I think colorism is perhaps less obvious in the US context than it is in say, Jamaica or Brasil. Because all recognizably Black people whether "yellow" or jet black, have been treated as niggers, and live everyday surrounded by a white society that treats them as such. This is probably why people (including myself) who have spent long periods in the US have tended to react with some hostility or skepticism to this issue of colorism that has been presented on these boards.
But colorism is a fact. Seeing as you and I are both lighter skinned, perhaps we are not as aware of that as some darker skinned people might be.
An ex-girlfriend of mine is very black-skinned and also extremely beautiful (by anyone's standard I could imagine). She spent her whole childhood being told she was "ugly" by a family member who was angry that her (light-skinned) mother had married a dark-skinned man. This can't be a one off isolated experience. I'm sure many people have experiences like that.
The cops will shoot me before they shoot a white person. But they just might shoot a darker-skinned and hence "more threatening looking" person before they would shoot me.
A great many Black people in the US seem to find lighter skinned people more attractive as sexual/romantic partners. I think that is probably the most obvious way colorism plays out in the U.S.
Generally speaking the phrase "if you're white you're alright, if you're brown stick around, if you're black, stay in the back" still applies I think. To different extents and in different ways in different places, sure. But it applies. Whites have set the standard, and the closer you are to that standard, the more privileges you get, the further away, the less. (Obviously this is a generalization- a black-skinned wall street exec with a six figure income is more privileged than a light-skinned unemployed "hood rat". But IN GENERAL I think it is true).
I think a lot of Black people (of whatever skin shade) who have been responding negatively to the discussions about colorism here, have been misinterpreting these discussions as some sort of attack on light skinned people or as saying that light skinned people are less worthy, or are not really "Black", are sellouts, etc. But I think if you read closely what Ayinde and others have pointed out around this issue, you would see that that is not what they're trying to say at all.