Colorism

Growing up in a Mexican household watching telenovelas was a normal thing but seeing darker skinned Latinos in these telenovelas was not a normal thing. An explanation for this would be simple. Colorism.
Colorism is the discrimination of darker skin tones typically in an ethnic group. In this instance the Latino community has totally misrepresented and have chosen to exclude darker skinned Latinos not only in the media but in real life too.
When you watch the news on Telemundo or you watch any tv shows/movies on Latino channels you see the lighter skinned people playing most of the roles and see the darker usually in the background. When you look up Latina women you’re going to end up seeing fair skinned women. Most Latin singers are also lighter skinned too. When you picture a female Latin singer, you see Jennifer Lopez, Shakira or Jenny Rivera. The reality is not every Latina looks like this. What about the afro-Latins or the indigenous people?
The problem of the misrepresentation starts in the beginning. Within our own community we discriminated so much that it became normalized. Lighter skin was praised and it was obvious. As a child my mom would always tell me to not stay out in the sun for too long or I would get dark. I remember people always looking down on the darker skinned people from like Guerrero. Associating their darker skin with them being them being bad people.
What can we do to stop this? Acknowledge the problem head on and educate the ignorant. Trying to change a whole culture and community where colorism is literally engraved is really difficult. I made the decision to educate my parents and make them realize how idiotic it is. The damages this type of mindset can have on kids is detrimental.  Shifting mindsets and is hard but not impossible.