I started noticing the “colorism” issue in my “fancy” college where almost all the black students had very light skins (except the ones from Africa).
I saw it again in the workplace in the management ranks.
Then I started noticing it on TV and started researching it further.
It is a truly “taboo” topic for everybody, black and white, but once you notice it, as you say it becomes obvious.
One other thought—the most nefarious aspect of colorism has been affirmative action programs because of course they do not distinguish between dark skinned and light skinned blacks.
In this case I think the liberal whites who designed the program were totally clueless on the subject.
Meanwhile the institutions met their quotas while continuing to discriminate against dark skinned blacks.