The human shade card

The TV keeps on blaring jingles about “fair and lovely” , “fair and handsome” , “sabse safed”…… In a country where maybe only 10 % of population would fit in the “safed” category , rest being numerous shades of browns and blacks , a question comes to my mind , why are 90% trying to become like 10% ?

Are 90% of the people suffering from inferiority complex? (“Safed” being a superior color?) .

Why do we want to leave our own skin behind (much suited to the Indian climate), and become something which we are not?

And why does brown need to be a synonym of ugly?

There are no answers to those whys, but the fact remains, color discrimination is prevalent everywhere .If you saw one Jade goody in UK, every one walking the streets here is a Jade Goody (whether safed or not themselves).

One incident on the world map and it makes front page news for weeks, while each day we are doing the same. I’m quoting a few instances (generally seen)

• No dark skinned kid is ever “teachers pet”
• Fair and cute kids are chosen for stage shows, dances, welcoming parents on front doors of school programmes.
• The fairest girl collects most roses on rose day in college
• Who wants a non-safed receptionist, air-hostess, waitress?
• American bahu with 2 kids from prior relations, more acceptable than a keralite bahu.
• Dark kids , never a favorite with grandparents , many times parents too.

People going through such experiences are prime consumers for fairness products (Already a huge market). Instead of asserting the rights of the brown, dark, dusky to live with equal dignity and respect, we succumb to the abnormal norms set by society and keep on buying such products, in hope of being liked just a bit better by people around us .We don’t realize that we don’t need the cream, we just need to accept ourselves the way we are – brown and beautiful!