With light-skined stars like J.Lo, and Halle succeeding, dark skinned become more "Out of Sight" (Core Post 5)

After reading the Salon article by Erin J. Aubry, “Jennifer’s Butt” by Frances Negron-Muntaner, and “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat” by Shari Roberts I began to see that there was a clear consensus that stars like Jennifer Lopez can succeed, and because they have the fair skin that makes them more palatable to white audiences, but feature something like Lopez’s million dollar ass that this audience is interested in seeing because it doesn’t exist in their world all the while keeping racialized audiences satisfied because there is someone on screen that you can identify with. I have a real problem with this because it basically confirms the unspoken of ideal that to be successful in America you have to be white, or as close to it as you can be. The issue of race can not fully be addressed when actresses like Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez are frequently given roles that transcend their race, and are more preferred ethnic characters need to be casted over arguably more talented actresses like Angela Basset, who suffers in Hollywood with the types of roles she can audition for because of her darker skin.

Having fairer skin is a gift and a curse because it discredits the actor or actress who obtains roles because of it. On the one hand it’s gift because Lopez can get a role in Out of Sight that was written for an Italian actress, but it is a curse because some Latinos will see her as a race traitor for not representing Latin culture. I come from a background where my mother is a Latina, and my father is Black, and because I am light-skin I feel that when issues of race come up other Blacks feel that my opinion is not as valid as theirs because of my perceived racial ambiguity. The same happens the opposite way when I have been in an all white class at USC talking about race and prejudices, and my opinion seems invalid because many classmates incorrectly think that I am half-white and can not relate to the black experience in America.

The point I am trying to make is that these articles are getting it wrong. They frequently say that Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez have succeeded because they have an exotic look, but are nonthreatening because they can pass as white is bullshit. America does not understand that people of color come in all different colors, and Hollywood buys into these ideals and cast accordingly. This is a big problem, and further pushes society as a whole back as far as race goes as racialized bodies who are darker toned don’t get fair representation and start to resent fairer skinned people of color, and white audiences only become comfortable with people of color who can pass in their world.

Questions
1. Does Hollywood's ideal of the light skinned actor being more palatable match up with the real world's?
2. Will Smith broke boundries by being casted in a orignally white role (in the tv series the character was played by a white actor) in Wild Wild West, but the film suffered critcally and didn't live up to box office expectations. Because of this have black actors suffered in getting a high profile role that has nothing to do with because of their race?
3. Why are Latina stars like Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Cameron Diaz, and Christina Aguilera frequently asked to play white.