Dark skin is "inferior" to white skin above a certain latitude because it contributes to a higher incidence of vitamin D deficiency. Humans in those latitudes have thus developed a preference for lighter skin which produced healthier people.

The opposite is true in latitudes closer to the equator, where warmer weather and more sunshine meant darker skin protected the skin from sun damage and premature aging and so was an advantage.

I suspect evolutionary patterns ingrained over thousands of years take time to change. Combining that behavior with the economic prosperity of northern countries over more southern ones may have caused the false association between skin color and success.

But in my case, my wife has darker skin (she is from a nation on the equator) and I am light skinned (my parents were of German ethnicity).

While I fell in love with my wife because of the person she is, I consider it a benefit that our children have darker skin than me and so are less likely to die of melanoma like my mom did.