‘High yellow’ blacks have always constituted a kind of upper class of blacks in America. The Jesse Jackson family and the Bowman family of Valerie Jarrett are examples.
Back when they were Negros, some Negro clubs and even potential marriage mates had a skin shade qualification test with darker shades kept out.
I can’t find the video, but there was a hillarious skit from SNL with Julian talking about how lighter-skinned blacks were smarter than darker-skinned blacks. Later on Julian disavowed the skit, but I do think that in general, lighter-skinned blacks really do think this way.
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76rblackperspective.phtml
Sad, isn’t it (or “wasn’t it”); racism from all people. What a sad situation...