Hey Tyra,
I just finished watching your show today. I am a fourteen year old girl. There are many different shades of black people at my school. I think I'm medium black. But some people classify me as being light-skinned. I truly believe that dark skinneded people don't get it worse. Sometimes they don't realize we go throught the same thing. People say that I'm not black because I'm so light, and I love my culture and race. But I'm also mixed with a little Indian. I think that we are all blacks and we are all the same. With me BLACK IS BLACK. So I don't judge people by the color or shade of their skin but by the things on the inside. I have friends that are latinas, blacks, whites, and puerto ricans. We as kids don't judge each other that way and I think everyone should just let the hatred and everything go about the shade of brown of your skin. I think all blacks are beautiful!

Hey Trya
I just wanna say that i loved your show today and i seen another show you did like this before i like when you have shows talking about light vs dark because i can relate to alot of it and i can understand everything whats going on.
On todays show i agreed wit Tamara because i went throught alot of the same things she said i am lightskinned and some darkskinned girls do hate on us because of what we look like im not a lightskinned girl who thinks im all that all the time but darkerskinned girls think so because when a lightskinned girl is around them and boys are around they try to impress them so we wont get their attention.
I have had alot of darkskinned girls hate on me cause im light with long hair and colored eyes and even when i walk in a store or go anywhere else they would just give me the ugliest looks and stare at me from head to toe because of how i looked.
I dont really want it to be like this but its the darker skinned girls who need to change their attitude and stop being so hateful around us i understand its not all darksinned girls but most of the ones i have been around act that way.

Dear Tyra,
I am a 14 year old girl who lives in Staten Island New York and i am brown skinned beautiful girl. When i was very young it useto bother me that i was a darker skin color, but as i became older i started to get conceited with my self and look in the mirror and just say wow i am so beautiful. People always came up 2 me and say u r very pretty and they still do. but i have a light skin best friend and when we would walk together sometimes boys would try to get with me and not her,and i never thought it bothered her but later on she told me that she was jelous of me, and my best friend is pretty too, but to hear her say that was like wow. But on the other hand it shouldn't matter what color skin u r cause what makes us all different is what makes us all unique. (ps)i love ur show sooo much, ur the best

Hey Tyra,
Im a 16 year old, dark skined female and at times I wish I were lighter because I how much more positive attention lighter skined people get. Out of my mom, step-dad, and two younger brothers I live with Im the only "chocolate" one in the house and they are all "yellow-boned". When the eldest of my younger brothers and I were little we got into arguments and he would always make a note to say that I didn't belong in the house with them because I was too dark. As a little kid that hurt so much to hear coming from my own brother but he didn't know any better but to this day, Im still sensitive to the fact that Im darker. But to hear that a grown woman doesn't want her son dating girls because of there skin tone, just brings back those memories of feeling that I wasn't accepted by anyone because of my skin color.

For the dark-skinned woman that considered herself light and better than ohters she really needs to stop. That is just wrong for her to sit there and think that she is all that. I'm about her complexion and she really needs a reality check!!!

Hey Tyra!
My name is Rebekah and I am a 17 year old, Christian, female. I am also a “white” person with a light brown berth mark on my left knee. I always try to say I’m part black because I have the berth mark  but I’m really not. Anyways first I just want to say THANK YOU for your show and getting to the heart of issues I had no idea about. As I was growing up, I never really noticed there being a difference between people’s races and how they were treated because of their race. To me everyone is beautiful and unique just the way God created them. It didn’t hit me that people were really treated differently until middle school and as for prejudices; I thought those died out with the civil war. When I’ve grown up and learned more about how the world works I see all kinds of rude behaviors directed toward races, which I have to say is really messed up. I have noticed that there are some general stereo types like Mexicans are in gangs, “white” people are stuck up, and “black” people are really tough; although SOMETIMES those are true they are NOT always RIGHT. Since finding out there are differences, I’ve come to really LOVE “black” people and think that they are so incredible for the things they’ve over come. I just had no idea that they still had to over come all the racism from their history and I definitely had no idea that there was a struggle between “darker blacks” and “lighter blacks”. As I watched your show today, my dad told me that it was true back when Africans were enslaved the “darker blacks” were made to work in the fields and the “lighter blacks” were house servants. Then when every one was declared equal there were not only prejudices between “blacks” and “whites” but also between “darker blacks” and “lighter blacks”. It was really tuff for the “lighter blacks” because they weren’t “black” enough to be accepted by the African American community and they weren’t “white” so they weren’t accepted by them either. This was all a real shock to me, because I had no idea about this being a struggle. It all really breaks my heart and makes me want to cry because people can’t see how much they are all equally loved and sought after by God. That EVERY PERSON no matter their race, gender, or personality IS BEAUTIFUL! So thank you so much for bringing this issue to everyone’s attention. I just hope and pray that maybe if people are informed of this then they’ll start changing it.
I'm sorry this comment was so long, I guess I just had a lot to say.

Hi Tyra! I'm a 12 (turning 13) year old proud African American girl! I'd say that I'm milk chocolate coloured. For me, todays show was amazing. It really got me thinking...adults tell us children to look up to them because they always know whats best for us, and yet today there was a woman who was showing predjudice against her own race. That kind of thing doesn't upset me like it would other people, but it makes me more proud that I am African American. I dont have nappy hair, a big nose, or full lips...but I'm still beautiful.

Hello Tyra,
I just finished watching your show on do light skinned blacks have it easier than dark skinned blacks and in most instances I would say yes. I am a dark skinned woman that has heard on numerous ocassions how beautiful I am for a dark skinned girl. This very, very, very dark skinned guy that I was absolutely crazy about in college told me that I was the first dark skinned girl he had ever "messed around" with. I found out later that he had a very light skinned girlfriend that was sleeping with everyone but he didn't care because that's what he wanted on his arm. He even told me that when he had kids he wanted his little girl to be light skinned and his son to be dark like him. Anyway, all my life I have dealt with the color issues. Not so much in school remarkably but from my father's side of the family because they were/are all very fair skinned and I wasn't invited to family gatherings. Always left out but my half brother was always invited because he is light.
It is so embedded in our culture that people don't even realize that they have an opinion about it. One of my best friends is light skinned with long hair and she was doing my make up one day and she said 'you a pretty lil ol chocolate thang.' I know she didn't mean any malice but I wondered why she couldn't have just said I was pretty. We were talking about the color issue a few years after that and she said she didn't even realize that she had made a reference to my color but I noticed because I hear it all the time. I am a flight attendant and actress and I get approached by white or Latina men more than my brothas. Some Black men won't even acknowledge me but the white men will always pass me a business card. Okay, I have vented enough but I wanted to say thanks for putting that issue to the fore front. Some of my light skinned friends always say I am over exaggerating but I hope your show makes them realize that I am not the only one that feels that way.
Much love,
Catina

hey tyra
im 19 and i feel that light skinned and dark skinned blacks are treated pretty much the same.i dont think other races really notice our small differences i feel were are black people to them,honestly.i feel we treat each other as a whole and a community differently and unjustly more so than other races treat us.every race has there own problem but we dont know it,its their little secret.i just found out that the asian community feels that eyes that have creases in them are more beautiful than those without and asian americans are getting plastic surgery to get creases in their eyes.Before i saw them all the same,and i still do, but they dont.

my best friend is dark skinned and i feel like shes had the same amount of oppertunities if not more than ive had and im brown skinned.just like u had the ex top model on ur show who's half white and said she was called the n word and she looks pure white come on.
to sum it up its just us as a cultre and community that needs to get over this.unfortunatly i dont see it happening any time soon though.

Hey tyra

I was just watching your show "do light skinned people have it easier than dark skinned people."I think we all have it bad but dark skinned people do have it worst.Like most of the people on the show I had people tell me im to black to do this and that.When I was in school the kids call me all types of names from tar girl, blacky,crispy I have been it all. When I got in to high school I had a low self esteem I was shy didn't really talk to light skinned people because I thought that they all was evil. Then when I was 16 I started dating this light skin guy and he proved to me that all light skinned people wasn't the same.Then after him everyone started telling me that i was so beautiful, my skin is sexy and so forth.Then I started dating this dark skinned guy who use to tell me that I was pretty for a dark skinned girl.So I asked him what color was his pass girlfriends and he told me they all was light skin.Then I asked him so why is he in this relationship with me. so he told me that light skinned woman are to stuck up for him now.Then I started to feel umcomfortable around him because everytime he saw a light skinned woman he stared at her or said something about how sexy she was like beauty was only in light skinned woman.I started feeling ugly around him.I started feeling out of place when i was with him and everything.So i losed interest in him i got tired of hearing him tell me i would be sexy if i was light skin so i left and to this day he dont know why i left him.I felt like he was trying to make me feel ugly all the time.Thats why i do think we as dark skin people have it worst.

Hi Tyra! I'm a 12 (turning 13) year old proud African American girl! I'd say that I'm milk chocolate coloured. For me, todays show was amazing. It really got me thinking...adults tell us children to look up to them because they always know whats best for us, and yet today there was a woman who was showing predjudice against her own race. That kind of thing doesn't upset me like it would other people, but it makes me more proud that I am African American. I dont have nappy hair, a big nose, or full lips...but I'm still beautiful.

This show was most meaningful because it informed people of what is still going on between human beings. I am a retired elementary school administrator; and in my youth, walked and supported civil rights. However, I was surprised, when in my 50's a fourth grade light-skinned Hispanic told me about the level of racism he experienced in the Hispanic community because his skin was so light it was close to whiter than my own shade. Today, as I watched the show, I thought how are we all going to just treat each other with human decency when in various ethnic groups they are discriminating against each other. This breaks my heart because when you see, only for example and not to compare any human to a dog, dogs come together at doggie daycare, they don't care who is spotted, AKC registered, long hair, short hair; but we humans seems to look for everything to separate ourselves from each other -from humanity. Victor Frankel wrote that we should only separate ourselves into two groups: those who are decent and those who are not. Can we behave more intelligently than dogs and begin to celebrate each other for the greatness that each brings to this world and move into a brighter and more prosperous future?

I am the type of person that shares ideas and gives advice but, I never go along with them myself. So here goes...This all started with the Willie Lynch Letter (look it up). The purpose of this letter was to seperate the many shades of Blacks (mostly the light and dark skinned) by putting us against each other. Unfortunately, this sorry exuses of a white man succeded. I am a 21 year old "caramel complected" African American Woman and as bad as it sounds, I got caught up in this mess. I still am, sort of but not as much because I try not to allow the mentality of the white man to control me. I used to have a thing against dark skinned men and women. I got over the girl thing because I have some wonderful, beautiful dark skinned lady friends. But the men are a different story. When I was younger, the dark skinned boys were cruel and phony while the light skinned boys were oh so sweet. I would tell the dark ones, "I don't know why you are so mean because you aren't even cute. You black and ugly." I don't feel like that now about some of them because I know some that I'm cool with but because there are still some ignorant ones out here, I will never date one. I would grab the light skinned brother with a quickness and from time to time, a caramel skinned brother but I would not give a dark skinned brother the time of day. I have a tendancy to dwell on the past. Sorry for being ignorant but I blame white people. You may ask "All of them and if so why?" No, not all of them but the ones that I have encountered and encounter. The reason is because the shyt is still going on. They smile in my face everyday but I know what goes through their head. I don't know if I am a racist because I have a handful of white friends but I dislike most white people because of this. I wish I could overcome this obsticle but I am so freakin stubborn. However, when I have children, I will try my best to make their views the completely opposite of mines.

Tyra,
I was watching your program and it touched me very deeply. My brother and I are the same as the sisters on the show. My brother has always been perceived as the light skin fine one and I was always looked at as the dark skin trouble maker...literally I was the black sheep of the family.
All through life I have had to work twice as hard for everything I have. I still have to prove my worth within my family, it is very troublesome. This has hurt my relationship with my family over the years, it’s almost like I‘ve been drained of all my energy and life is this bland series of motions I have to go through for the next 60yrs.
Rick

Hey Tyra! :]
My name is Stephanie and I'm 14 years old and Hispanic. I'm a bit darker than some of my family members (including my mom) but Im PROUD of it!I just watched your show on skin color and I Loved It!! I think it's great for you to have all of us understand that we are beautiful the way we are =). I try to talk to my mom about boys that I find cute and they are darker than me. I don't understand what's the big deal but i guess my mom gets a bit annoyed, she asks me "Stephanie why do you like darker boys?" it upsets me but i don't think there's anything wrong with that =) I just hope one day she respects my choices =)
Whether we are darker or lighter we are beautiful and we should never let anyone put us down
Thanks Tyra for showing us valuable lessons that we can take wherever we go and share it with other people as well

Hi my name is Kaydie and I don't think the color of your skin should matter. As an eighteen year old, I still have a lot to learn, however I am old enough to know that if I judge someone based on their skin tone then I will never know who they really are or what they are capable of. My dad is extremely light skin with very curly hair. I am nowhere near what he looks like. I'm dark skin with deep brown eyes and no curly hair. I've been put down by light skinned people and i've also been put down by dark skinned people. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, it's all about who and what you are inside. Race, color, origin, or heritage, I love them all. I have friends of all different types of background and skin tone and I've also dated guys with different backgrounds and skin tone. To me, it really doesn't matter. If I like it then who really cares. I don't like it when people judge me for the wrong reasons, so to judge someone because of their skin color would be more than wrong of me. It's not what you look like or the color of your skin, it's who you truly are inside and what's in your heart.

hi tyra i loved your show,am a caramel shad my best friend is light skin,when we walk together they call her "shabine",that's a phrase for fair skin girls in the carribean,
on the other hand when am not with her and walking with my other dark friends am the one they call "shabine" .At the end of the day we are all one race and that's the human race God died for all of us red,yellow,black and white.God watches pass our skin colour and look into our hearts,we are beautiful and wonderfully made in the image of God

HELLO TYRA,
I WAS SITTING IN MY LIVING ROOM WATCHING YOU SHOW WITH MY DAUGHTER. I HAVE A 2YR OLD WHO IS LIGHT SKINNED AND I HAVE A 2MONTH OLD WHO IS DARK SKINNED. I LOOK AT MY DAUGHTERS AND PRAY THAT I NEVER MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND THAT THE WORLD DOESN'T EITHER. I MYSELF AM A CARAMEL COMPLEXION.I LOVE MY GIRLS AND I THINK THAT THAT IS JUST APART OF BEING IGNORANT THE HAS ALREADY SEPERATED US AND TRIED TO LOWER WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE STAND FOR BUT I THINK THAT WE AS A RACE SHOULD SHOULD STICK TOGETHER AND NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EACH OTHER AND I LOVE MY GIRLS AND I TELL THEM EVERYDAY THAT THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE THEM WITH ALL MY HEART. MY SISTER AND I ARE LIKE MY GIRLS SHE IS MUCH DARKER THAN ME BUT I THINK SHE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CHOCOLATE WOMAN I HAVE EVER MEET IN MY LIFE AND I WOULDN'T CHANGE HER OR MYSELF FOR ANYTHING AND IF SOMEONE EVER MADE A DIFFERENCE IN US I WOULDN'T TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY ESSPECIALLY IF SHE DESERVED IT MORE THAN ME.

Hello Tyra, I just finished watching your show about if light skinned black people have it easier than dark. I didn't move from the t.v. the whole hour. Myself..i am dark skinned. My mother is light(redbone) my father is very dark skinned. I think im a beautiful mixture of the two. Growing up I wasnt really teased for being dark but i can recall a few times feeling bad about my skin color and wishing to be lighter like my mother. Sometimes now at 22 i catch myself doing that. I can remember when i was young people used to say i was a pretty black gal and i had the most beautiful complexion. Over the years actually my complexion has gotten lighter. I used to stay out of the sun so i wouldnt get darker. Its so sad to me how we have this backwards view of ourselves and seperate each other.Divided were falling we need to reunite. Others say im dark skinned i would always say im brown skinned. The show has opened my eyes some more to how i view myself and others. Like the one racist chick with her adorable son, i could only laugh at her and her ignorance.She is the exact example of how alot of dark girls perceive light girls. Horribly stuck up and conceded.Because they think they are better or mixed. Im no better because sometimes i'll say that ok your lighter...your the watered down version of me. People should look at who a person is and not skin color with any gender or race. And as for dating. I too feel that society believes that lighter is better and prettier. But i find it interesting that alot of light skinned men approach me. Matter of fact a guy i just met looooves my skin color and is much much...much lighter than me. I'm tall, brown skinned and sexy!I truly do admire you Tyra, this is a serious issue among us that will take centuries to fix if it will ever be resolved. Hope theres a part two id definitely come on the show and bring my two cents.

Hi Tyra,
You don't know how this show brought tears to my eyes. I am 13 years old and dark skinned and hate it. In videos and pictures I come looking so black and kills me on the inside because I wasn't always this way. My mother is your skin tone and my father is alittle darker than that. I used to be light skinned when I was younger as many African Americans were, but I got darker, and then there were those summers with the hot sun givning me a tan. Well when I got darker my mother use tell me "when you were younger i used take care of you and your skin was beautiful". Things like that really hurt my heart also being called by other dirt, ugly, you couldn't even look at my face in pictures because you were distracted by my dark skin. Also having parents that immigrated to the U.S from Africa and obivously looking like an African people always made fun of me calling me shaka zulu, or monkey chaser. People have also told me you would be so much prettier if you were lighter. Then there was school at first I went to a private school where they made fun of this boy because he was dark-skinned. They weren't really making fun of me and so I joined in the teasing, and one day a girl told me "I'm sorry to say but you to are like the same color" so I felt like all the time they were making his life hell that could've been me.When I went to public school all the girls, and boys who were dark always had double the attitude so you would be scared to make fun of them. And I'm not loud so I was an easy target. Now I use bleaching cream to make me lighter. And no one really makes fun of me that much anymore. People are actually commenting me for being beautiful. And now I feel even more horrible because I sold out I told myself I was going to be that dark skinned girl who made it in life and let people know that it's okay to be balck, but now i'm just like everyone else. Now I realize that now i'm lighter that I harbor more hate about myself like things like my face. I have a wide nose, big lips, and a big forehead and sometimes I look at myself and want to vomit. It's not like there's any dark skinned girls on TV except for video girls who are mostly being praised for their butts or breasts. All the black women like you who I admire who preach about equality are not really dark skinned either so I can see where you're coming from, but I don't think you've ever really went through some of the things I did.

Hey Tyra,
I watched your show today on different skin shades for black people. I'd have to say I was very shocked at the story of the two sisters, one who is dark, and one who is light. I think that skin tone has a big role to play in every race. I mean in high school I heard of black women getting very offensive if they saw a white women with a black man, I heard stories of black women saying that white women were taking their men. I just wish people could get over the color, I mean its not about what color we are, its about who we are on the inside, and that should be it. I think its really shallow when people start basing how a person is by their color. I was also disturbed at that one lady who didn't want her son dating dark skinned women... a) that is not her choice, and b) I think she needs to get over her issues with dark skinned women. I am a white skinned, and yet I was very shocked at how black people view other black people. Tyra, your show today was very inspirational and not just to black people, but to every race!!

my name is marissa i'm 15 and a sophomore.....I'm Jamaican and have about medium-dark complection...I really liked the show it was sad that one lady thought that light skinned people are but it was good to see that her son didn't agree with her....yea it was bad that darker skinned ppl treated her badly but she culd have probably tried harder and try and work it out and not have some sob story about dark skinned girls treating her badly she needs to think of how poorly those dark skinned ladies were probably treated it's sad that this world separates everyone.....whter ur a light skinnede in betwen or dark skinned black person doesnt make you any better over the other....it shouldnt matter what the persons skinn tone is i kno for me when pplsee the way i act they say u dont act or look like a black person and i jus think it's sad that they say that in jamaica u saw all types of ppl yes there was probably racism but it wasnt overdramatized ican understand that if you were treated badly but you have to try to not judge other ppl based on ur past experiences.......as for guys i find attractive i like white black brown puerto rican or asian any type....most of the time at school i look at the guys and i'm like ooh hes cute and i talk to him and he has a bad attitude and if he's darker than me or lighter sum ppl may say oh u just dont like him because he's darker than you or lighter than you....and what ppl need to realize is that looking on ppls outsides does not show u how they are as a person and how they are going to act.....not all black girls have a big nose big lips and a big booty cause i'm black and my lips nose and butt aint that big but that doesnt make not black enough and another is when ppl find out i was born in england they say ooh i thought only white ppl were born in england and they look at me as if i think i'm better because i was born in england.......and it's terrible that black ppl are being perjudice against other black ppl...we already have to face prejudice from other ppl and we are suppose to be together and help one another we r beating one another down.....and hear it all the time at school like kids oh this lil light skinned girl jus think she all that and a bag a chips and alot of other stuff thats just not right

no matter what color you are you should be proud because we are all beautiful not just one color is

As I was watching the light vs. dark skinned blacks episode I was very intrigued. I think it’s great that we as people of color discuss these issues. Although, I am always disappointed when people discuss topics like this and the reason why is because it’s sad when there is a denying of one side of ones racial heritage. Let me explain- I have a 5 year old niece. Her father (my brother) is black and her mother is white. When asked what race she is my niece says “I’m half black and half white”. She is 5 and aware that she is not just black but also white and that her parents are from two different race that blended together to make her. It’s sad that multi-racial (not just black/white but any combination of cultures) people frequently classify themselves as one race. It is a slap in the face to one parent (usually the white/ lighter one) It takes our entire culture back hundreds of years when the one drop rule was in effect (The one-drop rule is an historical colloquial term that meant that a person with any trace of African ancestry (however small or invisible) cannot be considered white). I realize that bi-racial people make up a small percentage of the population which makes it difficult for them to be their “own group” but the numbers are fast growing. I also realize that because we self segregate ourselves most bi-racial people just want to find a group to belong to and our society forces them to choose one- usually black. On the episode there were the several light people and only 2 or 3 of them said they were bi-racial (and 1 who said she wasn’t but gets asked of she is).I was really disappointed that more people didn’t speak up and tell whether or not they were made up of more than one race. We as a society need to stop seeing things as just black and white and realizing that there are millions of shades of gray. I love myself as a dark skinned black woman, my sister in law loves herself as a white woman, and my niece loves herself as a black and white girl. We all love ourselves as people.

Dear Tyra,

My name is Shala, and I am in the ninth grade and I have come to realize that color in a race does very much play a role in how one is treated in society. I am medium to dark skin and I am called white by many of my african american "friends", and it really angers me. Because until now I didn't know that I didn't see race in people unless someone brings it up. I am a third caucasian and being called white by my african american friends, makes me think that they consider lighter things bad. I don't speak in ebonics and I hang out with people my age of all races, but I don't feel that that makes me any less of a person. Others may think that they can tell me who I am or what and how I think based on my skin color but I am here to tell them that they can't. I have my own mind and i am my own person! Don't tell me that I act so "white" like its a bad thing. Don't come at me with condescending demeanors like you know what I am all about and what I represent. You can judge me all you want but what you WON'T do is dictate MY life. Because I am what I am, ME, NOT the color of my skin.

Sincerely,
Shala

Hi Tyra,
My name is Shayla im very whie and i have black cousins and i like this really dark gay he is hot and on some dark skins they have bigs lips i like there lips i think it is kool.