"Light-skinned" v.s "Dark-skinned"?

 A remarkable trend is present in today's media known as the battle between "light-skinned" and "dark-skinned." This astonishing fad that presents itself as a sort of joke on social media sites such as vine, instagram, twitter etc, is actually a root of a much deeper problem; internalized racism. Now, although this "trend," so to speak is extremely present in today's media, the initial derivation of this problem can be seen as early as the 1600's when colonization brought with it the emergence of "colorism", and in turn, what seems to be the start of internalized racism. Colorism is a type of prejudice that consists of the belief that with certain features (i.e skin color) comes certain privileges and a higher status in general. This prejudice brought with it not only a distinction between white v.s black, or white settlers v.s indigenous people: superior vs inferior in general, but now the conflict that came with the emergence of a completely new racial class- mixed-race individuals. A gender imbalance within the European race led to the violent rape of women of African and Native Indian descent, and this not only created the objectifying of women and the treating of people of color as if they are sub-human, but the even deeper concern of the beginning of internalized racism. This new class of racism, discrimination within one's own race, was evident in the preference of a child mixed with European producing a lighter skin complexion. As shown in Kathy Russel's The Color Complex, "Sadly we do know that over the successive generations, attitudes of color prejudice spread among Native Americans. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Cherokee nation, for example, displayed a clear preference for those among them with a mixture of Cherokee and European blood-- and lighter skin color." (Russel, 10) Reading this particular quote raised many questions in my mind, the first being why? It isn't comprehensible to me that within a race of people that have been oppressed, humiliated, and treated as though they were savages, beasts, and animals; stripped away of their dignity, respect, culture, and land by white settlers who came onto land that wasn't theirs to begin with, with a mind-set that because someone didn't look the same as they did, they were to be treated like animals, would have a preference for lighter skin complexion. In my mind, the mixing of European and native blood symbolized the oppression, and destruction of a whole race of people; people who were considered bestial, sub-human, and inferior to those who had a lighter complexion. So I ask why was a lighter skin tone preferred? It is inconceivable that in a society where people of color were considered savages by the whites, a drop of European blood would make someone favorable. Whatever the reason that lighter complexions were preferred was, as there is no clear cut conclusion in the text, something that we can conclude is that this problem has grown and escalated throughout generations to the dilemma we have in modern society. The preference of a lighter skin color is very much present in the world as seen with skin bleaching, the "light-skinned" v.s "dark-skinned" trend, and in certain industries, the Bollywood film industry in particular. The quote that was mentioned earlier taken from Kathy Russel's The Color Complex immediately made me think of the Bollywood film industry and the preference that it has for lighter skinned actresses and models, and the superiority that South Asian countries place on being lighter in complexion. It is very much preferred for someone to be lighter as they are found more attractive, successful, and just overall more admirable than people of a darker complexion. This is especially evident in women who portray lighter skin tones in South Asian societies; they mimic the ideal woman, and wife, and feel entitled and superior towards women of darker complexions. This phenomena is also broadcasted in the "light-skinned" fad going on within our own social media where people of African American descent are dividing themselves into two subcategories of the same race; light-skinned and dark-skinned. Many stereotypes are placed upon "light-skins" and "dark-skins," and it is more favored amongst people to be a "light-skin." This phenomena of feeling superior if you are of a lighter complexion than someone else is far from new, as a matter of fact it is one of the foundations this nation was built upon, but when it becomes a class of racism within one's own race is when one should stop and ask themselves, what exactly is the difference?