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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"Beautiful black woman, I bet that bitch look better [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term{{=}}redbone red]"''|'''[[Lil Wayne]]'''
After a long struggle in gaining visibility and acceptance in the entertainment world, ethnically-African actors and actresses have many more opportunities in Hollywood and on television than they ever had had before. Some have become huge stars in their own right. Unfortunately, as these new opportunities grew, a new dark side of 'racial' bias emerged.
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* Somewhat strange case, considering anime is not exactly known for its racial diversity and wide assortment of skin colors to begin with, but in the manga version of ''[[GetBackers]]'', Kudou Himiko was originally shown to have slightly darker skin than the rest of the cast. As the series progressed and gained a serious [[Art Evolution]], her skin got darker and darker until, by the time the manga ended, she was closer in skin tone to black characters than the rest of the white cast. (Her race or ethnic background is never addressed, and her brother was drawn with a similar skin color.) The anime kept her at "slightly darker than the main cast", looking more like she just had a tan than she was of a different ethnicity than the main cast.
* A case of this appears in the adaptation of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' from manga to anime. In the manga, Egypt, being of course an Arabic nation, has sandy-coloured skin. However, when he appears in the anime, he has the the same white/caucasian skin as the European nations.
* [[Evil Chancellor]] Agrippa from ''[[Turn A
* Nadia from ''[[Nadia
* [[Inverted]] in ''[[Hellsing]]'' Ultimate.
** Integra's skin looks darker compared to the manga.
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* In ''[[Berserk]]'', Casca is the resident [[Ambiguously Brown]] character, suggested to be of [[Sim Sim Salabim|Kushan heritage]], so she is depicted to be fairly dark-skinned in both the manga AND the first anime adaptation. However, previews of the newer anime series shows her to be considerably more light-skinned. [[Internet Backdraft|And the fanbase has responded.]]
* Anthy Himemiya was a racially ambiguous (though likely Indian) love interest in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' with noticeably dark skin and kinky, wavy hair that made her stand out against the rest of the lily-white cast; the video game supplement to the series even made her skin ''darker'' than it was in-series. However, when [[The Movie]] rolled out, Anthy's design was completely overhauled, and her previously dark skin was lightened to the point of looking barely tanned, and her hair was apparently attacked by an army of flat irons.
== Comic Books ==
* Though ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'''s Storm is quite dark, she has white hair and blue eyes (when they're not completely whited out when she uses her powers), said to be marks of her bloodline, and for years was drawn with semi-Caucasoid features (her original appearance as drawn by Dave Cockrum was more Asian than Cauc). Recent works, particularly during the lead-up to her marriage to Black Panther, actually drew mild fan criticism for the change of her facial structure.
* X-Men colorists must be fond of this trope, because [[Alpha Bitch|M's]] skin tone is in a constant state of flux. When she first appeared in ''[[Generation X]]'' she had caramel skin. Towards the end of the book it was chocolate. When she was floating between titles it went back to caramel. But with her current stint in ''[[X-Factor (comics)|X-Factor]]'', she's not even ambiguous anymore; she could be mistaken for white by readers who don't know better. It became especially baffling when other black characters started appearing in the book with more identifiable features. Her father is French, but of African descent and is rather dark-skinned. She should be caramel-toned at the very least. Later in the series' run, her skin tone has gone back more to what it should be.
* Recent issues of ''[[Justice League of America]]'' have drawn criticism for portraying Vixen with Caucasoid features and fluctuating skin tones.
* Similarly, the recent ''[[Immortal Iron Fist]]'' series has occasional "lapses" where Misty Knight is drawn with a shag haircut and Caucasoid features.
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== Film - Animated ==
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in one of the special DVD features for ''[[The Incredibles]]''. Frozone and Mr. Incredible watch a [[Stylistic Suck|really, really awful]] licensed cartoon. Frozone is offended that the version of him in cartoon is lightly tanned at best and [[Totally Radical|talking like a Beatnik]]. (The movie had him looking very similar to his voice actor, [[Samuel L. Jackson]].)
{{quote|'''Frozone:''' Oh, oh, ''I'' get caught! [[Black Dude Dies First|The black superhero gets caught!]]
'''Mr. Incredible:''' Well, just a minute ago you were complaining that they made you white.
'''Frozone:''' Oh that's right! The ''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|tanned]]'' superhero gets caught! }}
* Intentionally averted with Disney's first black protagonist, ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'''s Tiana.
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* Parodied in Robert Townsend's ''Hollywood Shuffle''. In the sketch about "Black Acting School," the host of the commercial asserts that Hollywood prefers dark-skinned black actors to play thugs and low-lifes, and implies that these are the only roles available to black men.
* Used in the French movie ''99 Francs'': the CEO of a dairy company (a clear expy of Dannon) refuses to cast a black woman in a yogurt commercial (claiming it's "too much Africanity for our audience"); the main character chooses to cast a fair-skinned girl from Maghreb (thus African as well) and nobody complains. Considering the movie is the adaptation of a [[Take That]] against the advertising business, the whole point (rich, upper-class people can also be stupid, racist [[Jerkass|assholes]], even when they are worth tens of billions) is rather [[Anvilicious]], but [[Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped|then again....]]
* ''[[Harold
** Lampshaded with a barely black security guard. Kumar accuses him of racism when is "randomly selected" to be searched. The security guards he can't be racist because he's black, to which Kumar calls him barely black. Note that the guard could easily pass for a Caucasian.
** And Kumar ''does'' have contraband on him; marijuana and the parts to assemble a smokeless [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|bong]] {{spoiler|"bong" sounds like "bomb"}}. Kumar's playing the race card to avoid having his bags searched and possibly arrested.
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* The entire cast of ''[[Purple Rain]]''. It's eerie.
* [[Rosario Dawson]]'s mixed racial features allow her to play a variety of races and open up her opportunities for pairings. Similar to Eva Mendes, she can pair up with a white male, black male (''[[Seven Pounds]]''), and has even passed herself off as Middle Eastern (''[[Alexander]]'').
* Averted in ''[[A Bronx Tale]]''; the filmmakers cast [http://www.zuguide.com/image/Taral-Hicks-A-Bronx-Tale.5.jpg a young Taral Hicks]{{Dead link}} as the love interest for the Italian-American protagonist.
* [[Vin Diesel]]'s semi-autobiographical film ''Multi-Facial'' details the difficulties of a multiracial actor, who can't get parts because he's too black to play white but too white to play black. Diesel's star power has apparently allowed him to jumped the hurdle. He's even played a real-life Italian-American mafioso in Sidney Lumet's ''[[Find Me Guilty]].''
* Wentworth Miller also overcame this. But most probably don't know his actual ethnic background, which is [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|African-American/Jamaican/English/German/Jew/Cherokee/Russian/French/Dutch/Lebanese/Syrian]].
* Inverted in ''[[Get Shorty]]'': Elmore Leonard's novel included several pages of dialogue between Chili and Harry about Bo Catlett's skin
* Gabrielle Union is a gorgeous woman, and a pretty good actress, but definitely too black for mainstream Hollywood. Her work has been pretty much exclusively in black cinema.
* [[Dwayne Johnson|Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson]], of African American and Samoan heritage.
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* Portrayed in ''Frank's Place''. Frank, a medium-dark man, is invited to join a black men's society that historically limited their membership to those who passed the "paper bag test," but now want to distance themselves from their past. Ultimately Frank decides to refuse their invitation:
{{quote|'''Frank:''' I was the first black man at my prep school, I was the first black man in my dinner club at Harvard. But I will not be the first black man in a ''black men's club''.}}
* ''[[Homicide: Life
* Satirized in ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'', in which Wanda wants Larry to get her script looked at by his colleague and explains how to "play the race card", telling him to emphasize that she's "one of those light-colored black folks".
* Janet Hubert-Whitten, who originally played Vivian Banks on the ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'', was replaced by the lighter-complexioned Daphne Maxwell Reid in the last few seasons. This was [[Lampshaded]] on her first appearance. However only the change in actress was lampshaded. No mention was made of [http://i50.tinypic.com/adc1e1.jpg the half-shade difference in color]. Even worse, the change in actress (and, with that, skin tone) also corresponded with a change in personality from an assertive outspoken career woman who was every bit her husband's equal to a [[Unfortunate Implications|docile, permissive housewife who appears much less]].
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* [[Averted]] by ''[[The Jeffersons]]'', where the darkest-skinned character (Roxy Roker's Helen Willis) was married to a white man, but Roxie Roker was actually married to a white man (Sid Kravitz; Lenny is their son). When the producer doubted she could play a black woman married to a white man, she showed him a family photo and got the part.
* Averted in ''[[The Wire]]'', where over half the cast is black, with skin tones being just what you'd expect from Baltimore residents. Also worth noting that arguably the show's moral core, Lt. Daniels (Lance Reddick) is very dark-skinned. This has also been speculated to be a reason for the show's low ratings.
* A decent number of [[Soap Opera
* [[Margaret Cho]]'s short-lived sitcom ''All-American Girl'' is very But Not Too Asian. She makes reference to this a lot in her live shows. Ironically, they had hired an "Asian consultant" to teach the Korean-American woman to act more Asian. She was both too Asian and not Asian enough.
* In the ''[[Radio/Green Hornet|Green Hornet]]'' TV series, [[Bruce Lee]] was given a major role as Kato but told to keep his mask on to conceal his Asian eyes.
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* Jennifer Beals played Cal Lightman's ex-wife on ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]''. Although she could be mistaken for white, her character's heritage mirrors her own (Black father and White mother), and again a character with the same parental mixture on ''[[The Chicago Code]]''. Beals has insisted on this as background for her characters.
* One HBO special, ''George Clinton's Cosmic Slop'', was a set of several 'Twilight Zone' short episodes. In one episode, aliens land in the United States, and offer to solve all their economic and energy problems. In return, they wanted all the black people in America - everyone who would 'fail' the paper bag test - for undisclosed purposes. Guess how that story ended.
* Rashida Jones is of mixed-race ancestry (her father is music mogul Quincy Jones and her mother is White actress Peggy Lipton) but few of Rashida's characters are actually identified as ''black''. They made her look really white on [https://web.archive.org/web/20190713035344/http://cdn.images.juno.co.uk/full/IS400854-01-01-BIG.jpg this cover] of ''Bust'' magazine, and Rashida rarely if ever play mixed characters let alone black ones.
* Played straight and averted by ''[[Fringe]]''; while Astrid is very fair-skinned, [[Bald Black Leader Guy|Broyles]] is very dark.
* The whole main cast of UPN's ''[[Second Time Around]]'' was accused of this.
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* ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' has an in-show example. Wilhelmina Slater underwent surgery and skin bleaching in order to conform to the fashion industry's standards as a model. Even as an ex-model, she is still ashamed of her previous appearance and real name, Wanda.
* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'': Derek Morgan has a white mother, black father, and several sisters. The actresses who played his sisters had range of skin tones. Shemar Moore himself has a black father and white mother.
* The two leads of [[Key
* Pleasantly [[Subverted]] with [[Angel Coulby]] on ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'': in the promotional shots for series two [http://oi43.tinypic.com/1xyr7s.jpg she appears quite fair], yet in the shots for series four (the season in which she becomes Queen), she is [http://oi39.tinypic.com/bfkumw.jpg portrayed as considerably darker].
* It's a judgement call where [[Firefly]]'s Gina Torres lands on this trope. She's of Cuban descent with mixed-race features. Early in her career she had a minor role in an episode of [[Law and Order]] (she found the corpse), and when a white cop at a coffee shop commented on her beauty, his black partner said it was only because she had "white features". She identifies as Latin.
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== Music ==
* Completely and utterly averted by Suffocation drummer Mike Smith who's as dark as they come playing an a heavily white genre. Likewise, Kele Okereke, frontman of Bloc Party.
* Naturi Naughton of the R&B girl group 3LW was booted from the group for being too dark, though the other two members claim [[Multiple Demographic Appeal|that was the reason they chose her to be in the group in the first place]]. Ironically when they became the [[The Cheetah Girls]] she was replaced by the very fair-skinned Sabrina Bryan - who is Caucasian (on her mother's side) and Mexican (on her father's side). All of the above had serious collateral damage too. Which caused HUGE [[Flame War
* Fairly recently, hip-hop stars have come under fire for having predominantly light-skinned black women or other oiled up [[Ambiguously Brown|ethnically vague]] women of color (biracial, multiracial etc..), including Latino, Asian or even only white women in their videos. It could be argued that it's the casting director's fault, and not the fault of the artists themselves. This is also likely due to the fact that modeling agencies tend to favor ethnic women of a lighter shade, so they're more likely to be cast by default.
* Hip Hop videos tend to cast dark-skinned models in large groups as the background eye candy but any video focusing on a single girl playing the singer's main squeeze will almost invariably be played by a model of caramel skin or lighter.
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* Notoriously, [[Michael Jackson]]'s actual appearance seemed to be playing this trope straight. His gradually paling skin from the mid-1980s onwards was the subject of much speculation that he was intentionally bleaching it, even though he was already hugely successful and didn't have to worry about this trope. He explained in a 1993 interview that he had the skin disorder vitiligo, which destroyed his skin pigmentation. Still, combined with his plastic surgeries, jokes may always be made about how he resembled a white woman (at best) in his later years: i.e. "Only in America can a poor black boy grow up to be a rich white woman." (You can do anything... [[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|IN AMERICA!]])
* R&B girl group from [[The Nineties]] called Shades averted this by embracing their varied skin complexions. Two of the members being fairly light skin, one being caramel toned, and the lead singer being brown.
* Hip-hop mogul, Diddy has also come under fire. In March
* Teena Marie is an inversion as she was initially "But Not Too WHITE," so due to Executive Meddling her debut album didn't show her picture or let her appear in public.
* [[Cab Calloway]] may have been one of the first people this trope was applied to. His lighter skin made him easier to accept for whites at the time (this being the 1930's, back when performing in blackface was still okay).
* Jelly Roll Morton was known to brag about his fair appearance and White ancestry and mocked other African-Americans for looking blacker than him. When interviewed about his past, he would emphasize his Cajun ancestors and gloss over his African ones.
* [[
** She not only has very light skin but has dyed her hair progressively lighter colors over the years (so that it's basically blonde now).
** This is highlighted in the music video for "Beautiful Liar" where Beyonce duets with Shakira. Throughout the duration of the video, it is often difficult to identify which singer is which. Seriously. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXDpFLuYvQk Check out the video on youtube here], you might start to doubt your powers of facial recognition.
** Beyonce has recently [https://web.archive.org/web/20110227092859/http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/fashion/beyonce-in-hot-water-over-latest-photo-shoot-blog-22-yahoo-lifestyles.html come under fire] for an African-inspired photo shoot in which she wears dark makeup.
** Beyonce's skin has ranged for brown to light, depending on lighting/makeup/tanning. Naturally, she's "damn near white."
* Besides the above mentioned Cab Calloway the [[Ur Example]] for female artists was probably the The Ronettes, Especially Ronnie Spector.
* [[Nicki Minaj]] is a mild example, she is of Afro-and Indo- Trinidadian descent. Though some see this as unfortunate anyway due to hip-hop music showcasing light-skinned black females.
* [[Thin Lizzy]] have maintained a strong cult following, and their ''Live and Dangerous'' album is often mentioned as among the greatest, if not ''the'' greatest, live albums in rock history. However, they achieved only moderate success in their day, and singer Phil Lynott has been described as "too black for America". Keep in mind: whether or not this was the case, if the record label believed so, then they were not going to be receiving adequate promotion. And it could fairly be said that they ''did not'' receive adequate label support; they remained semi-obscure despite a series of consistent albums, and a sound that went on to influence later hugely-successful acts such as [[Def Leppard]] and [[Iron Maiden]]. Same could be said about most black rock artists. As it was covered in the documentary, ''Electric Purgatory''.
* Lil' Kim. When she first came out with ''Hardcore'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20120722065705/http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/l/lil-kim/album-hard-core.jpg she looked like this]. [http://smartsexyrichcrazy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/WTF.jpg And now]{{Dead link}} she looks less like a light-skinned black person and more like something that crawled out of the [[Uncanny Valley]].
* Some rappers have come under fire for praising light skin black women while trashing dark skin women. Rapper Yung Berg, who is barely fair skin, made a statement on XFM radio that he doesn't like dark skin women, going on calling them [[Unfortunate Implications|"dark butts"]]. He then states in order for him to date a woman, they must pass a pool test. [[Unfortunate Implications|The pool test is if a woman jumps in the pool and don't look better than they did before jumping in, meaning their hair is nappy, then it's "not a good look"]]. The day after he made an apology and stated that his mother is dark skin.
** [[Lil Wayne]] made a similar comment when he [http://bossip.com/327464/does-lil-wayne-really-have-beef-with-brown-skinned-women12006/ encountered a dark-skinned black female fan]. After another rapper, Guda Guda, commented that she was attractive [[Backhanded Compliment|for a dark girl]], Wayne agreed by quoting a lyric from his song "Right Above" (''Beautiful black woman, I bet that bitch look better [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=redbone red]''). The fan asked him how he could say something so disparaging when his oldest daughter shares his own brown skin tone, he allegedly replied "my daughter is a dark skinned [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|millionaire]]. That’s the difference between her and you."
* [[Rihanna]] is light-skinned to begin with, but for a recent [https://web.archive.org/web/20131202225223/http://jezebel.com/5846053/rihanna-sure-looks-pale-on-her-new-vogue-cover British Vogue cover], they still lightened up her skin. The blurb for that link asks, "You think somebody forgot to tell British Vogue's retoucher that '''Rihanna''' is black?"
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* The protagonist of ''[[The Suffering]]''. If not for the photo he carries of his family (In which, for some reason, he's quite a bit darker) there'd be no way to tell if he was actually black.
* Sheva from ''[[Resident Evil 5]]'':
** [[Zero Punctuation|Yahtzee]] described her as looking like "a white woman who's been dipped in tea." She also doesn't sound very African, using some sort of meandering British/Australian accent. Though to be somewhat fair, she was motion captured and modeled after an Australian actress [
** There is also the controversy after rumors that Sheva was only made black at all to combat the accusations of racism the game was receiving for having dark-skinned African villagers as the "monsters" of the game, so some people saw Sheva's light color as being an insufficient compromise and example of this trope (dark skinned Africans = crazy diseased zombies, light skinned African = female lead.
** The actress Sheva was based on has no black African heritage at all. She is a biracial woman whose parents are a Desi Indian and a Dutch man, both from South Africa.
* In ''[[Half Life]] 2'', if the player weren't shown Alyx Vance's father (who is an example of this trope himself), boards would probably be awash with debate around whether she was supposed to be Hispanic or just have a tan - which is because she's half-black, half-Asian.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' series:
** Crying Wolf is supposedly African, but looks more like a Japanese woman with a tan. Crying Wolf is based on model [https://web.archive.org/web/20101006052037/http://www.maxim.com/girls/girls-of-maxim/38208/mieko-rye.html Mieko Rye] who is light-skinned (and apparently mixed with other ethnicity) herself.
** You can also accuse Screaming Mantis and Raging Raven of this...they're portrayed by fair-skinned women who aren't even the same nationality - Screaming Mantis is South American played by a Slovakian model and Raging Raven is Indonesian played by a Japanese woman.
** Fortune from ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'' is African-American, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne270nxf7rM and her in-game model] is pretty brown-skinned (if not chocolate-toned, she's definitely not light skinned.) The official art for the character tells a different story, as [http://media.photobucket.com/image/fortune%20metal%20gear/Nathaneal_2006/mgs2/chara_fortune.gif she is very fair-skinned]. She and her father are both blond (with blond eyebrows) and with blue eyes.
** The Central Americans in ''Peace Walker'' consist of two pale, freckled, green-eyed redheads, and a blue-eyed girl with [[Hair of Gold]] and fairer skin than the white Big Boss. (Weirdly, she mentions in one of her dialogues that she's ''not'' a "pale skinned Anglo-Saxon", suggesting her portrayal is for art reasons, but still...) There's also the weirdness that people repeatedly say Big Boss looks just like Che Guevara.
* Jade from ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''. In ''[[Mortal Kombat 2]]'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat 3]]'', she had a dark skin tone and in her next appearance in ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deception]]'', that got lightened a bit to a brown shade. In the concept art for ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]''. [http://www.fightersgeneration.com/np7/char/jade-mk9render.jpg Jade is barely tan]. However in the game, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9JW3VPJkgE she has her usual brown shade.] The team behind the game can't even decide what race she is, the casting call for the game asked for a African-American or Middle Eastern voice actress. The two alternative DLC skins she has (from ''[[Mortal Kombat 2]]'' and ''[[Mortal Kombat 3]]'') are barely darker than Kitana and Mileena.
* Subverted in ''[[Pokémon Black and White]]''. While the series has its fair share of [[Ambiguously Brown]] characters, the two undeniably black characters in the series are quite dark AND have afro-textured hair. Their strange hair and eye colors are simply the result of the Pokemon games having an anime art style.
* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', there were many caucasians and [[Ambiguously Brown]] characters, but no dark-skinned black people until Jacob in the sequel.
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== Other ==
* Note that in comic strips and animation, it is [[Justified Trope|allegedly justified]] for fully black characters to be lighter than in [[Real Life]], because outlines, the only way of defining facial features, don't "read" as well against dark skin tones. The counterargument is that the industry doesn't have much need to ''find a way'' to better depict dark characters, because they historically haven't had to, thus perpetuating a vicious circle. (It's also common for darker complexion characters to be created [[Rule of Cool|simply because it looks cool]] [[Ambiguously Brown|rather than indicating race per se]].)
* Anyone who has ever taken a drawing class or used a 'how to draw' book that focused on drawing faces has probably run across this, or at least something which will LEAD to this, and will probably have people parrot it at them on artistic message boards and the like. There are certain well established rules to how to draw faces, specifically how to [https://web.archive.org/web/20131122023657/http://www.drawing-factory.com/face-drawing.html establish the proportions of features in relation to each other]. These rules are all based on white people, but they are presented as universal, and if your face is not within the stated guidelines it is 'out of proportion' and thus, many artists believe, unrealistic and ugly. The one most relevant to black people is the nose width 'rule' which states that a nose is never, ever, wider than the width of the space between the eyes (which are in turn one eye width apart) When you get into how to actually draw the nose, again, you will get detailed instructions on how to draw [https://web.archive.org/web/20130721135335/http://www.drawing-factory.com/nose-drawing.html caucasian noses], with no guidance on any other ethnicity. This simply isn't applicable to many black people, but for some artists is is VERY hard to break out of this mindset, so the result is a lot of art of supposed black people with caucasian features. There are exceptions, but it is very rare, especially when dealing with actual books rather than amateur made tutorials on the internet which, ironically, are often far better than the professional ones.
* Dollbase art on [[Deviant ART]].
** In theory, a good way to practice shading and study anime anatomy or Art Major Biology as it applies to different series - the models are naked and in outline, showing body proportions better and allowing you to learn another artist's style better. The problem is that nearly every doll base is white. White couples, white girls, and white men make up the vast majority of this artwork. If a black person is shown, they'll be one in a group base of four or five, or be relegated to a [[Black Best Friend]], and have no noticeable facial changes from the facial features base artists prefer. On the other hand, attempting to supply a black base starts a flame war over what the 'base tone' should be. Too dark and it's unusable, too light and it's racist. Most people who have black characters either work excessively hard on changing the whole base, or they do nothing but dunk a character in chocolate (or, as [[Zero Punctuation]] noted, tea) with no regard to hair texture or appearance being different between races. However, if you're anything that is neither white nor black, you will find no bases whatsoever supplied for your race. At all. This is the source of much controversy over on [[Deviant ART]].
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* Actress Jennifer Beals expressed great frustration over this saying, ''I'm either not white enough or not black enough''. Although she was reluctant to admit her black heritage at first.
* Z100 radio host John Bell is very light skinned, and when he once explicitly mentioned that he's black a call quickly came in by someone who was surprised about it after seeing his picture on the show's website. He also says there that he'd like Denzel Washington to play him if a movie was made about him.
* There are plenty of
* The old ''Code noir'' of the Caribbean plantation culture had over ''one hundred'' divisions, specifying ''exact'' percentages of blackness, with the less-black ones considered "higher-class." The Spanish version of a similar code has names for most of those divisions, depending of their ascendancy.
* Pre-Civil War American Southern plantation owners used to hold "Octoroon Balls" (which were named after what one eighth-black people were called), where they would judge whether partially-black women were "white enough" to join "polite society". The fate of the losers was... ugh.
** In contrast, during the Spanish colonial domination, any non-white person who wasn't a slave and could amass enough money, could buy its "whiteness"... or, more accurately, the privileges of the white people and the legal right of being treated as "white", no matter what skin color or racial ascendant could have. Not that it wasn't controversial, to say the least. In Venezuela, there was the case of the [http://foros.chefuri.net/recetas-6064-son_blancas_las_bejarano_historia_tragicomica_de_una_receta.html&p=24980 Bejarano] [http://wwwconuqueando.blogspot.com/2007/11/son-mulatas-y-bellas-las-bejarano.html sisters], a trio of beautiful sisters of mixed race in the very spirit of this trope, who made a fortune thanks to their famed dessert-making abilities, and then, to the scandal of colonial society, bought their "white rights". [[Moral Guardians|Certain people of "high class" complained]], and when the sisters tried to buy more privileges, those were denied because of their non-whiteness.
** On an episode of Oprah during Tiger Woods' meteoric initial rise to national attention, there was considerable controversy after Tiger said that when he was a child, knowing he was of mixed
** Inverted in the Gatorade Focus commercials, in which the animators seem to have assiduously eradicated any trace of non-black features on animated!Tiger.
* The overwhelming majority of Brazilian [[wikipedia:Ethnic groups in Brazil#Racial makeup and genetic studies|are of mixed race, according to genetic studies]], so ancestry doesn't really play a big role on ascertaining a person's race. Instead, people will call themselves 'black' or 'white' purely on how they perceive themselves, which is a cultural factor, as well as the color of their skin and their facial features, which can lead to Brazilians in other areas being called a race different than they thought they were.
* When Vanessa L. Williams became the first "black" Miss America, a number of observers noted that she had not only very light skin, but also a significant number of Caucasoid features (blue eyes, non-kinky hair, etc.). (That didn't stop the Ku Klux Klan from raising a stink over her)
* [[Time Magazine]] caught a lot of flak for artificially darkening OJ Simpson's skin in the mugshot that ran on their cover. Back when you could actually get in trouble for "fauxtography", as opposed to it being par for the course.
* Comedian Paul Mooney joked about these people being "Double Agents", and only choosing to be black when it's convenient for them.
* It has been noted that skin creams that lighten your skin is sharply targeted towards blacks and Asians. And most of these creams are considered to be dangerous (physically, not just socially!).
** In primarily Indian or Pakistani neighborhoods in Dubai, there are billboards advertising skin lightening cream. The model on the billboard is usually a very light skinned Indian in a business suit. Obviously, this is meant to imply that having lighter skin will increase your chances of being successful (Unfortunately in Dubai, that may be true).
** Skin lightening creams are also popular in India. Most Bollywood actresses are very light, because it's very difficult for dark-skinned women to get acting jobs in India. Even in South Indian regional films, directors often prefer to cast North Indian actresses, as they tend to be fairer. And like Beyonce, they can be made to look even lighter on camera. There are a few actresses with tan or wheatish skin, who are often touted as [[Informed Attribute|"dark beauties"]], but rarely do you find truly dark actresses.
* There has been quite a bit of controversy over [[
* [[America's Next Top Model]] has been accused.
* Averted with models like, Naomi Campbell, Oluchi Onweagba, Roshumba Williams, Nnenna Agba, and Alek Wek. It's somewhat a trend to have dark models. Frustratingly enough it hasn't completely caught on.
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*** Of course, Rocky himself is of mixed Black and Polynesian ancestry (Alba is Danish, French, Spanish, and Amerind).
* Australian historical example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generation. Part Aboriginal children were often taken away from their parents (citing "child protection") and sent to orphanages or missions. The lighter skinned ones could be adopted by white families and become part of white, mainstream society. The darker ones were sent to be trained as domestic servants so they could be sent to work for white men and produce more lighter skinned kids. The "whiter" Aborigines were sometimes able to claim citizenship denied to their darker skinned counterparts.
* In South Africa under apartheid, if you were "Coloured" (mixed-race), you were legally better off than
** Though after apartheid they did not receive any Affimative Action benefits. As one person said "Not white enough for apartheid; not black enough for ANC". They in some ways had it the worse in South Africa, along with Asians who were in a similar position with them (except for Japanese, South Koreans and Taiwanese people. Their countries were quite close (economically) to the apartheid government so, to avoid embarassing race issues, their citzens were declared "honourary whites"
** Recently this was supposed to have changed with the introduction of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE); but since few Coloureds are members of the ANC, and "empowerment" is most often used as a (transparent) blind for nepotism, it hasn't made much of a difference.
* Enjoy [https://web.archive.org/web/20150225181104/http://www.liquidgeneration.com/Media/Photos/Funny_Pics/Celebrity/Kim_Kardashian_Is_Photoshopped
** Again, recall the cultural stereotypes mentioned in the ''Saved By The Bell'' example. Kim is often classed as "shallow rich girl," which is not a cultural type commonly associated with Asian/Middle Eastern women.
* Every now and then, the pages under [[Race Tropes]] show a banner ad for interracial dating site afroromance.com. Fair enough, except that the "black" girl in the photo looks like a white girl with a deep tan.
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* Like [[Eagle Land|their northern neighbors]] Cubanos also acknowledge the one drop rule, but its inverted in that having a single drop of white blood makes you white. Many people defend their whiteness no matter how prominent their African features are leading to the saying, "White with your hat on, black with it off." Fidel Castro's made some efforts to improve things.
* A more dicey example is the Flame War that erupts on message boards about whether or not to call light complected black celebrities biracial or black (even on this ''very'' page there's Justifying edits pointing out a actor as bi-racial). People seem to take the debates very [[Serious Business|personally]]. It's usually between black and white posters. But depending on who you ask it's mostly about which term makes them more socially acceptable to one of the opposing groups.
* Controversially on any [[Image Board]], racist and sexist [[Flame War
** Some arguing over the fact that there's too many lightskin girls, and others saying that the light skin girls can't be black (I.E. they're too attractive to be considered black), as if sending the message that it's ''physically impossible'' for black women to be attractive unless they're mixed with something, or light complected. Which is what this trope is ''really'' about.
** Some of the pics with light skin black girls are posted intentionally as a kind of snide, condescending [[Take That]], to the thread dedicated to black women. Some saying "Thank god for mixed race women."
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* On the old Donahue daytime talk show, they covered this. Talking to lightskin blacks who tried to pass as biracial or white. When in reality they were just black usually born of 2 light complected parents. Some changed their stance when they got older, Needless to say some of their family wasn't too please with their black acceptance.
* A LOT of daytime talk shows covered this trope, especially during the 90's. So much so it made it clear how pervasive this trope is.
* [[Tyra Banks]] had a few episodes about this subject on her talk show, with one mixed black man (who was not terribly light-skinned himself) saying that he thought all dark-skinned men looked like cockroaches.
* Ice hockey goaltender Grant Fuhr played 19 seasons in the NHL, helped the Edmonton Oilers win five Stanley Cups, and was regarded by no less than Wayne Gretzky as the greatest goalie in hockey history. Only when be was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame did many fans realize (or, more likely, had themselves beaten over the head with the fact) that Fuhr is black, and notably, the first black inducted to the HHoF. Being raised in Alberta by white Canadians and spending his entire career in the older-style goalie mask may have had something to do with that.
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/taren916#p/u/3/EeEvwTxZpjY This Vlogger] Talks about how people automatically assume that you're DIRECTLY biracial if you're light complected with curly hair. Not realizing that they could just be black.
* Being a spectacular aversion of this trope was probably a big [https://web.archive.org/web/20120313045714/http://www.gracejones.org/grace-jones-pictures/ part] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120514140749/http://www.gracejones.org/grace-jones-hot/ of] [http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/4406/gracejones.jpg Grace Jones's] appeal.
* On a french talk show, model Noemie Lenoir & and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld argue about this trope and how it applies to the modeling/high fashion world....They disagree. Karl said that there is no racism in fashion. Noemie said the contrary. Then Karl said she's the proof there's no racism because she's famous. Noemie points out that light complected and or biracial black models are the new trend.
* Played straight in Western gay culture. Gay people of color with heavy ethnic features are often shunned by the majority of white gays and are rarely featured in gay media, being [[Fetish Fuel]] at best and nonexistent at worst. Racial bias (sometimes leading to flat-out racism) has long been the gay community's [[Not So Different|dirty secret]].
* [http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Dark-Skin/248025271385 Averted with this Facebook Group]
* Averted with [http://arabiguitar.blogspot.com/2007/05/our-world-hirsi-alis-challenge-to.html Ayaan] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120717035713/http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2007/07/ayaan_hirsi_ali.html Hirsi] [https://web.archive.org/web/20110816203703/http://www.cnn.at/2007/WORLD/americas/10/11/ww.hersi.ali/index.html Ali], who is Somali, and pretty [http://synergistic.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/ayaan-hirsi-ali-is-doing-it-again-and-richard-dawkins-is-on-her-side-battling-fundamentalic-islam/ damn hot].
* Elle Magazine has been accused of [https://web.archive.org/web/20140130214214/http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/09/gabourey_sidibe_on_the_cover_of_elle.html lightening the skin] of actress [[
* [[Bill Cosby]], This goes way back to the
* [http://gawker.com/5560215/american-apparels-new-standard-no-uglies-allowed Gawker wrote recently about AA’s (American Apparel) looks-based hiring policies], leaking internal documents that discuss AA’s “New Standard”: “Classy-Vintage-Chic-Late 80s-Early 90s- Ralph Lauren-Vogue-Nautical-High end brand.” Their employees are the front line of the brand’s new image, and should represent the company accordingly. So who are they looking for to help represent the new look? The more important question is (and always should be in cases like this), who aren’t they looking for?
{{quote|“None of those trashy [black girls],” said one e-mail from corporate. "We’re not trying to sell our clothes to them. Try to find some of those classy black girls, with the nice hair, you know?"
By "nice hair", AA means ''natural'' hair; hair that is not chemically relaxed to permanent straightness. Ironically, among African Americans, natural/kinky hair has traditionally been known as "bad" hair, associated with being "too black" (some derisively call kinky hair/roots "letting your Africa show"). So-called "Nice hair" or "good hair" is pin straight. }}
* ''Outliers: The Story of Success'' is a book by Malcolm Gladwell that looks into how systems and cultures can accidentally create bias where none might otherwise exist, predisposing some people to succeed and others to fail. The most dramatic example is in the Canadian Youth Hockey League (in Canada, hockey is [[Serious Business]] and begins at an early age), where the majority of players are born in the early months of the year. This is because each league is age based and the cut-off date is January
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140606130904/http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hudson-288518-size-jennifer.html This] commentary on Jennifer Hudson's weight loss puts recent and older pictures of her side by side. While it goes on at length about how different she looks size-wise, it apparently completely fails to notice that the recent pictures have not only been de-browned but also pinked-up.
* In the documentary ''Afro-Punk'' (a film about black punk rockers, and fans) covered this issue. Some stated that they felt that other white kids liked them for the wrong reasons.
* This is one reason among many that Rosa Parks became one of the faces of [[Civil Rights Movement|the Civil Rights struggle]] in the United States.
* Racial Identity also can become a issue when this trope comes into play. You'll get people splitting hairs when it comes to describing their ethnicity. Some cultural critics say this is because of a negative racist stigma African Americans have thanks to negative stereotypes. Like negative depictions of blacks in mainstream media such as film, news, and [[Hip Hop]] probably didn't help (especially [[The Scapegoat|rap videos]] ). So it's no surprise that some black folks would like to sub-divide themselves from black Americans and black American culture anyway they can (especially immigrants, and even second gen black immigrants). Making being black a type of [[Mark of Shame]] metaphorically speaking.
* It can, and has, been argued that the whole concept of relaxing (straightening) your hair relates to this.
* [[Zoe
* Averted in a Harris Interactive Poll that in 2001 named Martin Luther King and Colin Powell as two of the top three choices of hero/role model for Americans (the other one was Jesus).
** And Jesus was probably as dark as either of those two gentlemen. If you want to talk about famous people who are "lightened" in most depictions, you can start with him.
* Skin-whitening products are very popular in the Philippines, where most people are naturally dark-skinned. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120424085132/http://veronica-cerrer.suite101.com/skin-whitening-and-dark-beauty-in-the-philippines-a228918 Some think] that this is because of centuries of Western colonialism.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:Double Standard]]
[[Category:Race Tropes]]
[[Category:Depressing Tropes]]
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