When confronted with the notion that darker skin is less desirable to light skin in many countries, many people default to the notion that poorer people would develop darker skin from working in the sun all day, whereas lighter skinned people didn't have to. Is this notion rooted in history throughout the world or are there specific regions where it applies more (if at all)?
If it's possible to separate this folk history from the obvious fact that colonial Spaniards (for example) has lighter skin than the indigenous Central and South American people that they coerced into servitude, let's do it.
We know that the narrative of an oppressor would create this sort of sentiment - I'm wondering if it's possible that there are examples of the narrative growing organically within a population of people.
While more can obviously be said, you might look at /u/mustaphamondo's answer here, discussing colorism in Japan from centuries before European contact, as well as the effect of later European/American influence in the 19th-20th century. You can also look at /u/AsiaExpert's answer here.
/u/KippyPowers and the following discussion here addresses colonial influence on colorism in South and Southeast Asia.