"Skin colour is associated with individuals' preferences as well as their outcomes. With some exceptions, most Americans prefer lighter to darker skin aesthetically, normatively, and culturally. Filmmakers, novelists, advertisers, modelling agencies, matchmaking Web sites–all demonstrate the power of a fair complexion, along with straight hair and Eurocentric facial features, to appeal to Americans. Complexion and appearance are also related to how voters evaluate candidates and who wins elections."–Hochschild, JL; Weaver, V. The Skin Colour Paradox and the American Racial Order, December 2007.
One suspects that if a similar study were done in T&T, one would find that we are not that much different. During the campaign for the May 24, 2010, general election, the People's Partnership developed a communications campaign with the aid of the Photoshop computer programme, and delivered an advertisement which morphed the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin into Patrick Manning. Manning's cherubic face was darkened and put into a picture of Amin's, sporting his army general uniform complete with oversized chevron.
Along with the advertisement, the platform speakers and other UNC spokesmen would mention repeatedly, for alliterative effect, Manning's "Mugabe-style" government, likening the Manning administration with the dictatorship in Zimbabwe, where opposition parties are not even allowed to compete fairly.
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