COLOURISM : DARK IS BEAUTIFUL

“be black.be brown.be white.be YOU!!”

What is colourism exactly? Colourism (Often known as SHADEISM) is basically a prejudice or discrimination in which persons are treated differently based on their skin colour. This so called trend of “LIGHT SKIN VERSUS DARK SKIN” has had a damaging effect in today’s world.This skin colour has become a signal for describing the status of a person as high status or low status.Darker skinned individuals are being humiliated in today’s Aura.

Indian society believes skin colour determines a person’s worth. India’s obsession with fair skin is well-known and depp rooted.Colour discrimination is widespread and practised openly across the country.Indians have always given ‘FAIRER ONES’ more priority than ‘DARKER ONES’.

STEREOTYPES

Children with fairer skin are being complimented by relatives and friends. Parents always want their child to be fair and beautiful. This all starts in teenage and the bias grows and grows over the years with age.

Toddlers are being given the set of crayons and are being taught that a peach-coloured crayon labeled as “SKIN” is the universal colour for the skin. Despite it not being the most prevelant skin colour of indians. In a country like India where people have different skin tones, labelling one particular shade as ‘skin’ colour deepens the color bias against skin tone at a very young age.

COSMETICS

Skin whitening cosmetics are a huge industry praising the idea that beauty equates with lighter skin. It promotes the idea thatb lightening dark skin is preferable. People in india invest in skin-lightening creams and products in the hope of a better existence. Cosmetic companies like Dove , Nivea , Pond’s etc promotes idea for the colourism. Many filmstars do Ads promoting these cosmetic products and thereby spreading wrong message to the society.

MATRIMONY

Skin colour preference in matrimonial matters is something very common in India. Even from the tradition of ‘Arranged Marriages’ to the system of ‘Love marriages’ , people still prefer their partners to be light. Right or Wrong, but people still choose their partner based on their colour. People with lighter skins are automatically tagged as “BEAUTIFUL”. Many matrimonial sites like shaadi.com and bharatmatrimony.com promotes this trend of colour bias.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Almost every social media platform is a way to showcase how superior you are than others. Almost every app have so called ‘FILTERS’ which makes your skin in such way that it appears to be lighter. People use filters to look lighter in their pictures. They have a mindset that fairness equates beauty.

We face colour prejudice and we somehow choose to remain silent in a country obsessed with fair skin. There are many initiatives like #colourmeright which not only raise their voice against such issues but also provide hope and support to people with dark skins. At the end i want to say “DARK IS BEAUTIFUL!”