Wonderful essay. Very enlightening. I was surprised when an Indian friend of mine told me that her siblings were all light skinned compared to her and that her mother treated her differently because of it (she said her mom was not as kind to her). I guess it was ignorance on my part to be so taken aback. However it's still a mystery to me why white people who hate brown people sit in tanning salons or out in the sun to achieve that same color that they profess to hate in someone else. Of course I confess to being totally stupid when I admired a friend's tan only to have her say ... Lynda, I'm Spanish, this is my natural color. (Observe much?)