Hi Tyra!
It's evident that you don't read all your e-mail because I addressed this issue and called you out on it long ago. I am a dark skinned female and I agree with the teacher that posted a comment. I think you were just catering your show probably because you have been a disservice to your black sistas. You sure do display your long hair everyday!!!!! Just be real and admit you would rather be white yourself. Oh, yeah the girls you had on America's Next Top Model didn't portray not a hint of really dark-skinned females. Now tell the truth!!! I'm not even going to go into detail about injustice in the past when I still have to go through it today with ignorant shades of blacks.

Ceciley Tyson and Lena Horn because of their wholesomeness, confidence and talent would be winners hands-down in competition with any light or white women in any beauty contest (given equal dress, make-up and hair style). (during their younger years). Their kind of beauty is lasting. My sister is darker, shorter, heavier and the prettiest and people at church did not know that we were sisters until we told them. She is more successful than I although we both attended colleges. She graduated and went on to earning a master's degree. She used more wisdom than I. She had more determination than I. I have three sons, who are three different shades; all have the same father. The youngest son who has the darker complexion and had a complex about it is the only one of the three who earned a bachelor of science degeee. All three attended college. I am considered "yellow" it has been of no advantage to me at all. My grandmother was considered the prettiest woman in a small town in Virginia and she was of darker skin with short hair. She was a brilliant woman as well. I've met beautiful people of all colors, races and ages. I have a grandson who has such wonderful personality (the majority of the time) that I remind him every time I get how happy I am that he was born, and I was privileged with the opportunity to know him as a person. Hollow beauty is no beauty at all and pretty is as pretty does.
One woman's opinion!

Hi Tyra, I just wanted to say that it was a good thing that you did this show, because we really have some ignorant people in this world. I think that all skin is beautiful. I mean I am dark-skinned myself and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I get a lot of lighter skinned black girls who will roll their eyes at my sisters and I but I dont care because you just have to let that roll off your shoulders its really sad and petty

Ceciley Tyson and Lena Horn because of their wholesomeness, confidence and talent would be winners hands-down in competition with any light or white women in any beauty contest (given equal dress, make-up and hair style). (during their younger years). Their kind of beauty is lasting. My sister is darker, shorter, heavier and the prettiest and people at church did not know that we were sisters until we told them. She is more successful than I although we both attended colleges. She graduated and went on to earning a master's degree. She used more wisdom than I. She had more determination than I. I have three sons, who are three different shades; all have the same father. The youngest son who has the darker complexion and had a complex about it is the only one of the three who earned a bachelor of science degeee. All three attended college. I am considered "yellow" it has been of no advantage to me at all. My grandmother was considered the prettiest woman in a small town in Virginia and she was of darker skin with short hair. She was a brilliant woman as well. I've met beautiful people of all colors, races and ages. I have a grandson who has such wonderful personality (the majority of the time) that I remind him every time I get how happy I am that he was born, and I was privileged with the opportunity to know him as a person. Hollow beauty is no beauty at all and pretty is as pretty does.
One woman's opinion!

Hi Tyra! I am a light skinned Filipino girl and even with asians...guys prefer light skin over dark skin. Things aren't always what they should be but sometimes they just are. Even in my country, skin color definitely plays a role! Famous people with light skin and american features are more admired. If an aspiring singer or model is dark...they get their skin bleached. I believe everyone has beauty within but in reality... the lighter skin women are viewed more beautiful...it's just the way it is.

Hi Tyra,
I am so glad that you addressed this issue on your show. I am a 14 yr old dark skinned female. I am currently a freshman in higschool. If i get into an argument at school someone may say something like "with your black a**" to make me feel bad. Today made me think like well you are black too im just darker. I am not going to lie but if I see someone darker than me I say the same thing. Watching your show today really made me think about what you said when you said people try to put people down because they were put down so many times. I felt so bad about me saying that because i realized i was no better than the people who said the same about me. You were so right. Also I think that most boys go for the girls with long hair and pretty light skinned. I have short hair glasses and im dark skinned. I have plenty of people in my family that tell me im pretty but i just think they are telling me this to make me feel good. Watching your show today made me feel so beautiful!!!! THANK YOU TYRA

I had to respond back to this comment i just read. Im a 21 year old hispanic woman with a 5 yr old son whos father is black.Since ive been born people always thought i was mixed so i always attracted black men.I think dark skinned men also at times chose light skin because they may have some self hatred inside. I know alot of light skinned men that love some chocolate.To the 'WOMAN' that said what was the point it wiLL only stir more hatred because of the racism. For Starters..usually racist tend to always claim who they know is black!!Im a young mom and i teach my son to love himself and everyone because they are SO many diff. shades and sorry to say,but i think i may be a little more mature than you.Know what you're talking about and next time,check the spelling

Wow Tyra,

A show that was need. before I share my main piece of mind. I just want to comment about what Amanda had said about the politically correct "African America." I am a black person that considers myself African America because my family is Native American and African, just as well as many black Americans. But you know what? If American born Italians aren't called Italian American, and American born Germans aren't called German Americans, and the American born Irish aren't called Irish American, then why do all black people have to be called African Americans??? Shoot, that phrase "All American" is usually refered to as a blonde hair blue-eyed, but to me, the only All American in this country is the Natives of this land. Now...we need to remeber "polically correct" was designed by politicians, which to me isn't correct at all.

As for the shades of black...this isn't just in the black community. I feel all people except the white community has struggled with the lighter verse darker. Probably only in the white community is darker actually seen as a more beautiful thing, that's why they love tanning. The latin community discriminates against their own, feeling as though lighter is better than darker. The Caribean, etc. All in all the main point that I wanted to come to is: I feel this issue, within the black community, doesn't start from American civilization. I believe it is rooted back to Africa. Pharoah's and Queens, if you've researched the Pharoah's were lighter than the slave workers. Hell, they had to be in that hot sun. So even then, the royalty was lighter, and the slaves were darker. Creating an image of better and worse.
teh problem now is how do we shatter these view? By doing just what you did Tyra...Talk About It!

Hola

So I just finished watchin your episode on black women and race. My ma vcr-ed it for me, yeah no tivo, haha its practically the same thing! Haha. Anyways, I come from a Mexican family and pretty much that’s all the flavor we got in the family. Many of my family members are racist, they won’t say it, but they are. My grandfather is an indigenous dark-skinned man who does not have a problem with black people, but then again says we should never marry a black person. I even have family members who don’t like to say they are Mexican! But rather that they’re Brazilian, Puerto Rican, Latino or from Spain. I guess it’d be okay if we weree mixed, but family sure isnt!

On the other hand, when someone asks me my race, I do say Mexican. However, im not someone who wears the Mexican flag on my shirt or carries a Mexican flag, but I don’t do this with the American flag either. I just try to be culturally open to all races and embrace them all; why should you brag about your own race? Doesn’t that, in some sense, say other races are not as good as your race? Also, I hope I don’t offend you, but Ive noticed that Black women ask why are so many Black men leaving to marry women outside their community? This offends me, because why shouldn’t they? Why should Black men be expected to marry Black women just because they were born with a certain skin color? And if not, then or else something is defintely wrong. In my opinion, this applies to other cultures too. I think you did a show on this as well.

Im not sure, one of my friends tells me I have no culture or lack of sense of pride in my Mexican heritage. But I just like to believe that im a little bit of everything, and my outer skin is just a means of protecting my soul and inner being and that in the end Im just a human being like everyone else. Haha, ive even put it on applications when I was asked for my race. So instead of putting Mexican, I’d put human.

Dang, I said I wasn’t gonna write a lot, but I did anyways. Okay thanks and I find you very inspirational. Please keep up the stimulating shows! I love top model too!

Hi Tyra,
I am sixteen years old and I am dark skinned. It is so much worse in High school than being an adult. Plus I live in california so we have it bad. It is so hard to be black already and you are discriminated against by people of a different race, but now we discriminate against eachother. I am kind of jelouse of the light skinned girls at my school. Like the women said on your show, they always have the boy friends and they are always the popular ones. The real issue is the guys. You know that is all high skool girls care about. Personally, I try not to care all that much about what guys think of me and I focus more on my education. But I can not help but notice that I never get attention from guys, especialy around light skinned girls. Most of the black girls in my school are light skinned or mexican and they always get the attention from the black guys. I hate going to the mall or the movies. I try to have a good time but i always get jelouse because there are always more guys than girls and I am always just the wing man that does not get any attention. Sometimes I wish soo much that I was light skinned. I am told that I am pretty all the time. But they only come from my family members or people at church. I never get complimented by guys.I often see dark girls having to draw male attention to themselves some other way because their looks can not do it alone. Thats why I think they often dress like they have no sense or act "ghetto". I see black girls do it all the time. I feel so ugly and discusted with myself. It realy hurt me when one of my friends who is a black guy told me that he would never go out with a dark girl and he is just not attracted to them. It is not like I like him but it still hurt. I prefer a black guy and I am affraid that I will never be able to date within my prefrence and I am going to end up alone for the rest of my life. I am not so jealouse of light skinned girls to the point of hatred and i want to do watever I can to keep it from getting that far. My dad told me one day that he had a white girlfriend. Sometimes I think that he should have stayed with her so I can come out light skinned. Dark women can say they are beautifal all they want to make themselves feel better, but if other people, especialy men, dont see it, what is the point? I hope as I get older, this changes. I just do not see what is so wrong with us. We are going back in time instead of going forward. Thank you Tyra for giving me this opportunity for me to voice my opinion and I am fo sho voting for you to be one of the most influential.

Hey Tyra,
I watched your show today and even though i'm not African American, I can also relate to it. Im 18 and im Mexican American. I believe that skin color is a factor to all races. I remember in 8th grade I just moved to a new school and I didnt fit in because im light skinned with freckles. There was a particular girl who would comment on my skin color. In one occasion she was coming towards us(me and other girls in our group) and she went up to me and said that she didnt know I was hanging out with them, that I looked like a white girl. It didnt only happen in school but my family also made comments on my skin. Even my cousin said that Im too white to be Mexican, that I should get a tan, and that I even dress like a white girl. It is already hard to fit in society, I dont understand why it should be hard in our own family. I feel that as a young woman I have tried to look at people differently. People should discard nationality, ethnicity and skin color when judging someone because in the end we are all the same. Why waste our time disliking someone because they are White, Black, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, etc. Because tomorrow they are still going to be the same.

HEY TYRA!!!! My name is Timika I am a 18 year old mixed female with a very open mind about EVERYTHING. I strongly believe that your skin color, race, shape, size, or anything else you think will stop you from getting what you what is a excuse for why you are not trying harder. Now I know that there is still people out there that think one race, or skin tone is better than the other but nobody should let that stop them. I think that should make you want to prove them wrong and trying harder. Women and men of races that think they cant do something b.c of the way they look need to look at the people around them, open a magazine turn on the TV b.c it is people everywhere or every race that you can look up to....You are your biggest enemy so stop making excuses and start making something happen with your life. Everyone has there own opinions some are just worst than others.
TYRA PLEASE WRITE BACK!!!!

OH! and another thing,as far as hair is concerned,my hair is long and wavy,and so many times i wish i could have a hairstyle that will stay just like Black hair does!We all want something different at one point!! Many might want my hair..but sometimes,girl i wish i could just put a pretty as weave on;)

what where you thinging?
black skin, white skin, is it nessarary to do the topic you did!you are adding the fuel to the fire!I know that racist people still exit! my closet friend was black.so what was the meaning of your show? the white people are getting fed up with this bullsit!
you said to be Baunt!
if you contuine like this, you will have no aduniace left!leave it alone!
we have a black senater going for president!!!!!why bring this suggant now!

Hi Tyra,
I am so glad that you addressed this issue on your show. I am a 14 yr old dark skinned female. I am currently a freshman in higschool. If i get into an argument at school someone may say something like "with your black a**" to make me feel bad. Today made me think like well you are black too im just darker. I am not going to lie but if I see someone darker than me I say the same thing. Watching your show today really made me think about what you said when you said people try to put people down because they were put down so many times. I felt so bad about me saying that because i realized i was no better than the people who said the same about me. You were so right. Also I think that most boys go for the girls with long hair and pretty light skinned. I have short hair glasses and im dark skinned. I have plenty of people in my family that tell me im pretty but i just think they are telling me this to make me feel good. Watching your show today made me feel so beautiful!!!! THANK YOU TYRA

Cecily Tyson and Lena Horn exibit both beauty and substance even as they matured in age; lasting beauty. Beauty of character, and talent makes for wholesomeness that is priceless. With the appropriate clothes, hair and makeup they could win any beauty contest hands-down competing with light or white women!!

Ok, im a hispanic 21 yr old female and i grew up in Cali all my life! Color does play a big part in all races,im tanned/yellow.I have had almost everyone say i look mixed and im not,i personally think dark skinned black woman are BEAUTIFUL..and so are light skinned and i do not think its right to justify a dark skinned woman treating someone thats light skinned wrong.WHY?growin up in cali there is so much racial tension between latin and black and for a race who should be strong and merge together,such as ourselves,fightin over color is only bringing us down. I'm very light in a black females eye,but even in my OWN RACE..im considered dark and they tend to like the "white skin"its ridiculous..i love color on me!like many have said people wouldnt be tanning if it wasnt beautiful

Hey Tyra,
I like that you brought this issue to the surface, and since you are a black woman yourself you thought it was the best way to address the issue (since it hits so close to home for you) of is lighter better/easier. But one thing I think that you should realize (you probably already have) is that there will always be that problem within different races, I mean look at the holocaust, and the masacre in the Dominican Republic (which was much like the holocaust), it's really just another sad and awful, existing "truth"
(as you would say), that doesn't seem like it's going away anytime soon.

I myself am considered white and a majority of my background is (french, irish, German), but I am also 25% mexican and it's a part of me that I wish I showed more! Also it seems that most girls now a day want to be darker/tanner, I'm sure a lot of lighter skinned girls would agree that they wish they were darker. The door swings both ways!

Honestly your show left me bewildered! Because it wasn't really something I thought about much, personally I like to go by the slogan of I don't see race, I see someone's personality, I just wish others thought the same way!

Teri at 6:34pm wrote: "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"

I just want to say... Cry me a damn river! The way YOU treat "light skinned" people is DISGUSTING! you should be kicked for being so stupid to think its ok to treat anyone differently based on skin color.
~*That makes YOU no better then the people you say hold darker people down!*~

I just wanted to comment on tonight's show. I am a medium skin black woman and I admit that in the summer, I will lay at the beach or by the pool to get darker skin. I love my skin tone, but to me darker skin is BEAUTIFUL!! It always looks so flawless. So I just wanted to say to all of my dark skin sisters out there, don't let people bring you down, all of us are beautiful and when someone says something negative about you, it's because they are lacking in some area of their life.

Hi Tyra,
Your show today brought up an issue that is very important to me today. Skin color and judgment. I am white, as well as my uncle who married a beautiful dark skinned woman and they had a son who is now 9 months old. I watch him every day and love him as if he were my own. But my issue is, when I bring him around friends, or out to the mall people think they're being "politically correct" by referring to him as African-American. Well this irritates me because he is not African-American at all. His mother was born and raised in Guyana, which is in South America. It brings up the issue of "what really is correct" with me. Trying to be correct just gives people an excuse to be judgmental, for someone to look at my cousin or his mother, see that they are dark skinned and assume they are African-American. I guess what I am saying is that through my experiences, I have learned not to be judgmental- to look at someone and see them as a person rather than a color.

Teri at 6:34pm wrote: "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"

I just want to say... Cry me a damn river! The way YOU treat "light skinned" people is DISGUSTING! you should be kicked for being so stupid to think its ok to treat anyone differently based on skin color.
~*That makes YOU no better then the people you say hold darker people down!*~

Dear Tyra,
Todays show made me feel even better about being dark skin with red (It's Natural)were all different that's makes life more interesting.

Tyra,
I loved your show today. I am a dark-skinned black women whose mother is light skinned. Growing up I was teased in a jokingly manner about my skin color by other black kids. The comments they made did not make me hostile because my Mother made it clear to me early on that my complexion was beautiful. In high school I was VERY popular...I was on Homecoming Court all four years. I have a beautiful dark skinned daughter who gets complements from people of all races, but as she sees any girl lighter than her she states how she wants to be like them. At that point I always remind her that God made her beautiful like her Momma :)

I just watched your show and couldn't help but cry! I am a 50+ year old white woman and I believe that people should be judged by their actions, not the color of their skin. How sad to see people dissing others because their skin is lighter or darker. We're all sisters and brothers. We all have red blood. We all cry the same tears and have the same sensitive feelings. We're all people. I remember being a child and having the other kids call me "bucktooth" because I had a little gap between my two front teeth. They called me "Tom" and "John" when my sister cut my hair too short once. In high school, a friend's father called me "Anne Bones" and a teacher called me "Spider Lady". I hope and pray that one day we can all love one another regardless of our color, our weight, our hair, or any other meaningless features. It's what is in our hearts that counts. Thank you for doing this show. I think it may have opened the eyes of some people. I know there's a long way to go, but we have to start somewhere. Keep up the good work, Sister!