[Katie26716]

I agree that people should be proud of their skin and outward appearance. I think people who choose to take part in this process have serious inner problems. When people do this, they are not satisfied with themselves. I believe they are mentally off and don't have the understanding of what life it about. Life is about living with what you're born with and making the best of what you can, not trying to change everything you were meant to be.

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Name : Katie26716, Gender : F, City : Rochester Hills, State : MI Country : United States, 

[Mary]

Actually, when my grandparents, (who were white, middle class, as I am,) were growing up, it was considered very low-class to have a tan because it meant that you had to work outside, which was a sign of being blue collar. What changed? Hollywood. Stars starting being idolized and imitated, and then those same stars started spending their holidays in the French Riviera, etc., and coming back with tans from hours of laying leisurely on boats, by pools, and seaside. The aristocrasy was immediately able to get into this because they, too, could jet off to any Carribean paradise they felt like. So having a tan began to be associated with luxury -- associated with being rich and having a lot of leisure time. After all, it takes us white folks a while to brown, even down here in South Texas. So that's how it all happened, according to what I've read. Pretty ridiculous, huh?

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Name : Mary, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 23, City : San Antonio, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Seamus28233]

This gets asked all the time. I could point out that the desired coloring of Americans today seems to be of the Hispanic variety, which is why lighter-skinned black people are often preferred by other blacks, and pale-skinned whites risk all sorts of assorted nasties to tan. That's my stylistic side talking. There is a definite shade that people are going for, somewhere in the middle of it all.

But to get more philosophical for a moment, racial prejudice has never been about color. I knew light-skinned blacks who were lighter than many of the Italians and Portugese I knew, yet were not accepted as readily. Race is a cultural state, not a physical state. The condition of race is much more important than the appearence of race. Hence the one drop rule in the old South.

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Name : Seamus28233, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Charlestown, State : MA Country : Venezuela, Occupation : Renaissance Man, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower class, 

[Laurie]

Many whites I know feel that having a nice, bronze tan makes you look attractive. Having really pale skin can make you look sickly and unhealthy. It's just like coloring your hair or painting your nails or getting a tattoo. A nice tan makes you look and feel better. I like to lie in the sun and get a tan, not because I want to look like another race, but because I just like the way I look when I'm tan.

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Name : Laurie, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Lutheran, Age : 32, City : Detroit, State : MI Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Laurie]

Personally, many whites that I know feel that having a nice bronze tan makes you look attractive. Having really pale skin can make you look sickly and unhealthy if you are very fair skinned. It's just like coloring your hair or painting your nails or getting a tattoo. A nice tan just makes you look and feel better. I like to lay in the sun and get a tan, not because I want to look like another race, I just like the way I look when I'm tan.

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Name : Laurie, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Lutheran, Age : 32, City : Detroit, State : MI Country : United States, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Fern]

This is a topic I've wondered about a lot. When I look in the mirror in summertime, after I've gotten some sun, I think I look much better than in winter, when my skin is very pale. I think that's just fashion, and I am subject to its influence, though you wouldn't know it to look at me, because it usually takes several years (now that I'm 50) for me to start liking something new. But eventually my tastes change, and if alabaster skin ever came into vogue, within a couple of years I'd be on the bandwagon (it would happen sooner than usual because of the health benefits, I think.) The other part of your question is even more interesting to me: Why is dark skin bad? I was astonished to discover that even in Sri Lanka, where I lived for a couple of years in the mid-'90s, and which shares a great deal culturally with India, darker shades of brown skin were considered ugly, and lighter ones desirable. In arranged-marriage advertisements for husbands and wives, 'fair' was a big plus. I once mentioned to a Lankan co-worker who was relatively very progressive that I tended to confuse two of my students because they looked very much alike to me. She responded with astonishment. 'But the one is fair and the other dark,' she said. This was such an important factor that she saw no similarity. I was once introduced to a monk in Thailand (where people often fluff white baby powder on their faces and arms after a bath, because, I was told, they like the looks of it) who hadn't had much contact with foreigners. When asked if he had any questions he'd like to ask me, he queried, 'Why do people from the West lie in the sun on the beach?' I was embarrassed to have to answer that. The truth is, though, that after living for a time surrounded by people of all shades of brown skin, I would often look at a white person and think, 'How ugly! Is that how I look?'

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Name : Fern, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 50, City : Boise, State : ID Country : United States, Occupation : ESL teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Alex]

I think many whites have a slight inferiority complex toward other races. Most other races have a culture that seems more self-expressive, and many of us admire your ability to survive and thrive in worse living conditions. Unfortunately, maybe 20 percent of whites do think other races are inferior, which I think gives minorities a negative impression of all of us.

As far as your specific question goes, it might be difficult for a minority to understand. While you have black pride or Hispanic pride, there really is no similar sense of white pride. Whites don't see themselves grouped that way, and let's face it, white pride is associated with racism. Most whites want to stay as far from that as possible.

In other words, whites aren't getting tanned because they want to be black; they're getting tanned because they think it is more desirable and looks better. It is really not a race question. They don't associate their skin being darker with being more black, but with looking more like that supermodel on TV.

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Name : Alex, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Taoist, Age : 26, City : Madison, State : WI Country : United States, Occupation : Computer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Anonymous]

I don't think some people's narrow view of blacks as inferior has anything to do with it, generally. The reason whites want a tan is the same reason some blacks straighten their hair. Though blacks don't risk getting cancer by straightening their hair as whites do when laying in the sun, if it looks aesthetically pleasing to the individual, they do it.

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Name : Anonymous, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Age : 42, City : Louisville, State : KY Country : United States, 

[Seamus28232]

This gets asked all the time. I could point out that the desired coloring of Americans today seems to be of the Hispanic variety which is why lighter-skinned Black people are often preferred by other Blacks, and pale-skinned Whites risk all sorts of assorted nasties to tan. That's my stylistic side talking. There is a definite shade that people are going for, somewhere in the middle of it all. But to get more philosophical for a moment, racial prejudice has never been about color. I knew lightskinned Blacks who were lighter then many of the Italians and Portugese I knew, yet were not accepted as readily. Race is a cultural state, not a physical state. The condition of Race is much more important than the appearence of race. Hence the one drop rule in the old South.

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Name : Seamus28232, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Charlestown, State : MA Country : Venezuela, Occupation : Renaissance Man, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Lower class, 

[Melissa]

I don't feel superior to other races. I go to the tanning bed and lie in the sun to get a tan because (like the skinny supermodel issue), people now generally feel that 'pale, ashy' skin is unattractive, due to the media. I don't like the way I look without a tan. I look pale and sick. My racial background is German, Irish and American Indian, so I have almost black eyes and naturally dark brown hair, with a red tint when the sun hits it. So when I'm pale I look like I've got the flu. Also, tanning is like smoking: you know it's dangerous, but the reality of the danger doesn't faze most people because you can't see the damage until it's too late.

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Name : Melissa, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Human, Religion : Christian, Age : 22, City : Lexington, State : KY Country : United States, Occupation : Customer Service, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 

[Dan Ryan]

I think suntans as a status symbol for whites is a relatively new development. I think having a suntan represents the idea that you're rich enough not to have to work, so you can lie by the pool, beach, etc. and work on your tan. Before the early 20th century, I think a suntan just meant you had to work outside a lot, so you must be someone of a lower class.

Now, as to white people's presumption that black people are somehow inferior: First, that's ignorant, of course. But, setting that aside, let's say that the person holding that belief actually does hold it. Fear of the 'other' - someone viscerally different from oneself and one's group - one's 'tribe,' if you will - is probably prompted by the most obvious cues first, so a difference in appearance is just that. The fact that, color-wise, there can be a vast difference in appearance probably provokes more fear than if there were just minor differences. I know I'm coming off all academic, but everyone - if they wish to become themselves, and not just another member of a group - has to get past certain things. They may be 'wrong' things, or they may be things that are bad but nobody's fault. If you dwell on other people's stupid behavior too long, you're wasting your time - your life.

You want to know the best thing about being white in the 21st century United States? I don't ever think about what color I am. I don't do one damned thing because it might be good for other white people. I do try to do things that might be good for other people, but I never consider the fact that I'm white when I do them. So I'm lucky. In this world, in this time, I may be luckier than you. But you may be luckier than me in lots of ways, too. Just become the best YOU. People being what they are, if everyone were blind, there would still be lots of us who would figure out some stupid way to discriminate against others

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Name : Dan Ryan, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 49, City : San Antonio, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : Administrator, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[R.W.J.]

Sun tanning among whites is a socioeconomic thing. The tan differentiates the person from the working classes. If we look back to when the working classes spent most of their time working outdoors, pre-industrialization, we see that the skin color to aspire to was alabaster white. A tan or dark skin in general was seen as being the mark of the lower classes (possible the source of the original distinction between the fair and dark races). After the industrialization of the West, when the working classes no longer were tanned as part of their labors, the mark of the leisure class became a 'healthy tan.' The tan was the physical representation of the wealth necessary to have time to spend in outdoor recreation.

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Name : R.W.J., Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Presbyterian, Age : 38, City : Sunbury, State : OH Country : Argentina, Occupation : Consultant, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[KZ]

Being tan hides blemishes, which makes your skin look smooth and even toned. Also, it gives the illusion of looking in shape. You will notice that all bodybuilders are very tan. The reason is that dark colors cast more shadows, which tends to bring out muscle tone that on whiter skin you would not see as well.

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Name : KZ, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, City : St. Paul, State : MN Country : United States, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Matthew]

I never viewed it as getting skin cancer. I am of Italian descent and really enjoyed spending time with friends at beach resorts, clubs and house pools having drinks, laughing and relaxing. Yeah, my skin got darker, but my bone structure and secondary characteristics like hair texture never changed. I don't have cancer, but I do have fond memories of parties during the summertime, which I will never forget- even some great pictures. I don't believe whites getting sun has much to do with wanting to be a different race. Plus, it's a good source of Vitamin D.

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Name : Matthew, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 45, City : New York, State : NY Country : United States, 

[Cynthia31753]

For whites, one's complextion describes one's class. Prior to the 1920's, a Euroamerican's view on skin colour was the same as in Asia--that fair skin meant that one was of the upper classes (which is why upper classes are referred to as 'blue bloods'--they're so fair that one could see their veins) and therefore did not have to do any work on the fields (which causes tanning). However, with the advent of vacationing in the South of France (as seen in Fitzgerald's novels, for example), tans became the marking of one being in the upper classes.

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Name : Cynthia31753, Gender : F, Race : Asian, Age : 22, City : Toronto, State : NA Country : Canada, Occupation : student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

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