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[[File:loreal 640.jpg|link=Beyoncé|frame|[[Department of Redundancy Department|Yes, L'Oréal lightened the]] [[Unfortunate Implications|light-skinned Beyoncé]].]]
{{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 ==
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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]].
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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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** 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.
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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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** 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"—the same thing hapenned to the (very rare) African-American singer who was willing to tour in South Africa).
** 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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* 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].<ref>You may have to scroll for a couple of those.</ref> Also rather [[Hot-Blooded|passionate]].
* 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 1. Children born earlier in the year are older, larger, and better coordinated than children born later in the year and as they progress, continual sifting and selection gives them better coaching and more practice such that by the time they're 17, when the accident of birth no longer matters in terms of native talent, the cumulative effect of all that extra work has made them into elite players. The theme of accidental success is personal for Gladwell. Generations earlier, one of his African ancestors was purchased to be a concubine in Jamaica, thus granting all her descendants extra whiteness. Jamaican racism, as described by Gladwell, differentiates with acuity based on the skin color, and he credits much of his own success to the easier successes of each generation of his family. His mother grew up relatively affluent, which allowed her to get a better education, eventually studying in London before moving to Canada.
* [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. Of course, white Americans have this introductory ritual where they specify what bits of Europe their ancestors came from and express it in terms of fractions. There's no reason black Americans who have any way of knowing shouldn't do their own versions of this...except that for the majority they really can't know. "Probably somewhere within several hundred miles of the Bight of Benin" does not help.
* 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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