To understand the importance of racism against skin color you must first understand racism as a whole. Racism began around the seventh century. African American were being murdered and beaten because of the color of their skin. Many centuries after that racism had gotten much worse. Even after slaves had moved on to the United States. There was no change in action; only a change in location.

The release of the William Lynch letter played a big part on racism. Essentially, his letter was a manual on how slave owners should treat their slaves. He was all about controlling and separating slaves by every characteristic, especially color. He even thought it was a good idea to separate African Americans by their skin color. To him, it made sense for lighter toned slaves to work in the house because they were smarter and beautiful. The darker toned slaves would work in the fields because they weren't as pretty, nor as smart. They didn't serve any other purpose other than doing field work. Because the lighter skin slaves worked in the house, they would be able to learn from their masters. They were taught things that darker toned slaves would never have the privilege of learning including speaking correct English. After slavery was abolished, there still was racism going in within the race. The separation of color between African American was obvious. At the turn of the 20th century, after slaves were supposedly free, the light skinned Blacks believed what they had been taught by the slave master and treated the dark skinned African Americans discriminatory. Stewart, Bernadette. "Art Exhibition Exposes Racism." 15 October 2009.