History Main / ButNotTooBlack

** Marie Luv said if she was lighter, or white she would be better known and better paid

* [[http://www.nasw.org/users/mslong/2011/2011_05/Prison.htm One study]] shows that skin tone plays alot in the sentencing of blacks. Blacks with a lighter shade received lesser sentencing. Apparently this trope also shows up during job hiring. Even "black sounding" names could hinder you from getting hired, (regardless of whether you're qualified).

** In primarily Indian or Pakistani neighborhoods in Dubai, there are billboards advertising skin lightening cream. The model on the billboard is usually a very light skinned Indian in a business suit. Obviously, this is meant to imply that having lighter skin will increase your chances of being successful (Unfortunately in Dubai, that may be true).

* It has been noted that skin creams that lighten your skin is sharply targeted towards blacks and Asians. And most of these creams are considered to be dangerous (physically, not just socially!).

* In the slavery times of the colonial era throughout North and South America(1500s-1900), lighter-skinned blacks were more likely to be house slaves (partially because some of them were illegitimate children the slave owner had with a slave woman), whereas dark-skinned blacks were the ones more likely to work out in the field. Thus, it was generally preferred to be lighter-skinned, since it meant you had a great chance of working indoors instead of outside in the hot sun all day. Some have suggested that it partially explains why lighter skin and European features are often preferred among blacks and the media as the beauty standard. Not to mention sometimes mixed-race slaves were treated better by their owners, sometimes being arranged to get an education and apprenticeships.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/PokemonBattleRevolution'', of all things. The Japanese version had everyone "white", and the Western ones added tanned and black versions of all the various trainers. It was implemented a bit awkwardly, but it's there.

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUFSHzT2xuY The 2012 Acura commercial]] (staring [[{{Seinfeld}} Jerry Seinfeld]] and [[TheTonightShow Jay Leno]] casting call asked for a [[http://www.tmz.com/2012/04/18/acura-nsx-super-bowl-commercial-seinfeld-light-skinned-black-casting/#comments-anchor "nice looking, friendly, not too dark"]] African American car dealer.

** Gwen Ifill pretty much covers this in her book ''The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama''. Basically saying that Black politicians with the same type of background as the above mentioned politicians are highly more likely to appeal to whites in general as oppose to blacks and poor whites.

* Pleasantly {{subverted}} with AngelCoulby on ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': in the promotional shots for series two [[http://oi43.tinypic.com/1xyr7s.jpg she appears quite fair]], yet in the shots for series four (the season in which she becomes Queen), she is [[http://oi39.tinypic.com/bfkumw.jpg portrayed as considerably darker]].

* In one novel by AndrewVachss a black character explains "the paper bag trick" to his white friend. Paraphrased: "I know lots of black guys who do the paper bag trick-- they hold a brown paper bag up next to their face in the mirror; if their skin is darker than the bag they're going nowhere in life. Nowadays black mothers want their daughters to marry lighter."

* RosarioDawson's mixed racial features allow her to play a variety of races and open up her opportunities for pairings. Similar to Eva Mendes, she can pair up with a white male, black male (''Film/SevenPounds''), and has even passed herself off as Middle Eastern (''Film/{{Alexander}}'').
* Averted in ''ABronxTale''; the filmmakers cast [[http://www.zuguide.com/image/Taral-Hicks-A-Bronx-Tale.5.jpg a young Taral Hicks]] as the love interest for the Italian-American protagonist.
* VinDiesel's semi-autobiographical film ''Multi-Facial'' details the difficulties of a multiracial actor, who can't get parts because he's too black to play white but too white to play black. Diesel's star power has apparently allowed him to jumped the hurdle. He's even played a real-life Italian-American mafioso in Sidney Lumet's ''FindMeGuilty.''

** The historical Cleopatra was a product of several generations of inbred Macedonian Greeks (descended from Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, and his Macedonian wife), so she was probably this trope InRealLife.

** Some people say MJ enforced this trope with his children, using a white sperm donor and a white surrogate because he didn't want black kids[[hottip:*: To this day there is no serious evidence that he used a sperm donor; he himself denied it.]]

** In the last days of the election, pundits started talking about the "Bradley Effect"[[hottip:*:named for Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, who lost the 1982 election for governor of California even though polls clearly showed him in the lead]], where supposedly, white Americans afraid of being called racist would lie to pollsters about voting for a black man. They were wrong.

* Averted with SidneyPoitier, EddieMurphy, Wesley Snipes and Don Cheadle.

Fair skin is a common beauty standard across the world, one strengthened by Euro-centrism (Europe produces and influences the majority of the world's media). However, most of the world's population is possessed of brown skin tones of varying shades, which drastically narrows the typical ideal of beauty. As the trope title states, this hits ethnic Africans particularly hard; many casting directors are in the habit of only--or mostly--hiring minority actors and actresses with lighter skin tones, in the belief that they are more attractive to a largely-white mainstream audience. [[DoubleStandard Actresses are hit even harder]], particularly if they are supposed to add sex appeal to the show.

In a word, this phenomenon has been called "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorism 'Colourism']]". Colourism can also come down to a latent class bias: worldwide, lighter skin (relative to one's own people) has typically been associated with wealth and lounging around indoors, and darker with poverty and working in the fields. Not until sometime around the mid-20th century did the trends start to reverse; the USA led a new trend which saw those with wealth being able to afford extended vacations or holidays, [[ButNotTooWhite and the sun-induced tans that came with them]].

* Commercials would have you believe that all little black girls and not a few of the boys have long, curly, free-flowing hair when not only is the hair type fairly uncommon but braids and otherwise restrained hairstyles are much more usual and practical for small children.

* Averted with SidneyPoitier, EddieMurphy, Wesley Snipes and Don Cheadle..
** Not averted, however, with most of the women playing Eddie Murphy's love interest, as they tend to be light-skinned African Americans.

* Averted with SidneyPoitier, EddieMurphy and Wesley Snipes.

* An odd example from ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': in the promotional materials for the game Isabela had a fair lighter skin tone than she actually has in-game.

* Probably a large part of the reason {{Drake}} (who is actually biracial) is more successful than say, Frank Ocean or Music/RKelly.
** Keep in mind that his suburban middle class upbringing was also considered part of his appeal as a rapper as well.

* Fairly recently, hip-hop stars have come under fire for having predominantly light-skinned black women or other oiled up [[AmbiguouslyBrown ethnically vague]] women of color (biracial, multiracial etc..), including Latino, Asian or even only white women in their videos. It could be argued that it's the casting director's fault, and not the fault of the artists themselves. This is also likely due to the fact that modeling agencies tend to favor ethnic women of a lighter shade, so they're more likely to be cast by default.

* Similarly, the recent ''ImmortalIronFist'' series has occasional "lapses" where Misty Knight is drawn with a shag haircut and European features.

** Also inverted big time with Jan Valentine. In the Manga, he is portrayed as being light skinned like the rest of the cast, whereas in both og the anime series, his skin is even darker than Integra's.

* WillSmith [[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7019342/ said]] that Eva Mendes was cast opposite him in ''{{Hitch}}'' because casting a black actress would have made it a "black movie" that would turn off white audiences.

* * News anchor [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVRGcUlYEGc Soledad O'Brien]] said she went through this. And considers herself black, but was annoyed that whites were only comfortable with her for all the wrong reasons.

* In ''MassEffect'', there were many Caucasians, Asians, Hispanics, and AmbiguouslyBrown characters, but no dark-skinned black people until Jacob in the sequel.

* Many believe Alek Wek is primarily being used, and that her "inclusion" in the model world is very disingenuous. Believing she's been positioned only for cultural shock value. Which is doubly sad since Alek Wek is, by any standard other than the fashion industry's, perfectly attractive. It should be noted that light complected blacks with African facial features are less likely to have their ethnicity called into question no matter how light they are (for example model Carmen Solomon). While on the other hand, a dark complected person with naturally straight relaxed hair, and European facial features are MORE likely to get asked "What they're mixed with?" despite how dark they are. So it's not just skin tone, but facial features that plays a huge part of this trope as well. It doesn't really mean they're just as better off as a light complected black with European facial features though. Interestingly enough brown skin, or dark skin black people are less likely to be called biracial even when they genuinely are biracial. A good example of this is FreemaAgyeman. This is because people only see lightskin as the only complexion biracial/multiracial people can have. While dark, or medium brown is the only complexion black people can have, Not realizing that there are fair skin Africans who weren't effected by colonialism. Body types also plays just as much a role as facial features does. This includes slim waist, lean legs, slim thighs, silky straight/curly/wavy hair and medium to small sized butt. Basically every black Victoria secret model.

* RosarioDawson's mixed racial features allow her to play a variety of races and open up her opportunities for pairings. Similar to Eva Mendes, she can pair up with a white male, black male (''SevenPounds''), and has even passed herself off as Middle Eastern (''Film/{{Alexander}}'').