Is there a better skin tone? Dark vs. Light

"Oh, she's cute to be a dark skinned girl."
"Yeah, all light skin girls look good."
"Honey, I'm not black; I'm brown."

Say what now?! Can she not be pretty because she has darker skin? On that job application, is "mocha colored" an option for race? Is beauty really defined by the lightness or darkness of a person's skin? Is lighter skin what it means to be beautiful? Just to make sure, I checked Webster this morning, and uh, I don't recall seeing a color under the definition of beauty. I have seen beautiful girls of all colors, be that black, white, Asian, etc. As many beautiful ones I have seen, oh buddy, I've seen just as many who were, um, not so pleasing to the eye.

As I was getting my daily dose of celeb news, I came across a story that really grabbed my attention. It was one in which Kendrick Lamar said that he decided last minute to go with a girl of a darker skin tone for  his Poetic Justice video. He said he wanted to create more balance and give every shade shade of woman life, not just what the industry thinks is "hot" for camera. Interesting.

It's sad how color is viewed in today's society, and I'm not talking about black and white. So many times people try to make it just a thing of black and white when there are prejudices happening within societies of the same race. Specifically, I'm speaking of the color divide within the black community. Within this race there seems to be so many categories. It can never just be black or African American. Oh no, there has to be brown skin, light skin, red bone, caramel, mocha, expresso, dark brown, midnight black, etc. The media or other races do not even have to tear down or divide the African American race because the people within the race do a good job of that.  I had another black, African American, whichever you prefer, constantly refer to the color of my skin. I mean just constantly saying it. You would have thought this person was not of the same race as me! So I asked, WHY in Sam Hill does the color of my skin matter to you? What do you get out of it? Please, I would like to know. Of course the person had no legitimate answer, so I assumed it was from pure ignorance or insecurity with self. Either way, it was sad. And what is even more sad is that some people actually think they are better because of the lightness or darkness of their skin. Many people try to relate it back to days of slavery when darker blacks had to work in the fields and the lighter blacks could work in the house. To justify that as the reason why you think the lightness or darkness of your skin is better is just a load of cow manure . If you accept that way of thinking you should also accept the mind-frame that all blacks are inferior to other races. I mean, since you want to take it back to the days of slavery. Even if one blames it on the media or society, does that make it acceptable or right? NO! So, if no one else told you, honey child, I'll gladly be the first. It does not matter if you have a lighter or darker skin tone or what race you are, THAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU BETTER THAN ANYONE!

So, why do we do this so much in the black community? Why do we create these "color" hierarchies?  Creating division between our own race, just makes it easy for others to do the same. We can never truly be unified if we are constantly creating division amongst ourselves. If you disagree with my views, that's fine. If there's anything you would like to say in reference to this, I'd love to hear what you have to say.  By all means, comment, tweet, Facebook, email, heck, you can even contact me via Instagram. I've always loved a good debate. :-)