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Sosa is symptomatic of global self-hatred
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The term, “colorstruck,” was injected into mainstream black vernacular by Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston, whose 1925 play Color Struck, addressed the idea that black Americans judge each other based on the lightness or darkness of skin color.
When an African-American refers to someone as being “colorstruck,” it means that the person shows preference for lighter skinned blacks. The preference for lighter hues can be applied to dating relationships, marriage and even preferences for seeking friendship or fellowship. The worst kept secret in black America is the fact that many of our organizations from fraternities and sororities to social clubs and houses of worship are colorstruck. In fact, many families still struggle with issues of skin color and hair texture among themselves.
Conventional wisdom among African-Americans points to slavery as the root of skin color issues. Many are familiar with the house negro/field negro mentality, as spoken of by Malcolm X, referring to the notion that slave masters allowed lighter skinned slaves to work in the house, while dark skinned slaves toiled in the fields.
Recently, the shocking photos of Latino baseball legend, Sammy Sosa have focused the nation’s attention on colorism outside America. Sosa, a native of the Dominican Republic, who has now admitted to using a cosmetic bleaching cream to lighten his skin, is symptomatic of the negative feelings many cultures and nationalities have when it comes to skin that is not light, bright and darned-near white.To know that black Americans are not the only culture in the Diaspora with skin color issues is all at once comforting and disheartening.
In the Dominican Republic, skin bleaching and hair straightening are not just rites of passage for well educated or upwardly mobile persons of color, they are expected. While a few historians and intellectuals in the Dominican Republic are 
leading a charge to embrace African roots, according to a 2007 article in the Miami Herald, most Dominicans subscribe to the “one drop” rule in reverse. In other words, one drop of white blood entitles a person to consider himself white. In addition, dark skinned Dominicans will go out of their way to describe themselves as anything other than black or of African descent, preferring instead to claim Indian and Spanish heritage and to explain their darkness as a result of sun exposure. Only Haitians, their neighbors on the very same island, are thought to be black, as in African.
leading a charge to embrace African roots, according to a 2007 article in the Miami Herald, most Dominicans subscribe to the “one drop” rule in reverse. In other words, one drop of white blood entitles a person to consider himself white. In addition, dark skinned Dominicans will go out of their way to describe themselves as anything other than black or of African descent, preferring instead to claim Indian and Spanish heritage and to explain their darkness as a result of sun exposure. Only Haitians, their neighbors on the very same island, are thought to be black, as in African.In India, advertisements promise career and dating success through the use of a whitening cream, “Fair and Lovely” for women, and “Fair and Handsome” for men. See if you can detect the self-hatred:
Some in Asian countries also dream of snow-white complexions:
Funny, how scientific evidence pointing to the fact that every human on the planet is descended from an African, is dismissed, or ignored by the majority of humans. Sadly, self-hatred is universal.
Africans, too, are willing to risk their health for lighter skin. Skin cancers and infections are prevalent in communities in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria where women who refuse to bleach themselves are considered pariahs. While a few of the most dangerous bleaching products have been banned in some African countries, dangerous skin lightening rituals continue, including the use of overly concentrated hydroquinone creams and soaps which prohibit the production of melanin in the skin.
Some of the products boldly labeled as “skin whiteners,” in European, Asian, South American and African countries, are also sold in America with more politically correct descriptions. Such potions here are called skin “lighteners,” "brighteners," "correctors," “toners,” or “eveners.”
However, before buying into the notion that everyone just wants white skin, consider the fact that tanning chemicals and procedures are just as popular among Anglo-Americans as bleaching techniques are elsewhere. There are white folks willing to die of skin cancer for the warm hue that comes to some of us naturally. According to some international studies, tanning beds are as dangerous to the human body as arsenic.
Perhaps we’re all colorstruck one way or the other.
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