Colorism: Is this behavior learned, or regrettably inherited from the previous generation?

I found this paper online called the face of colorism (written by a student at Oakland University) and here is an excerpt:

Colorism; is this behavior learned, or regrettably inherited from the previous generation? I recommend you read Marguerite Wright’s “I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla: Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World,” according to studies preschoolers cannot comprehend the basis for putting people into different groups by race. “To determine which people being in what racial groups, adults use a complex set of cues, including physical characteristics (skin color, hair color and texture, nose and lip shapes, and the like) and social cues. Preschoolers usually put all light-complexion children (whites, Chinese, and light-complexion blacks) into the “white” group,” (Wright, pg. 15), which poses another question. At what age are children being exposed to this type of behavior? It seems that when the previous information is taken into account, children are being taught to separate the different hues of black peoples into different categories. Growing up terms such as “light, bright, damn near white,” “tar baby,” “you’re cute for being so dark,” and such, are expressions that are synonymous with other terms as of endearment such as “redbone” and “dark chocolate,” but in reality, these expressions are tearing down one dichotomy to uplift another.

It seems that the media images of what warrants black identity is somewhat, if not, completely jaded, and in my opinion is contributing to this problem. Picking up any catalogue, whether it may be the current Sears, JC Penny’s, etc., and you will notice the ‘type’ of black identity, which is being represented. Light-skinned babies with curly hair and green eyes, light-skinned females with long straight hair, or the effervescent light-skinned female with a dark-skinned male with beautiful bi-racial kids seems to take center-stage when it comes to representing the ideal African-American family. The propaganda of black culture does not stop there, in a recent issue of Essence, the light-skinned vs. dark-skinned ratio is practically 4:1. A multitude of skin-cream bleachers, hair strengtheners, and weave products flood the back of the magazine.

Not only do we, as black people, do a good job at exploiting our weaknesses. For example, not only looking at the magazines, which are targeted towards a black audience but also our mainstream media, Black Entertainment Television. Turn on your TV set to this channel and I can almost guarantee you the images of light-skinned people, ads and products geared towards hair-straightening, etc, will overwhelm the average person. What can we do try to alleviate this problem, in my opinion, I think this problem is too deep-rooted, although the EEOC is handling the legal aspect of the problem, the social aspect, which is up to the black community, needs to accept the fact that blacks can come in all shapes, hues, and colors.

I don't know if I agree with his opinion that the problem is too deeply rooted to overcome. I think if we teach our youth to combat these issues TOGETHER instead of enabling these feelings things will change. This is a time to unite and move up in our own communities. If we don't accept ourselves how can we ever see a change in how other people perceive us?