Having light skin, you were given more advantages than a dark skinned person and were more accepted in society. .
Having light skin, you would get more attention, because you are considered more acceptable than a dark-skinned person. Felipe Luciano, a reporter for the New York affiliate of Fox 5, talks about this culture difference:" I appear on the black forums all the time, but I've never been invited on a Latino forum," says the dark skinned Latino. "On the radio, but not on TV. I've even had ad executives say that I was too dark and that wouldn't sell." It is also happens within the family; you would get more attention if you were light-skinned. A high school senior said, "My grandfather accept me, while he treats my sister as if she doesn't exist because she is darker." A light-skinned person could get more attention and make sure all their needs get taken care of, while a dark-skinned person in the same family would be ignored and become invisible. A dark skinned would get less because having light skin means that you are a better person than a dark-skinned person.
In Haiti, discrimination doesn't come in forms of black and white; rather it's more of a light and dark-skinned separation. The lighter your skin, the more privileged you are considered: "Skin complexion has such an impact on Haiti, that you rarely find any light-skinned people in the poorer classes and you will not find them marrying someone with a different complexion" (http://students.syr.edu/360/winter/longroad.htm).
Light-skinned blacks receive preferential treatment from the white power structure and this allows them to get ahead much more easily. In the 1930s when blacks first began to get office jobs, light-skin preference. But some light-skinned blacks did what is known as "passing"-- presenting themselves as white to get jobs that were reserved for whites. According to Branham, assistant professor of Afro-American studies at Northwestern University, thousands of blacks simply merged with the white culture, as early as 1890s: "Lots of people can point to a relative who ceased to be black and simply disappeared into the white community.
