Black is beautiful! (And, by the way, so is every other skin color)

Dr. King was right, black is beautiful.
Dating-age Americans, however, have such a hard time seeing the beauty.
Post-racial America remains a distant dream. For some skin color is all that matters.
Too bad.
Young men and women should not be completely written off as a candidate for a relationship solely because of skin color. Unfortunately, black men and women are.
A Facebook survey examined dating preference among young unmarried adults. Asian women received the most responses from men and Latinas ranked second. White women were second to last and black women were at the bottom. Women preferred white men, followed by Latinos. Black men were dead last.
Asian women and white men are portrayed well in the entertainment media – black men not so much.
Black actors rarely play roles that do not involve sports, dance or criminal activity. Latinos have just as much trouble scoring roles that do not involve drugs, cleaning or agriculture.
On-screen black women are bossy, white women are adventurous in bed, Asian women are gold diggers and Latinas are knife-wielding locas.
Light skin is in, at least according to our films and TV programs.
For generations dark-skinned people have taken the brunt of our culture’s stereotypes and are mostly portrayed as inferior to those with lighter complexions. These stereotypes fuel depression, self-hate and low self-esteem in young girls and boys.
Our entertainment media greatly affects perceptions. Commercials need more color, more variety and more personality. We need movies with normal black guys who are not thugs or rappers. We need to see Latinos who are not janitors or gang members.
Women must be portrayed in a different light as well. Black women do not constantly fight and yell, not all white women are easy, not all Asian women are gold diggers and not all Latinas are going to stab you. Movies, commercials and television should start featuring more positive role models that are realistic and relatable.
Not everything that glitters is gold and not everything that is gold glimmers. Gold is cold, expensive and weak. Build a relationship with a person based on who they are on the inside, not what you see on the outside. You may just open yourself up to something wonderful you never thought possible.