This post reminds me of the Taiwanese guy I worked with in Japan who was convinced, convinced I tell you, that black people's skin gets lighter as they get older, based solely on, I shit you not, the recasting of the Vivian Banks character in Fresh Prince of Bel Air. *headdesk* (He didn't realize they had recast the character. He really thought that because your skin "stretches" as you get older, the color gets lighter. Seriously, where do people come up with this shit?)

As you said, it's not as if fucked up ideas about black folk springs up out of the ether.