Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Colonialism, though intrinsically detrimental, has had a lot of positive effects on the Indian subcontinent. The Indians took what they learned during the British rule and ran with it and are now one of the fastest growing economies in the world with one of the largest skilled labor forces in the world. And yet, the dark side of the legacy of colonialism rears its ugly head every time you turn on the TV.

One of the biggest markets in India seems to be for “fairness creams.” These are creams that you apply on your skin (mainly your face) that help your skin grow fairer. Effectively, the creams serve as bleaching agents that prevent the body from secreting melanin and voilà…

 
You don’t have to understand the language to get the gist of it. And actually, I’ve come across studies examining whether fairer skin increases an applicant’s chances to land a job. I wouldn’t be surprised if the results proved that it did either.

As crazy as it may sound, a lot of people use fairness creams everyday like they were putting on lotion. Ignoring the detrimental physical effects this can have on the skin (some experts say it could even lead to cancer), just the fact that people in South Asia are taught to hate the color of their skin and told to use creams that change their skin tone is indicative of a deep lying self hatred. You hate the way your skin looks so you try to change it. This is reminiscent of the light skin-dark skin dynamic that plagues the Black community in the States and no less damaging to an entire people’s psyche. Yet again the white standards of beauty reign supreme.

That being said, I was still shocked the other day to find this on my TV:


 
Great. Now they’re marketing it for dudes, too. Just sad.

And here's a picture I found...

Obviously a parody but it still captures how some would wish Obama looked like. Remind you of anybody familiar though? haha

Still, this is no laughing matter and this phenomenon (like other legacies of British rule in India, e.g. cricket) has spread to Nepal, too. Fair and Lovely, Fair and Handsome, etc, etc. The idea that dark (even dark-ish) skin is ugly is drilled into people’s heads. It’s a vicious, money making cycle that perpetuates self hate. But I suppose that’s just the way the world works. Lighter skinned people want to tan and get darker. And darker skinned people want to bleach and get lighter. The grass is always greener...