You are glum and depressed as you aren’t getting job because you have dark spots and pimples on your face which disgustingly outdo your qualifications. Suddenly, your eyes fall on a commercial on TV where your light-damn-near-white skin favorite actress flaunts her fair skin color and credits her flawless beauty to a skin whitening cream. You give it a try and in just 4 weeks you are the apple of almost everybody’s eye (except your parents, because they love you the way you are)and there comes your job flying to you.
All of this is quite a day dream because none of this happens in real. There is no doubt in saying that Indians are color conscious especially when you find people asking you if you are a Madrasi(recognizing your dark skin tone), not withstanding your repeated corrections that South India HAS FOUR STATES NAMELY TN, AP, KK AND KL. People never want to acknowledge and will say 'Madras ke paas hi naaaaa' type rubbish fake complete ignorance. Thank God, South-Indians are quite polite and mannered.
And as if this isn’t enough, there are fellow citizens around us who remind us the difference by offering us with skin-bleaching lotions and fairness creams which promise to change your dark destiny with their magical solutions. Believe it or not, many people fall prey to it. I personally feel these ads which favor such kind of racism should be discouraged or even better, banned from being broadcast. It’s sickeningly annoying that we judge a person by his looks or caste or race but not by his qualifications and abilities.
Prejudice against color and caste is a serious issue in a nation that essentially consists of three races — the Aryans of generally fair complexions from northern States, the usually dark-skinned Dravidians from the south and the light-colored people with Mongoloid features from the northeast.
Not surprisingly, matrimonial ads demand for brides of fair, v. fair and v. very fair skin alongside foreign visas and advanced university degrees whereas dark girls are often discriminated against, and it is not rare to find their families being forced to part with a huge dowry to find a groom. Even though we say we are advanced and have overcome orthodox thoughts and views, why is that a girl who is beautiful stands a chance to get all the goody-good attention than the girl who is ugly and dark?
Of late, Indian men appear increasingly conscious of their skin color. A range of cosmetic products promise to make them fairer and "more handsome," clearly indicating an unhealthy link between complexion and the image of beauty. The dangers of such advertising cannot be underestimated in a nation where various forms of racism already exist.
At the start of the American Civil War, there were still more than 4 million African-Americans living in slavery. Now, approximately 153 years later, a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s racial history was observed when an African-American became the President of that same nation in 2008. Sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease Barack Hussein Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States. Well, now even if we say racism has come to an end in the US, there is always going to be a section of America that will never accept the fact that Barack Obama was born in the United States grew up and went to college, including Harvard, and then was elected the president. They believe so strongly that the system in America is geared towards the white straight man that it is clearly impossible for anyone else to achieve success on their own. But to some extent there was success, an end to the racism that prevailed in America. But what about our India?
The million-dollar question is- Even if India is not racist, what would you call this bias treatment that doesn’t seem to end? There must be some kind of fairness to these fairness struck people who don’t seem to understand that beauty is eternal and within.
