What is the Color of Beauty?

Today, as I was on twitter, I noticed Roland S. Martin post up his article that he wrote on being dark skinned. It spoke about being dark skinned in this country and its effect on us African Americans. (Below is a link to this article by the way). But it got me thinking, why is there such a problem with being dark skinned. It always bothered me and sometimes it still does bother me when people reference me as being dark skinned. Or when i hear the sentence: "you're pretty for a dark skinned girl", I don't know how to respond to that because: what does that mean? Dark skinned people can't be pretty? Whats up with that?! People do give more attention to those who are lighter and the ones who are lighter are more wanted. What happened to "the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice"?
     I remember when I was in the first grade, there was this girl that I was partnered with for my desk partner and I had to sit with her the entire school year. I remember seeing how pretty she was. She was light skinned, had long bone straight hair and that was really the first time I seen a black girl like this. I was so jealous and I guess for me, that's when I felt that those who were lighter skinned with long straight hair was prettier than me. I felt inferior. I dealt with issue for the longest time in my life and it was only recently did I began to accept my skin complexion.
       African Americans come in a variety of colors and we all should celebrate that. We shouldn't put each other down just because we're not the same color because at the end of the day, we're African American. Whats your opinion on the matter? I really want an answer to this because this intrigues me.

http://www.creators.com/opinion/roland-martin.html