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Shopping at the mall or spending an evening with your friends can easily be a great way to enjoy life, but things can take an uncomfortable turn when one of your friends gets more attention than you because of the color of your skin.
Statements such as "You are cute to be dark skin," "Light skin people are conceited," or "I want my children to be light skin" can be seen as prime examples of skin color syndrome among African Americans.
"These inner racist issues need to come to a stop," said Ayana Shareef, a freshman business management major from Houston. "I recall when I was younger I was always made fun of because I was of a lighter skin complexion."
Shareef said because of her pale complexion, classmates assumed, "light skinned girls couldn't fight, then I would have to prove them wrong.
"I think the black community needs to start instilling in the youth that the standard of beauty is not found by the skin tone," she said. "(Not) in the media or European trends, but in a persons personality, intellect and lifestyle."
Some say the black community has played an extreme role in downsizing its own cultures' self-esteem with the constant consciousness of skin color.
"In my opinion these sort of stereotypes affectively bring down the African-American race as a whole by hindering the advancement with internal stereotypes" said Ronald Dorton, a senior architecture and business major from San Francisco, Calif.
A large majority of blacks claim they have encountered the nonsensical idea that light skin people are more good-looking, intelligent, successful and sometimes even happier than their dark-skinned counterparts.
Something some SU students said is inane.
"The idea of lighter tone people being better in any way than dark tone blacks is absurd," said Richard Willoughby, a senior marketing major from Sacramento, Calif. "Look at Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson, whom are among the richest and most famous in America."
Jeff Cohran, writer for The Daily Beacon, the student newspaper of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, said, "African Americans with lighter skin tones, throughout time, have been deemed more esteemed than their darker-skinned counterparts," in a July 2005 article.
"Being a light skin individual, I often face different vibes from people with a darker complexion because of society stereotypes," said Artis Fields, a junior nursing major from Shreveport.
Researchers have released studies stating most African-American men and women are more inclined to date individuals of similar complexions.
Historians say the skin tone critique among African-Americans began during the days of slavery which involved white slave masters who ranked the status of blacks working on their plantations according to skin pigmentation.
"I believe that color issues among blacks started before the civil rights movement," said Elmiria Wicker, a history professor at Southern.
"Because (of) the civil rights movement, African-Americans bleached their skin tone, relaxed hair and dressed to favor Europeans," Wicker said. "Later, African-Americans became more connected with their roots and appreciated their heritage."
The famous tag line in James Brown's "I'm Black and I'm Proud" shinned a positive light on the black community causing self appreciation to take place in all blacks whether we were dark or light tone in the late seventies.
"Black is beautiful in all shades and the fact that most blacks do not understand that is defacing among our own race," said Christina Gattling, a junior speech and pathology major from Miami.
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