Hi Tyra I am
Jordahn and i am only 12 but i had went to my friends house and then i had to come home and i caught a lil bit of your show. I thought it was very good i really liked it because i would say about 94% of my school is white or a different race then me and my friends. i really like being as dark as i am because i love the way it looks in the summer i dont have anything against white people. Just i think are skin is better because it has color and it is not just plain. Yesterday i had went to lunch and one of the teachers sat down and our table and she is white but i kind of acted like i was in a tv and she was like look at her she looks like a model. That mad me really happy to know that not all White people are racists. See white people just see the big nose, big booty, big lips, on nappy hair. I think that is what makes us special and different most white people dont have i quess you could call it combinations in features of your face and body. And i am not sayin that the Whites are ugly because i know plenty of beautiful ones but i dont get it at school its like all the boys go for the white ones and never try the dark chocolate people. I guess its just life and that just since slavery White people think they are better which is just life because most of them just get money right off the bat but my mom has to work extra hard and then we still dont have that much money but i learn to live with it.

HI I'M KELSEY AND I AM 17YRS OF AGE DID I MENTION THAT I WAS BLACK WELL JUST IN CASE I DIDN'T I AM BLACK,I LOVE SAYING THAT I AM BLACK AND I AM PROUD,BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE CAUCASIAN PEOPLE ANY LESS THAN I.YES WHERE I LIVE COMPLEXION MATTERS,BUT NOT TO ME.I AM FAIR AND SOME GIRLS ARE INTIMIDATED BY MY COMPLEXION JUST AS I AM OF GIRLS FAIRER THAN ME,BUT THEY DON'T KNOW THAT I HAVE A VERY LOW SELF ESTEEM AND FEEL VERY INSECURE ABOUT MYSELF.I THINK RED GIRLS AS WE CALL OURSELVES GETS MORE ATTENTION.ITS REALLY STUPID. IN MY COUNTRY I DON'T BE AROUND WHITE PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY ARE MOSTLY TOURIST BUT I WELCOME THEM AS ANYONE ELSE.WE ARE ALL MADE OF FLESH AND BLOOD I STUDY HUMAN AND SOCIAL BIOLOGY I KNOW.RACIALISM MAKES ME VERY SAD,TYRA I COULD SEE IN YOUR EYES THAT ITS SOMETHING YOU WANT TO CHANGE AND I DO TOO BUT WE CANT DO IT BY OURSELVES CAN WE?IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS AND THINK A LITTLE PERSON LIKE ME COULD HELP JUST EMAIL I AM WILLING.ONE LOVE.

Hi. Tyra since I have changed jobs I can watch your show Monday-Thursday. Todays show was a very good show. I have a light complexion but I consider myself medium. I have notice that the majority of light women carry themself differently. I think that the darker woman were alwyas more prettier. My sister who is light also is very beautiful. The area that was not covered was the "hair" issue. You know nappy hair. How many times have I hear she has good hair. We people of color know what "good hair" is, but why is it still an issue. We are black hair the majority of us are going to have nappy hair. We are Black not White. That is another issue that needs to be talked about.

hi im 13 and i think that all women are beautyful no matter what color they are. im white a hate the fact the we are blamedfor slavery but its in the past so why are we dwelling on it? and a white president is who stopped slavery...
i just feel that we shouldn't look at color but who we are...

Greetings,
I am a 30 yr.old middle school teacher who has recently dealt with this issue. I am in the middle in terms of skin color-neither dark nor light. The other day, one of my students told me that he "only" likes and will date light-skinned girls. He also told me that I looked better than another teacher because I was "lighter" than she. I, coincidentally, met his father--and lo and behold, I found out exactly where he developed his lovely ideas. His father expressed an interest in me--and had the nerve to say to me that he has never dated a dark-skinned woman before and although I am not dark he said that I had "JUST made his color criteria." Interesting! I wonder when the shade of one's skin will NEVER be an issue among African-Americans against one another. Thank you so much for having the gutts to tackle this nation-wide issue publicly.

Hi Tyra I am
Jordahn and i am only 12 but i had went to my friends house and then i had to come home and i caught a lil bit of your show. I thought it was very good i really liked it because i would say about 94% of my school is white or a different race then me and my friends. i really like being as dark as i am because i love the way it looks in the summer i dont have anything against white people. Just i think are skin is better because it has color and it is not just plain. Yesterday i had went to lunch and one of the teachers sat down and our table and she is white but i kind of acted like i was in a tv and she was like look at her she looks like a model. That mad me really happy to know that not all White people are racists. See white people just see the big nose, big booty, big lips, on nappy hair. I think that is what makes us special and different most white people dont have i quess you could call it combinations in features of your face and body. And i am not sayin that the Whites are ugly because i know plenty of beautiful ones but i dont get it at school its like all the boys go for the white ones and never try the dark chocolate people. I guess its just life and that just since slavery White people think they are better which is just life because most of them just get money right off the bat but my mom has to work extra hard and then we still dont have that much money but i learn to live with it.

dear tyra,
I watcthed your show today and started to cry. Growing up I was always told that I was ulgy because I was short & dark skined. I've always wanted to model my whole entry life, but it seemed my height,& skin tone would never letb me do so.I also grow up in foster care, and my foster mother treated VERY bad because of my skin. TYRA I REALLY LOVE your show today. P.S- I hope to see you put a 5" foot girl on AMERICA's NEXT TOP MODEL.Just to let women like myself know that our height is okay too, that being taller ISN'T better that being a shorter.

Thanks, SARITA

Tyra, you are doing a lot of very good things. Keep up the good work. Nonetheless, You are missing the key point on this issue. It has been proven that the white man started this in order to control the black people. The myth that white is the only good, right,smart, and beautiful. Tyra, you are promoting this everyday with your blond hair and contacts. Please continue your attempt to eradicate this problem. Remember that you must lead with action. You are very beautiful with black hair. Your actions always speak louder than your words!

Hi Tyra I Loved Your Show For Me Being Half Black And White In High School I Always Got Pick On And Called A White Girl And For Me Been Light Skin With Green Eyes And Long Curly And Wave Hair I Still Got Pick On But For Me I Love All People Nor Matter If They Dark Or Light And For Me I Have A Friend From High School That Is Dark Skin And Likes Like Skin People And Thinks Everone Is Looking At Me When We Go Out Cuz I Am Light With Green Eyes

Hi Tyra!

My mom is light skinned and my dad is a little dark skin. So I have a golden shade. That is not light, but not at all dark.
I think that both dark and light skinned girls are so pretty. I just think that people think that light skinned black women are prettier, because all of the pretty women in the media (you, beyonce, monica) are light skinned.

Thanks!

Hi Tyra !
I think that this show was a great idea ! Im a white girl but I think its sick that this type of thing even has to be turned into such a controversy ! I feel sad that you even have to make a show like this.. I have an all white family and Ive never been taught that skin has anything to do with who someone is. I dont believe that ive ever looked at someone and said "Oh I dont know if I can be your friend, your dark ! " I just dont understand how people can judge people on their skin color. I feel sad at the same time for white people, beause I believe that black people believe that ALL white people discrimate against black women and its NOT true ! I have a black girl body and got the whole big boottay goin on and nice tanned skin, and I get alot of attention from black men ! People ask me if it bothers me, and im confused! Ive never even believed that this was such a big issue.. and it just blows my mind!
I hope that someday we can all just realize that colour has NOTHING to do with the person you are inside..

Hi Tyra, I am a very light-skinned black female. I believe that a lot of darker people may feel that they have it worse than us, but actually we have it just as bad as they do. Just like a lot of the darker females on your show and in your audience were saying that their proud to be who they are, I'm also very proud to be light-skinned. I don't think that makes me any less black. I will admit, I do have a problem with most darker skinned women because they tend to take my complexion as a weakness, and let me say that this has led to me beating up a lot of darker skinned women. I used to get called white girl and casper. What I'm trying to say is, people shouldn't come down on light- skinned people either. No one has an option of picking their complexion. Not all light-skinned women are boogey or trying to be extra ghetto to prove themselves more black. I believe that your show today was a little one sided. I feel like you was uplifting the darker skinned women at the expense of the light skinned women.

I really enjoyed the show about "light skinned" and "dark skinned blacks" because it educated us on how we as people think. It's amazing that it's 2008 and some of us still have that "yes sah massah" or that "slave mentality". It's a shame no matter how we look at it and in today's world race really does matter on how well you do in your life. I'm a black man that is attracted to intelligent women no matter the color of their skin. We as people must reprogram our brains to get us out of that old "yessah massah" mentality.

Tyra,

I absolutely love your show, but lately with your show topics I've stopped watching. I'm sick of watching your shows that focus just around the African Americans. You had your show today about light skined black people and how they are so discriminated against. A few weeks ago, you had your show about how white women are stealing all the black men. I'm a proud white girl and I don't appreciate at all watching shows that still bring up the injustice of your people. I'm also Greek, do you see Greeks going around and condeming the Turks for the hundreds for years of slavery? No, we as a whole, have let it go. For once, just let it go. I am not going to watch your show if you keep having shows like that. Everyone understands that you are a proud African American women, but enough is enough.

Hello Tyra Banks
I just finished watching your show (The trya Banks Show). This episode was great. As a 22 year old dark black young women who lives in the suburbs of Queens New York for all my life racism is still alive. Racism is a huge part of why women and men in the African American community have a negative mentalty on skin ton.
Yes I do feel that some black women feel that light skinned women have it easier. However its not true 100% of the time. In my personal life i try to give human race the benifite of the dought before I pass judement. ITS NOT EASY BUT ITS BETTER THAN HAVING A WALL UP,
"White America" who are RACIST non verbaly and (sometimes)verbaly picking out black people falaws every chance that they get. At times they even have a way of placing one shade of skin tone against another. Racist people love to see the isolation between black people. I believe that Racist people probably think that lighter black skinned people represents clean and purity; While a dark black persons skin represents dirty and unclean. For those who look at black people that why should realize just like I do that "Man look upon the apperance while God look upon the heart.

Sup Tyra,
I'm twelve year-old Haitian girl.I really loved your show today because I always feel like I'm the only light skin girl in every school I've been to.Like the other girls were medium, chocolate or dark choclate.And I feel resented in the Haitian community because the average Haitian person is dark-skinned.Whenever someone sees me they say you're Dominican right.In Haiti the only way people come out light-skinned is if the have parents or grandparents that are mixed.For instance, my father is 100 perccent Haitian so he's pretty dark.While my mother is close to fair-skinned.Her grandmother (on her father's side) is British.Her grandfather (on her mother's side) is Italian.So, I think that any black peoeple that are lighter than Oprah or Fatima (from ANTM) has whtie or non-black ancestors.If you look at photos of our enslaved ancestors there were no light-skins.Some slave owners might have had cholren with theirs slaves like Thomas Jefferson.Like the way your eyes are, you may have ancestors of a different race.I don't agree with the fact that light-skin girls are stuck-up.In my school all of the 10 black girls are pretty down to earth and confident of their beauty.Though my friend Drew she is a choclate sister and doesn't show it but, she told she doesn't think dark girls are cute,she wants to have everything light-skin grirls have, good hair, light-colored eyes and light-skin.She said she doesn't want her children to be as dark as she is so she wants to marry the lightest black guy she can find.She says she's native american, irish and almost every other european nationality. When she said in class some kids giggled because she is on eof the darkest girls in the school.I feel bad because I never thought that being light-skinned was so important because everyone on my mother's side is caramel or lighter.Also, most of my friends are way darker than me.I'm light-skinned adn it doesn't really do anyhting for me since all of the six black guys in my grade like white girls or dark girls.The only thing that gets me noticed is my huge booty.My but is half the size of J.Lo and Beyonce's booty.Well I really enjoyed the episode.I hope that you do more similar to this topic.

I AM 13 YEARS OLD AND I AM A LIGHT SKINNED GIRL.I HAVE A SISTER THAT HAS A DARKER SKIN TONE THEN ME.I THINK THAT RACE MATTER AT ALL.I HAVE A WHITE MOM AND A BLACK DAD.ME AND MY SISTER HAVE THE SAME PARENTS BUT EVERYONE THINKS THAT WERE NOT SISTERS.ALL THE CUTE BOYS WALK UP TO ME{SOME BOYS ,THE ONE'S I LIKE}AND TELL ME,"OWE YOUR SISTER IS SO FINE!"AND IT MAKES ME FEEL BAD ABOUT MYSELF.IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE,WHEN ARE THEY GONNA SAY THAT TO ME.DON'T GET ME WRONG SOME GUYS DO COME UP TO ME BUT ALOT OF THE TIME ITS FOR MY SISTER.I HAVE SEEN ALOT OF BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMEN AND ALOT OF UGLY ONES.BUT I DON'T THINK YOUR BEAUTY SHOULD BE JUGDED BY THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN.PEACE!:)

Hi Tyra,
I'm a 14 year old african-american girl. my skin tone honestly changes with the seasons. In the fall/winter, i'm caramel toned. In the summer/spring, i'm more chocolate. I see a lot of light-skinned black women being praised for their beauty and exotic-ness and it makes me feel less of myself. As human beings, we're divided by politics, race, religion, social class, etc. So why should we divide ourselves even more my skin tones?

Hello Tyra,
After watching the show and briefly reading through some of the comments left, I come to this conclusion. In most races, the lighter skinned woman is put before the darker skinned women. In Asian culture, Latin culture and African(American) culture the rules still apply for different reasons. Regardless they separate us as WOMEN. When the men on the panel on today's show said their preferences, the man who said he preferred darker woman was applauded while the man whose preference was lighter, women did not respond. Both men answered the question wrong. They should not have complexion preference because that doesn't define who the woman is. As a lighter woman I've been scrutinized by my older darker female cousins, where I was cornered and asked several times, "Do you think you're better than us because you're light-skinned". As an only child, I did have more than them but only because I was an only child and not my complexion. I just wanted them to accept me as a sister. For that reason I am distant. Well I did gain a sister in High School. She was more of a sister than any of my cousins. She was darker an more CONFIDENT than my cousins where as that topic never came up during the duration of our friendship. Some young men liked her some liked me and that was the end of discussion. Furthermore, being dark-skinned and meaner to lighter women will not give reparations to the pain our ancestors have gone through. So we will continue to struggle until we are all mixed down to the same complexion or we learn how to become better people. This topic shouldn't be ignored but nor should the past give the right to bring someone else down.
-Love, Sunshine(named that because of my smile and not my complexion)!

tyra stop bringing up slavery its over its been over the African American race needs to stop using that as an excuse. I under stand that one light skin women not liking dark skin is ridiculous and she is just carrying around a grudge but saying she is the white slave owner's dream is so very out dated and ignorant. I don't consider myself a racist at all, im just sick of those comments and excuses. We arent those slave owners and you are not those slaves. So i wish A.M. would stop acting like it. Most whites wish that never happened at all, and they know it was wrong, i know i do. But A.M. act like it happened to them personally and it keeps getting thrown in whites faces.
Thank you I really enjoy your show keep it up

The skin tone issue spans many cultures. I'm from india and the indian culture identifies fair women with light eyes as most beautiful. I was pretty upset when anchal came to audition for ANTM with fake contacts on. we need to represent what India is, and that is many colors.

I wanted to start off by saying I am not a black woman. I am a white dutch/french woman. Just to clear that up. Now what I really wanted to comment about is how strange it is that race is an issue. I do understand and feel so badly about slavery but not all slaves were or even are black. I grew up with a black best friend, we grew apart with age and I really never got the chance to become friends with any other black people. When I was growing up we had a total of 3 black people at my school and I was friends with one of them. I was never taught that skin color mattered and it never has at least not to me. I digress, the whole reason I was commenting was to say I have no problem with black people I feel like black people have a problem with white people because they feel white people have a problem with them and vice versa. Crazy isn't it we are all people, so why is something like skin color an issue. I did not grow up with issues that a black person may face but I did grow up with issues. Till this day from being teased so much at school I hate my body, every part. We all have something whether it is race or not we are all human we all hurt so why do we keep hurting each other?? Love is what keeps it all together. Open your hearts, open your minds and close your eyes. Love is patient, love is kind. So why aren't we!!!!

I am caucasion and a very fair skinned girl. I found today's show very interesting because I never knew that things like that went on with the africanamerican community. I have never heard of or had experiences like that with the caucasion community before. I mean, sure, sometimes I see girls that have a darker complection than me and I feel a little envious because I think that it is more attractive than my fair skin but I have never hated on anyone for it nor have I ever experienced hate for mine. I don't totally understand the ordeal because I have never experienced it, but I did find hearing about it to be very interesting.

Dear Tyra,

Thank you very much for today's show and for having the courage to highlight issues that have plagued black people for too long. We are our own worst enemy. Perhaps some day you'll consider doing a show with celebrities, specifically male celebrities, who can't seem to find anyone to marry but blonds or "anyone but a black woman." I is indeed a very depressing issue but as long as you're around and have the guts to "call it like it is," I see a glimmer of hope for us.

tyra, my name is LESLIE, 19, im half LATINA half WHITE. darkest of my 5 siblings. i was always called "la negra" by my brothers and my sister. my siter is very light and w straight, dirty blonde hair, i on the other hand, am dark, w the spanish curls. this "i prefer light skin rather than dark" "no dark skin is better than light" stuff happens in every race! i hated being dark bc my siblings would always put me down for being the dark one, but once i got to high school and all the white light skin girls would go tan and then come and compare there skin shade to mine, it made me feel good and alot better about myself. My sister is jealous of me and says that she wants to be dark and have curly hair bc its prettier, i always wanted to be lighter. My point tyra is that nobody is ever satisfied with what they have and who they are, and i think that we should all just learn to love ourselves regardless of how light or dark our skin is. There is always going to be someone or something that will put you down, and we should just learn that like the bible says in Jeremiah 1:5.. before i formed you in the belly, I knew thee.. and we should just learn that God had a purpose for making us the way he made us! Much love tyra! Love your show. thanks for reading.