Within the black community there are myriad stigmas. In Mary Mebane's essay, "Shades of Black," she explores her experiences and views on intraracial discrimination, namely the stigmas associated with women, darker-skinned women, and working-class blacks. From his experiences Mebane asserts that younger generations, those who flourished under and after the civil rights movement, would be free from the discriminatory attitudes that governed previous generations. Mebane's opinion regarding the younger generation was based on the attitudes of many college students during the 1960s (para. 22), a time when embracing African culture and promoting the equality of all people were popular ideals among many young people. However, intraracial discrimination has not completely disappeared. Many blacks do not identify the subtle nuances of discrimination related to stigmas associated with certain types of black people, such as poor blacks, lighter/darker skinned blacks, and the “stereotypical” black man/woman. For many Black Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, discrimination based on skin color, class, and gender can be overt. The discrimination Mebane observed against darker-skinned black women is still evident among the current generation of black college students. Darker women are considered by some to be unattractive, and lighter toned women are considered more attractive. These beliefs have been passed down through generations since the days of segregation and slavery. During slavery, lighter-skinned slaves were treated better than darker-skinned slaves because they were able to live and work in the plantation house instead of in the fields. Having a lighter complexion has started to be associated with having...... middle of paper ...... right in the Atlanta University Center, it can typically be assessed that a person comes from a low-income neighborhood, or from the city center, on how they behave. These students are discriminated against solely because of the behavior associated with people from inner-city and low-income backgrounds. A serious crime that many college students are guilty of is assuming that a person is less intelligent based on the fact that they exhibit a behavior. For example, in one of my classes at Clark Atlanta many students in the class assume that a particular student is unintelligent and not serious about college because he is loud and brash; two behaviors associated with some people from low-income communities. It is unclear whether this student comes from a poorer family, but because he displays behaviors similar to those that black students have associated with poorer people undesirable.