It’s a world wide phenomenon. My very brown Thai wife watches Thai television over the internet and mentions that the *stars* in Bangkok based things are white skinned. Their word for foreigner is farang, a reference to whiteness. Up country stories have the traditionally brown Thai and Lao people. I don’t know that a value judgement is ever expressed, but you can see it. As for the brown paper bag test, about forty years ago we were denied service in a fraternal organization’s restraint because she failed the test. It’s been decades since we’ve experienced that though.