seem to be extremely intelligent. I doubt that it is entirely about your color. Most women tend to be insecure around ANY woman who is prettier, sexier, more intelligent, etc. It is rare to see a woman who is secure within herself and not trying to belittle others to make herself feel better. Some people are simply jealous of others for different reasons.

I appreciate your defense of all black women, including light-skinned sistas. Black women are beautiful, like James Revels said. We need to see beauty in ourselves and one another. We need to have some unity.

Dark-skinned women who dislike lighter women are insecure because they perceive us to be more privileged in society. This is not true, at least not in my case. I have NEVER looked down on a darker woman in my life or believed that I was superior because of my fair skin. I have no control over the lack of melanin in my skin. I have no control over my ancestry or the fact that I look like this. I'm sick of assumptions being made about me. I have experienced racism from all kinds of people.

We are all one people. Some of us might look different. Some of us might be lighter or more non-black in appearance. Some of us might have blond hair, blue eyes, white skin, and fine features. But in this society we are still black, because most racists do not care how much European blood is in our veins. Black folks in general have severe hangups when it comes to skin color and hair texture. We need to stop disrespecting one another and start loving one another.

We are diverse. We are beautiful. We come in snow white, ivory, butterscotch, honey, caramel, cocoa, dark chocolate, and blue-black. Some of us have woolly curls. Some have lovely kinks. Some have hair like silk.

Black people are gorgeous...yet we can be so vicious and cruel to one another.

Really love this article, I can really relate to it. Yeah... I guessed I'm what people would call "light-skinned" and I hate the fact sometimes other black people will look at me and think that I'm not as black as them or I have it easier. I mean I understand why they are led to believe such thing when you look at celebrities and the media and such... but it hurt me that there is rascism or discrimination from my own race,when there are enough obstacles and challenges in life from being black and a female.

I'm a man who loves beauty of all colors,shapes,and sizes.The thing I love particularily about black women,by this I mean light and dark,is that they all come in a rainbow of colours from light,bright to almost white to caramel,choclate brown,to cocoa,and to dark choclate and it's all good to me.
Who goes to a flower shop to only look at flowers that are all the same colors,sizes,and shapes?yet they go to view different plants with their varities of shades,textures,smells,and most of all their beauty.
We live in a society where the light,bright,and the white are unfortunately are treated quike differently from the brown or darker skined women.But that is no reason to feel less beautiful because you're darker,and it's certainly no reason for a lighter woman to have an nasty attitude and think she's better because she's light.
Earth,Wind,and Fire said it best,"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder",To all dark and light woman out there you all are beautiful period.

I can definitely relate to the article and the buzz around Tamika's piece in Huffington Post. Being of a darker skinned complexion growing up in the early 80's was a reality on skin tone. However, I was raised with a family of mostly women who engraved in me the self confidence, self assurance and esteem to not feed into that way of thinking. Even so, the challenges still appeared and despite it all I perservered and in the end found my confidence was as competitive if not more than the color of my skin. When you know better you do better.

I to was raise that light skinned people are superior tha dark skinned.First off "skinned" is not a work. Second i believe its how u feel about ur self. Last time i checked we all came from the same place, Africa.