Unfair yet Lovely

Nazifa Rafa

How many Asian actors and actresses can you name from the top of your head?
Six? Ten?
Impressive.
How many of them were dark skinned?
Impressive…

So notorious is the success of South Asian societies in advocating colorism. Society has employed the most lethal weapon in establishing a hierarchy within skin tones – the entertainment industry, where fairer skinned individuals automatically have an upper hand in hitting the screens over their counterparts, regardless of skills.

We all grew up watching the clichéadvertisements of skin whitening products, where the leading woman has newfound self-confidence because her skin ‘grew fairer’ and she suddenly lands a job in the place that had consistently rejected her because of her skin. The worst part about these advertisements is that they are hardly lying. Even recently, in 2015, a group of young girls in Maharashtra were denied employment as flight crew due to their darker skin tones. True to the present time, advertisements now also portray men struggling with their skin color, which only goes to show how no one is truly safe from colorism.

Colorism could very well be the spoiled brat child of racism, only with colorism, the discrimination comes from within one’s own race. Don’t we all have that one member from our extended family who always takes it upon themselves to make it their life’s mission to lower ourselves in our own gaze? Imagine them further causing us to feel uncomfortable and hated in our own skin, without even having to be forthrightabout it. Why should someone have to avoid wearing a certain palette, or avoid staying out too long in the sun? Who allows them to dictate how a person should live based on their skin color?

A little historical discourse on colorism takes us back to the colonial period, where British officials would demean dark-skinned natives and favor light-skinned ones.Why then does, our pride in our independence end right before the birth of colorism? Why has our society allowed it to be perpetuated?

Even in such a progressive and accepting time as today, colorism’s persistence drowns out the voices that question the logic and ethics of its base.Campaigns like “Unfair and Lovely” are empowering, but fleeting. Even though figures like Bibi Russell have challenged society’s beauty standards, society remains unflappable and rigid on its directives.

However, so shall we.

We are not mere molds of our society’s constructs. The change shall start from us, when we learn to accept and love our skins, whether they are sun or moon kissed, or somewhere in between.