Black people, brown people...my people. I love all yall. We all the same but i don't think that everyone feels that way. There are different stereotypes associated with the different shades in which we come. For example if your a light skinned sista you may be perceived as stuck up or you think you cute...maybe even an air head just like blond haired white women. If you a light skinned brotha you are judged as a pretty boy or a playboy. If your a brown sista you may be looked at as more intelligent than your red bone counter parts but only because you have to compensate in some way for being more...chocolate. But of all the stereotypes I hear the brown brotha gets the most props. He is perceived as a protector, hard worker...more well rounded. Now any smart person will tell you the shade or color does not make the person so any of those aforementioned stereotypes could apply to us all. Now up until i was 23 all of my girlfriends had been of the red variety. It's not that I didn't find my brown sistas attractive but it just seemed to me that light skinned girls were more attracted to me and the brown ones didn't like what I was about(probably do to the stigmas i mentioned). Then I had my first brown girl at 23 and at 27 I'm in a serious relationship with a fine brown honey dip(not the one I dated at 23). But to get back on track, why do these perceptions exist? With every myth, joke, or wives tale some truth is found. I think all of this started with slavery. You had the lighter slaves working in the big house and the darker ones in the fields. The house slaves thought they were better because there work was easier and they may have had better clothes or even ate better. The field hands resented them and may have even looked at them as the weaker of the race. And with the slave masters sneaking down to the slaves quarters to get a little black love, more and more babies were being born with fair complexions. Because these were kids of the master they might have even been treated better. That is were the division started. Nowadays you have fraternities and sororities that do what is called the "brown paper bag test" to judge if you are light enough. Employers seem to hire those who are lighter. Black people get all up in arms when whites discriminate on us but we do it to each other all the time. And you know what? That's what the "MAN" wants us to do because divided we will fall. I don't think that one shade is better. I mean I'm light skinned (or so they say) and I don't like the stigma associated with me. I'm goal oriented, a provider, and most importantly I'm strong. All of us have flaws and strengths that you can't always see but one thing you will always see is that we are all BLACK. Once that sits in, we can stand up against anything. And that's the reality of the situation.