As a child, I never really understood why I wasn't allowed to live with my mother or why she couldn't not live with us even though my parents were married. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I realized that my paternal grandparents discriminated against people with darker skin tones and that my mother had no right to raise me because that she was dark-skinned and also from the countryside. My grandmother was of Japanese descent but was born Jamaican while my grandfather was a dark-skinned black man of British descent and the main culprit of family colorism. My grandfather always said "to be respected and successful in our country, you must have a lighter skin color", and I say that and laugh today because even though I don't agree with his quote, there must be some truth behind it. because, from my point of view, almost ninety percent of the men and women in our Jamaican nation bleach their skin to have a brighter skin color, while the remaining ten percent are those who have already fair skin. After my little brother was born he was much darker than me, I remember my mother saying "maybe your grandfather will leave us alone now", but of course when my brother was a year old he lived with us. I blamed my father for not standing up to his father, but I loved him for at least trying, even if unsuccessfully. My grandfather was a police commissioner and in my country it is almost impossible to challenge a man of order and succeed; in other words, they do what they want when they want and no one can or will do anything about it. At some family gatherings, I used to laugh at the stories they told about my father and his siblings in the middle of a paper......and I wished them the best in life . This type of prejudice still exists today on a national scale; even some companies in the United States refuse to admit that they have demonstrated bias by promoting African Americans to higher positions, such as CEO or vice president of a company. A lighter-skinned person would most likely be selected because they were considered "prettier" to represent the face of the company than a darker-skinned person with a more qualified education. The pop stars, athletes and public figures our children look up to are whitening their skin. What are they doing to these children's self-esteem? Making them feel like they're not beautiful if they were born dark. This is not acceptable, we are beautiful no matter what color we were born. I can ignore my grandparents' venial prejudices, but I will not inflict the same prejudices that my grandparents had on my children or anyone else..