Dear Tyra,
i was really feelin'todays show because i feel like people treat and look at me like i'm from another planet because i have red hair and dark shin so i know what the darker quests were talking about when they say lighter skined peolpe have it a little better sometimes.
I look at it this if i were light complected no one would care, i'd be just another redhead.

Dear Tyra i saw your show today i think that white skind and dark skind have it hard in all differnt ways. I have a story to tell you about me. Iam 12 going on 13 in may 21 my story happened when i was 11. Iam hafe Pome Indian, a quorter Mexican and a quorter Italin. so one day we were waching a play and five boyes came up to me and started calling me names for no reasion. "you r a Pomo hodo, your a stuped Indian" and more mean things like that. These boys where Mexican. That day my felings hurt sssoooo bad. Well i told the teacher and all she did was mach them say sorry. The boys seid that i was calling them namies and being rasist to them. To me that did noy mack sense because iam Mexican to. I do not look indian, or mexican i look white. i have Oliv complexion, i got that coler from my moms moms skin i did not grandpas indian skin. well i just wanted to tell you somthing simalar to todays show. love crysta

ps write back

Hey Tyra,

I loved Your Show, about how dark skin people think people of lighter complexion are treated better in society. I have a light caramel reddish skin complexion, sharp features, and I have a fair skin mother who looks Hispanic. My mom always tells me her life experiences of being a light skinned girl growing up in the 60’s. She told me none of the black girls in her class liked her, she had no friends and her Caucasian teacher use to always take candy from the dark skin kids and give it to her. My mom is not half white but her father is and we are mixed with Native American and West Indian also. She told me how dark skin girls didn’t like her because of her long light brown hair. I always wondered why hair is such a big issue in the black race. Almost every where I go people tell me I have the good hair. I’m sick of people asking me what I mixed with and if I’m a Dominican.
Why do black people think their hair is bad? Everything that god made is beautiful. I don’t have the same experiences as my mom but I have similar ones. I’m a 16 year old high school student and I don’t have many friends at my school. I have a lot of haters because I keep myself well groomed. I don’t like hanging out with that many black girls, because they always has something contrary to say about my clothes and hair. I tend to cling more to the Hispanic girls because they don’t act as jealous as black girls. A lot of people think I’m stuck up, but when they get to know me they find out that I’m not . It is ashame that black people are not just discriminated by other races but discriminate against each other . It seems like all the pain and struggles we went through as a race, We would learn to stick by each other and cope with the pain together. Thanks for the show Tyra! It was important for you to bring up that issue that we face in our everyday lives. All people need to realize, we come in different skin tones. but we are more alike than we are different!

I watched your show this evening and it really shows how people think! I have been called light skin but NO I am a BEAUTIFUL carmel color. Which I love my skin tone and love to get DARKER in the summer due to it makes my skin more beautiful. People have always admired my skin, I get compliments on it all the time. I am always asked what country am I from because of the differnceness of my look and skin tone. My sister is light skin and we have never gone throught the color issue between us or other people. For the first time ever my sisters friend asked if we had different parents, my sister and I looked at each other like, is she crazy because we never heard that one before. We have always been asked if we were twins. This person is color struck. But I do know how it feels to be darker against my friends. My best friend is PR and the same color as me is considered light skin. I was told once my a guy who was comparing us who say a girl you (meaning me) is to dark for me. I told him I would not want you anyway! STUPID!!! I never had a complex about my color. I want to say people can have the same mother and father and look differenct and have different colors of skin. Some people can have the same mother and father and look different and have different skin tones. People have to remember when we as black people are born because of the white man raping our black mothers the child can come out looking any kind way. It can go back way younder!!! It kills me when I hear stupid black men say that baby can't be mine because he/she is too light or too dark. My mother, and my cousins have gone through this color issue all of their life because they are the dark one out of their immediate family siblings. They all have the same mother and father. We are need to WAKE UP!!!

Well Tyra my mom is white my dad is black and they are both hispanic. i have two brothers that are lighter than me and i just want to say that, that make me feel like the nice, sweet chocolate babe from the house. I've been called name.... sometimes am not accepted in the hispanic community nor in the black community. But i don't care cause i don't care what people say about me.

Hey Tyra,

I loved Your Show, about how dark skin people think people of lighter complexion are treated better in society. I have a light caramel reddish skin complexion, sharp features, and I have a fair skin mother who looks Hispanic. My mom always tells me her life experiences of being a light skinned girl growing up in the 60’s. She told me none of the black girls in her class liked her, she had no friends and her Caucasian teacher use to always take candy from the dark skin kids and give it to her. My mom is not half white but her father is and we are mixed with Native American and West Indian also. She told me how dark skin girls didn’t like her because of her long light brown hair. I always wondered why hair is such a big issue in the black race. Almost every where I go people tell me I have the good hair. I’m sick of people asking me what I mixed with and if I’m a Dominican.
Why do black people think their hair is bad? Everything that god made is beautiful. I don’t have the same experiences as my mom but I have similar ones. I’m a 16 year old high school student and I don’t have many friends at my school. I have a lot of haters because I keep myself well groomed. I don’t like hanging out with that many black girls, because they always has something contrary to say about my clothes and hair. I tend to cling more to the Hispanic girls because they don’t act as jealous as black girls. A lot of people think I’m stuck up, but when they get to know me they find out that I’m not . It is ashame that black people are not just discriminated by other races but discriminate against each other . It seems like all the pain and struggles we went through as a race, We would learn to stick by each other and cope with the pain together. Thanks for the show Tyra! It was important for you to bring up that issue that we face in our everyday lives. All people need to realize, we come in different skin tones. but we are more alike than we are different!

For the light skinned girls who complain about the hostility from darker skinned girls, it's because we are tired of being treated like second class citizens. Everyone knows this society was set up to favor lighter skinned people and that hasn't changed. It may even be worse now since the local news stations have almost purged the screen of all darker women, all the anchors are lighter and don't mention the absence in music videos (not that I think they're anything to aspire to) but the point is the light skinned girls are projected as beautiful and desirable. The ugliest rapper always ends up with a light skinned, long hair girl. Wealthy men and celebrities consider light skinned wives/girlfriends the last great acquisition and with few exceptions (Isaiah Washington, Denzel, Obama) most pick them as their mates and don’t tell me that it’s some coincidence. If Halle Berry looked exactly the same with darker skin the media wouldn’t fall all over her, praising her for her beauty and anyone who pretends otherwise is a liar or in deep denial!

Tyra,
I just want to say thank you for the show you did today on "ladies of all races" I have a biracial son who is beautiful to say the least and he doesn't seem to fit in with the white or black community when it comes to dating. The black girls at school say he is white because he doesn't use ebonics and the white girls say he is black because his skin is brown and he has African hair. I would like to know just how black is black?

Hi Tyra,
I am 14 yr-old and i am 100% white. personaly how i feel is that i may not be as pretty as girls that are african american, black, or choclate, which ever way you prefer to call it. I run track and out of the whole team me and my friend are the only white ones. We get reverse discriminated alot. I have also noticed boys dont really like me, well besides my boyfriend hes mixed and he doesnt really care about that stuff, but other people will be like oh she aint got booty or front. i also dont really like my skin tone when i look at the other girls on my team they look like pure. i dont really know how to explain it, it just looks pretty.
A thing i have noticed is i will just be walking around and people will say stuff thats rude to me like sh** why is a white girl here? or why you here white people aren't supose to be here. i'm starting to get use to it and it doesnt efect me at all anymore becuase those people are not my friends and my friends dont say stuff like that but i still wonder why they say it? one thing i wonder is alot of people and im not saying everyone but alot of people say oh why are you acting white or stuff like that to ppl who are dark skin as an insult.why do they think it is bad to be white? i dont think it is that bad to be. i understand how some white people are like wanabies and im not saying all are but they try to act ghetto or hard when they are not and its just fake. i get why people will not like that becuase thats not cool but not all white ppl act like that.
The stuff that is happening to me is nothing compared what happened back about 200 years ago so i feel guilty talking about this. but i just want to say my family did not do that i am the first or second generation born in america my father was born in germany and i am completely against racism. so i just want to end off that some white people are discriminated against also.thank you and i hope anything i said is not taken in an offensive way or anything if so i am sorry and i do not mean it to be that way.

Tyra,
First off I want to say that I reallly enjoy watching your show! I understand that there are diversities in every culture, but I think that alot of it has to do with how they are raised. I come from an interracial family my mother is filipino and my father is hispanic. I have never judged another person by their skin color but how they represented themselves.I felt it easier to approach people of differnt skin tones because i grew up in a family that wasnt set on one race but several different cultures.In fact, I married a white man!lol People should embrace their ethnicity and let go of the past. You are only as strong as you allow yourself to be. There is noone holding you down but you. I see alot of smart VERY successful "dark skinned" black woman out there these days. They are who they are because they didn't allow the racial issues of the past define who they are today. I guess what Im trying to say is that dark skinned light skinned we are all people! We need to get over that hump of isolating ourselves into groups of color but come together as a whole! How can we as a nation prosper if we continue to seperate into segreations of color?!

Dear Tyra,
my name is erika,i am 16 years old and a sophmore in high school. being light and "mixed" with black and mexican is very hard for me. i am constently judged for the way i look and not who i am as a person. being in high school is really tough because i feel that i am constently talked about by the black girls at my school. they look at me with so much hate and it hurts me and i cry quit often. i really just want to feel loved by other black girls my age and older. i dont think lighter toned women have it easier than darker toned women. if we all took the time to just talk to one another we will come to realize that no matter how lighter or darker we are, we're all being judged and going through the same problems daily, and color should not matter at all.

Trya girl, you can be very contradicting. You tell girls to be happy the way they look but do you ever tell the audience that you got a NOSE JOB!!! Hello! Your show on "America's top Model" you tell these girls that they have to be certain way. You say that fat, big girls can be sexy too than why does your show only allow skinny girls to be the next model???

Hi Tyra,
I'm a light-skinned black woman and often have jokingly referred to myself as the light-bulb of the family. I was teased as a kid and still get jokes from my darker-skinned family to this day. It makes me feel like an outcast. When I was young I could never understand why darker black girls would roll their eyes at me and they didn't even know me. Then I got in my 20's and I realized the pain of darker black women. We are exchanging pains... they think I'm stuck-up and I'm scared to talk to them for fear of rejection. Truth be told, I think darker women are gorgeous... that rich smooth skin tone. Society has tricked us into thinking that fair skin is better. When, to be honest, it represents a whole bunch of ugly problems... like sunburns, having all different color body parts, the ability to see any imperfections in the skin etc. What this all boils down to is education. Nobody put in their vote or asked for their skin tone, so why hate on each other for something we had absolutely no control over? Furthermore, genetics is a crazy thing... you never know how your kids may turn out. Traits skip generations. That's how I ended up so light but with 2 black parents and a sister thats darker than me. Black is black- just like Noelle basically said on your show- that 'N' word is not reserved for dark skinned blacks. I've been called it too. I commend you, Tyra for exposing this very ugly schema in our community. Personally, I've made a vow to tell my sistas and all women for that matter just how BEAUTIFUL i think they are. period.

I think this is a problem in every race. I'm mexican and I've notice the same problem with mexican people. if you go to mexico you'll notice that white mexicans blonde hair colored eyes are rich and brown/darker black hair brown eyes mexicans are not even in the novelas you'll notices this difference. It's just sad that we are still sperading ourselves. I think we are all beautiful no matter what and this shouldn't be an issues anymore.

Hi Tyra,
Thank you for addressing this issue on your show. The light skin, dark skin issue is not just an issue that is prevalent in the African American community unfortunately it is also an issue in the Hispanic community. The lighter your hair, eyes, and skin are they prettier you are considered. The roots of this self hatred I believe can be traced back to the colonialization of the Americas and other parts of the world where in order to conquer others, people of color (and by this I include indigenous people as well as people of African decent)had to be divided. And since we are visual people, this was the most obvious difference. Without cohesion in a community the old strategy of divide and conquer was able to be effective. It's sad to say that this strategy was so effective that it is still working today. The only hope I have is that the next generation can break this cycle and realize that we are more than just hair,eye, or skin color. The human soul has the capacity to transcend gender,race, ethnicity,etc. And it is only when we realize this that the human species can evolve.

Hi, Tyra. My mom and I both loved the show and we agree that there is a difference in how light-skinned and dark-skinned black women get treated. My mom is dark-skinned, but I am light-skinned due to my father being light-skinned. Your show allowed us to talk how we both have had insecurities about our skin-tone for example I always felt ashamed of my skin-tone; for when I was younger, both my mom and sister had dark-skin and I had light skin so I felt out of place, but now I have learned to accept what God gave me and love myself. My mom had insecurities about her skin-tone while growing; for in her time other dark-skinned black people would pass as white and she always had a light-skinned boyfriends for fear that if she married a dark-skinned black man that her children would be dark-skinned as well. Nowadays, my mama really doesn't care who she dates as long as they treat her right. We both just want to say thank you for bringing this topic up on your show, but the one question that we have about it, what does the brown-bag throwing represent? We didn't catch the beginning of the show. Sorry. -Your biggest fan-Tanisha and for the record I love dark-skinned brothers and never once disrespected a dark-skinned sister.

It's amazing how CRUEL BLACK PEOPLE ARE TO EACH OTHER. And how CRUEL BLACK MEN ARE TO BLACK WOMEN. This is something black people - of any tone - need to work out for themselves.

PLEASE DON'T THINK OF PEOPLE AS BLACK, WHITE, YELLOW, BROWN, RED, ETC.!!! WE ARE ALL SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!!!! especially as americans: we're just a melting pot of love

Tyra I am glad that your show brought this issue to the table. I am not a black woman, but I am a woman of color. I recieved an athletic schollarship to attended an all black college. I was almost forced to leave to school because of the way I was treated, having girls tell me "you're just here to take our good black men". I was followed to my dorms every day, while the girls talked very loudly, about what they wanted and wished they could do to me. Within 4 months I was forced to leave the college and abandon my scholarship.
Skin tone is not the only issue here and I don't think "light skinned" girls have it easy, we just face a different type of "ism".

Well umm i'm uhh 15 yearsold female and i'm like uh i guess brown lol i'm not that light but I wish i was..I wish i was white actually because white ppl have it so easy when it comes to jobs or guys..white chicks always get the black guys..the spanish guys..and the white guys..Idk i don'tlike being black..the only advantage it that the wite chick are scared of u so u can tak advantage of that lol but besides that i don't like my coulour...sucks i guess..and the answer the questions YES your treated differently according to you skin colour i don't care wat nobody says about the not racist or whatever because u consider black americans African-Americans and not just americans like the white ppl and Lationo or hispanis americans instead of just the word american so the cops can get a better ides of wat the guy that stole ur purse looks like...ayways i don't live in the U.S or nothing i live in the caribbean so yeah alot of black heads but when i do go in places that "white people" are more dominent i do feel weird even most of my class this school year is white but yeah anyways I think i got to go to bed so yeah Bye!!
P.S
OMG I love you TYRA!! I does watch wat ever sow u on lol America next top model's marathon every sunday on mtv lol i watch like the same cycle so much times and NEVER will get sick of it.. it ROCKS!! and i does watch ur showa EVERYDAY after school...when i turn 18 and i come to the U.S i will love to come on you show..caus ei don't think i can currently cause maybe i too young idk anyways he he when i finish highschool imma come to try out to be america's Next top model :-D *all do I not a U.S citizen lol* ok bye for real now :P

In the early 60's,I was 5. Mom had baby#3 needed some extra help @ home. Like her cousins & sisters in law, she called upon a long time friend, Elenor.
Ellie was a baby nurse, cooked, cleaned, ironed, watched the rest of us kids & loved each of us as we loved her. Over the years with Ellie, she pointed out to me that she had different color skin than I did. I was hurt and disturbed by this because she noted that there were some separations in us. She also had her neice Carol babysit for us. Carol was the most beautiful and kind young woman I ever imagined. Ellie said that Carol's skin color was so much lighter than others and Carol was able to PASS. Ellie was angry when Carol married a man who was going to Vietnam, He was too dark and she should have found a light er man.
I was puzzled adn distressed to hear Ellie talk about the value of skin tone. My frekled complexsion really confused me Once I got to school, it was clear the little girls who were white admired the hair fo the black girls. The black children had the most beautiful skin tones and complexions, in my mind.

TYRA!
okay, so first of all I just want to say that YOUR'E AMAZING. I watch your show as much as i can! (I end school at 4:30, so i run home to watch it!) And you've really influenced me with alot of things (with weight, "who cares!", etc.).

For my math class we had to make a project with 10 math problems on it, and we could do it on anyone/anything..and I did it on you! (No, i'm not a stocker, lol just love you!) The board's really nice too! Lots of pictures, facts...

So I just watched your show today on different colors of Black. Personally, I'm not black (my mom is Persian and my dad's just a plain white american). To be honest with you, I love black people. All my friends know it too, they all know i wish i was black. With guys, I preferably like the caramel... however, i don't view 'caramel' males as higher class regarding what some call 'dark chocolate'. I was actually at the grove today, and my friend took some pictures as a joke with all the Abercrombie models that were in the front of the store. 2/3 of them were black! Not caramel, black! (here's the link to those pictures:
1./Users/jeff/Desktop/n605066000_1139550_9058.jp,
2.d/Users/jeff/Desktop/n605066000_1139549_8029.jpgarker
3./Users/jeff/Desktop/n605066000_1139551_28.jpg
Actually, they might have all been black. I'm not so sure about the third one.
I don't have anything against the black people. In fact, i think all black people just know how to do everything better. Wow. If you ask my friends they'd say that I think i'm black!

I also think it's LUDACRIS that people of the same race are arguing over shades! I mean common, we're all humans... it's really not a big deal. Also, for all those 'dark chocolates' who don't like lighter people and all those lighter people who don't like blacks/or darker people: DO NOT base your final judgement on one person, one experience, or one thing that you might have seen. Always give people the benefit of the doubt. It's not correct to judge an entire 'shade' because you've had a bad interaction or experience with ONE person of that race.

People-Where is the love?

tyra

i am a white girl and i think it's terrible how you can assume that life is SOOOO much easier for light skinned people. life is hard for most people.

i grew up in a very diverse community and i grew up with other races as equals and we all went through the SAME struggles! i have a very diverse group of friends and none of us consider one of us as the "white girl" "brown girl" and such.

i think it's these kinds of shows that instigate racism. slavery and racism is a part of america's past and should stay there! we need to embrace our diversities and share them, we need to see ourselves as "people" not "white people" "black people" "red, purple, or yellow people" WHATEVER! we're just PEOPLE!!!

i don't think you should separate and label people as you often do on your shows. racism isn't just against the "colored" there's terrible names for ALL ethnicities! and it's all just IGNORANCE!!!

TYRA,
I KNOW YOUR SHOW WAS TO HIT ON MORE THE BLACK WOMEN BUT I THINK YOU CAN FIND THAT PROBLEM IN ALL RACIS. I THINK THE IDEA OF BEING DARK IN ANY RACE OTHER THAN WHITE IS CONSIDERD DIRTY. I AM MEXICAN AND AM LIGHT BUT I HAVE DARK MEXICANS THAT I WORK WITH. I DO CUSTOMER SERVICE AND NOTICE WHEN I HELP MEXICANS THAT ARE DARKER,(WICH USUALY MEANS THAT THEY COME FROM MEXICO OR ARE FIRST GENERATION USA CITIZENS)THEY USUALY FIGURE I DON'T KNOW SPANISH AND THEY ASK FOR THE OTHER GIRL TO HELP THEM. ON THE OTHER HAND WHEN A WHITE PERSON WALKS UP TO THE COUNTER THEY PERFER ME TO HELP THEM CAUSE THEY FIGURE THE OTHER GIRL PROBABLY DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. I HAVE ALSO HEARD THE WORD DIRTY MEXICAN USED TO REFER TO THEM BY SOME PEOPLE. IT IS SO WEIRD THAT COLOR TO THIS DAY MATTERS! WHY! WE ARE ALL PEOPLE WITH GOOD AND BAD QUALITIES NO MATTER WHAT WE LOOK LIKE!

I was watching your show today and I found it very interesting how within ones own race there are conflicts about skin color, but what surprised me more is that on ur web site you included all races why is that why not talk about all races not just one, and I just don’t understand why people who are from a certain race talk only about their own race instead of the human race as general. I am studying humanities and it came to my surprise that skin/race was not an issue during the early years of civilization somehow I feel that we are making it worst by diving ourselves to one or another race. I guess one must start from one place to get to the next right and yes i do believe that light skinned people have it more easier/are easily accepted by others(well for the majority of the time)