Fair & Politics

Fair & Politics

Fair & lovely has been popular for so many years, now they have Fair & handsome for men. I do not know how far it works to whiten the faces of countless people who have been using since years. We have many products claiming to whiten faces and they challenge you also. If only it had worked we would have had millions of our dark and wheatish Indians competing with the white people by now and claim we are white.

Why are we so mad about being fair? Every kid which is born is assessed by the mother and the whole clan about the colour. If the baby is little less fair or wheatish, it is branded as dark. If it is dark, again whole clan will be talking about it, many of them will be very happy with their hidden jealousy of parents. Others will be happy saying the parents deserved, again jealous of parents.

We discriminate darker people, specially women. The moment you meet a person, colour is taken as the criteria to judge before having spoken and judged. Is there some amount of caste involved in this? I believe so. If you take your friend who is dark, the way he will be treated by your family members can speak a lot about it. It happens with the person who is dark himself. Is white a better colour for people? Dark people are considered inferior. The native Africans considered darker people more beautiful, jet black was the best. I came across this in Roots novel by Alex Haley.
 

Which is the better colour for people, black or white? Why is white popular? If you were born as black and if no white people had invaded your continent and would you have wished to be white? If only the colour was interchanged among the black and white rest remaining same, what would have been the trend? The Europeans being black and invaded the rest of the world and things were like now. Only the colour being changed and rest being constant, I bet the trend would’ve been that black would be the in thing. Rest of the fairer people would be running for tan. Tanning companies would’ve made a kill. Fair would have been discriminated. Jet black would’ve been handsome and beautiful.

Let me tell why white people are famous. White people did it first. They conquered the world, got more civilized first; became the developed world first, got inventions first and they went ahead in life and could rule the world. They may have taken from others but they did it first. Many may argue that India was more civilized before the west centuries before. What can we do, we were beaten back to Stone Age by millions of invaders, and still we have not recovered. The way things are going we may or may not be driven again.

FTV a fashion TV we all have seen. Lot of African descent girls are seen walking the ramp and you all know Naomi Campbell. Why have we not seen dark skinned girls on Indian fashion ramp or in movies? I remember when this was asked to an Indian photographer, he replied that they were not photogenic. This is what colour bias is. Colour bias or discrimination is more with girls than boys. Have you seen south movies? Most of the heroes are dark and heroines are very fair. There is discrimination from the other side also. If you happen to be in a territory of darker people they discriminate the fair. In spite of them being dark, they want the women to be fair. Southern movies will tell all.

In Hollywood Indians love Halle Berry or Thandie Newton, they would love to marry them. If you ask them to marry the same complexion Indian girl they would not do it. But nobody in India of that complexion can come in to bollywood or southwoods. Though south is where darker people live. Halle and Thandie are beautiful for their achievement and the class which is desirable to men. If they were just college girls in India then they would have had to cough up a lot to get married. So the beauty is not in colour.

Now you got some idea about this. You would’ve seen a lot of African descent students in India. How do you find them? Do you discriminate them as much as you do with the Indians? May be, may be not. Most of the African descent students we see come from underdeveloped countries like Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia and others. When you look at them you really wonder whether their country is really underdeveloped. The attitude, the dressing style and how they carry themselves make you wonder. They look beautiful irrespective of facial features and colour. Many still argue they are from higher society in their country. I agree, then compare with ours. Many Indian men dream of these women. But if it is an Indian of the same colour they are least interested. Those women are darker than Indian women and they are from underdeveloped country but they are very desirable for Indian men. Same darker Indian girls are not.

Moment the girl is born, most of the parents are depressed. On top of it, if she is dark, it is like a curse by the God. There is a flash among the parents, Oh, my god how to get her married ?. Same day they start saving money for the final ritual of getting rid of her by marriage as she is a burden. That is why we see even the educated parents marring their girls before eighteen years.

Right from childhood, girl is cursed for being dark. She is not let to be herself. Parents dictate how to lead a life which is their parents view. Dressing, attitude, views cannot be individualistic. She is constantly reminded of her darkness and the amount of money they have to spend for her wedding and dowry. She can’t go with friends; she is part of the suspicion. So she overeats and becomes fat. She dresses shabbily and doesn’t look pretty. All these factors give her a bad attitude. And she tried to use jewels to compensate.

Her self confidence and self esteem is broken. She is made to believe that only thing for her is her marriage and going away.

What about the ones who are treated well and who study and do well. This issue is almost same with little difference, so lets generally go about it.

Finally, we need a solution. I think it is very simple. First accept the colour complexion. Work on other things. Beauty is not in colour, but it is in the attitude of a person. Let me give an example. There is a very fair and gorgeous girl in college. If a guy goes out with her for dinner and finds her that, she does not smell good, has bad mouth odour and talks non sense continuously. Then you have a darker girl, who is dressed well, with a nice hair, smells good, smiles well, carries with a style, you enjoy her company. Who do you think will be sought after? I think the latter.

What we need to learn is accept the dark colour. It is just the skin colour. It is not her attitude, behavior or life which is black. Give her same love as others, treasure her, give freedom and confidence. Self respect and self pride is important. Dressing well, hygiene, manners make a person beautiful. The higher way of life needs an attitude of accepting global standards of living, leaving the repeated lecture of culture which is medieval some times. Superstitions, stupidity, hearsay are the ones keeping people in views of bygone era.

Finally I would say you can be what you want irrespective of what colour you are. All it needs is what view or perspective you have on life and how you want to go about it. Your behavior, dressing, how you carry yourself, your care for personal hygiene, how physically fit and your language and your style can build you and give enough respect irrespective of your colour.

PS: The pictures are copied from the Google search and used for illustrations only.
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