Last week, major league baseball player Sammy Sosa stepped out at an event in Las Vegas looking several shades lighter than usual (SEE HIS PHOTO BELOW). Here was his (b.s.) reasoning:

“I use a cream to keep my skin smooth and soft. I apply it before I go to bed. When I was playing for Chicago all those years, I was in the sun a lot for 1 o’clock games. The flashes (from the cameras) also made my skin look lighter. I’m surprised with the controversy this has caused.” And Sosa would not disclose the name of the cream he uses, saying that it was European and that he was in negotiations to market the product. Spare us, please.

Diddy: Dark-Skinned Girls Need Not Apply

Now, while I think the decision to go pale and pasty is his and his alone, I don’t quite understand the reasoning behind it, and if some people could see me now, they’d say, “And you never will…,” because I, myself, am by no means considered “dark” to many. Having parents of two different Caribbean Island backgrounds made me a simple shade of tan. That’s right, tan. I’m not caramel, brown sugar, or butterscotch because I’m not your dessert condiment.

If being light-skinned is so grand, then why are the ones who have no say in the matter, who were naturally born that way, still subject to ridicule? We’re told we’re acting “high-yella,” even when we’re not, simply because our skin color is enough for rationale. And those “light-bright” and “redbone” nicknames get old quick; in fact, they rival the name-calling that happens on a playground because they’re juvenile and just as insulting. They sure as hell aren’t compliments.

Omarion Only Dates Light-Skinned Women

And if being light isn’t considered superior, than why do both the media and celebrities seem to be so fixated on it? What’s wrong with being dark-skinned? Applying the “Chicken-Or-The Egg” school of thought to this matter, I wonder what came first. Was it the entertainment industry who told us that light-and-bright is always all right? Or is each incident (i.e. skin-bleaching, Photoshop white-washing, etc.) an isolated one, and completely unrelated to another?

It seem that Tameka Foster may have pulled a fast one…Tameka recently did a blog post on racism for the Huffington Post and we were all pretty impressed with it.  However, there is one person who is not so happy with Tameka, and her name is Aisha Curry.  Aisha wrote a book titled ’Pretty For a Black Girl’ which reads very similar to what Tameka wrote.

Here’s Tameka’s version:

“She’s Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl…”

I am a dark-skinned African American woman with features that reflect my ancestry. Debates regarding Light vs. Dark and other biases have plagued our race for years and continues to impact millions of Black women. The deeply rooted intra-racial contempt that lies beneath this inane “compliment” is the reason I’ve chosen to spark dialogue surrounding the topic of self-hatred in our culture. It saturates every aspect of our lives, dominating the perspectives of our generation as a whole. We culturally are so influential, at times inadvertently, that we affect all with the words we utter and the images we portray. It lends to the theory of systemic racism. I’m authoring this piece because I’m miffed by this reality and would like to share my views on these subjects.

It is a fact that many African-Americans are often mixed with an array of other ethnicities (as am I), which allows for the spectrum of our features to be as distinctive and special as we are diverse. Why is it felt that the more diluted our traditionally African features become the more aesthetically acceptable we are considered? It was said in the 1960s and the sentiment seems to be forgotten, “Black is Beautiful.” Wow, nearly 50 years later and is that now only meant for a specific shade? Nonetheless, I believe the beauty of our people and splendor of every individual is reflected in our varying features and hues.

Here’s what Aisha is saying:

“My heart sank into my stomach. All the hard work, all the sleepless nights I had endured was playing back in my head as I read this article written by a woman I didn’t even know,” Curry told BV Buzz. “Why did I feel so connected to this article? Suddenly, it came to me. It was my work! It was my work, my voice, but in her words. I was frozen. Tears began rolling down my face as I read line after line after line. I couldn’t believe it. The idea that someone could gain notoriety from an issue that I first brought to the forefront is mindboggling. People were praising her for tackling an issue that had never been exposed. Hello?!? I wrote the book on it and started it years ago. The only difference between her article and my book is she used ‘dark-skinned’ and I used ‘Black.’”

Curry said she began writing ‘Pretty For a Black Girl’ in 2007 after receiving compliments about her beauty, only to have them followed up with a reference to her ethnicity.

“One day about five years ago, I was absolutely tired of being told that Aisha Curry was pretty for a black girl,” she explained. “I started asking my friends if they had heard this statement before, and as time went on, I realized how prevalent the issue was.”"I received the link and it changed my life. A friend told me that they had read an article in The Huffington Post called ‘She’s Pretty for a Dark-Skinned Girl’ written by Tameka Foster. I knew the title was similar to my book but I didn’t jump to any conclusions,” Curry recalled. “So, I went to the site and began reading this article. If she would have changed the words ‘dark-skinned’ to ‘black’ it would be exactly the same title as my book. My frustration quickly turned to anger and I sought God for answers. ‘What do I do? What can I do?’ At that moment, the appropriate reaction was tears. All I could do was cry! Thankfully, I had the support of my family and close friends who surrounded me with love. They quoted scriptures from the Bible, which gave me strength. I began to receive phone calls from people who had read the book and they said: ‘Wow, I felt like I have heard all that before!’ That’s when I decided to do something. I picked up the phone and called as many supporters as I could.”

The Fresno, Calif.-based mother and wife of a professional athlete acknowledged that there is the slim chance that Foster could have penned the blog essay, however, she believes otherwise.

Check out our Tameka gallery:

Did Tameka threaten blogger with a beatdown?

A couple of days ago, I posted Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex” video for my PLAY OR SLAY? column. But instead of telling me whether or not the video sucks, the majority of the comments focused on the ethnicity of the main girl in the video.

What the hell?

For one thing, the column was about the video, not the girl. But I’m always open to hearing a good debate, so I’m willing to hear out all complaints. However, what’s with all these folks talking about her being white? She’s clearly not white, so pick another argument. Is it that she’s lightskinned, or “ethnically ambiguous”? Are we going to go into that again? Fine. But here’s my beef: why do you care so much? You didn’t produce the video. You’re not in the video. You don’t have to watch the video.

I DO think it sucks that there are video directors and artists who take preference over browner girls, and that’s really wack. But maybe I’m just an equal-opportunity employer, having two black parents of completely opposite skin tones and having crushed on or dated men of literally all ethnicities, and that could very well be why I think this debate is kind of bullshit. She’s just a pretty girl who beat out a bunch of other pretty girls to get the spot in this video. Maybe there were shadier things afoot in the making of the vid, but who knows? We weren’t there. I’m just kind of pissed at the fact that her racial ambiguity automatically makes her “white,” and therefore makes her “wrong.” That’s ignorance at its best. Or maybe I’m just sore because she reminds me of my little sister, who has green eyes and light skin and hair down to her butt, which has, on more than a few occasions, automatically made her “white” and thus “wrong.”

All I’m saying is, if you’ve got a good basis for bitching, by all means, do it. Go on – be mad that yet another light-skinned girl gets some shine over the millions of beautiful dark-skinned women out there. Be mad that the video just isn’t that good altogether and, to add insult to injury, they’re using a woman of “preferred”  skin tone as its main focus.  But if you’re going to rant, get your facts in order before you run around spouting hate. Cause at the end of the day, all this chick did was get paid.