By Ramadan Affan
September 10, 2009
“That’s just racist,” says Brida Karat, an honorable Member of Parliament in India as she comments in a CNN interview regarding a commercial for new skin whitener solutions for men. The commercial begins by two young “go-getters” trying to deconstruct why God hates the Indian fellow so much for giving him this horrid dark complexion.
Indian Guy: I’m unlucky because of my face!
White Guy: (As he makes non-intrusive pointing gestures to his face) Not because of your face! But because of the color of your face!
They then photo shop him into what seems to be an Irish looking guy and proceeds to find a pretty Indian girl (sparing us the usual sing-a-long montage). The worst part about all this is the interview afterwards where an actual Indian citizen in the midst of getting his skin whitened comments, “Why not? Everyone wants to look good. Everyone wants to look handsome, beautiful and why not me?”
Ok fine, if you think looking lighter is prettier then sure, I’m not one to judge. To me that is no different than someone getting a tan. Plus this isn’t a new phenomenon - there is quite a large market of skin whiteners for women. That’s a preference but saying that you have a “problem” is another thing as that encompasses anyone with your own complexion, for instance me, and I certainly do not have any problems with my skin tone. So yes this commercial is racist and should be pulled without a doubt.
Comments
I don’t know if I agree...as you said, people get a tan, and curse themselves/God for having pasty complexions. Also, if they were talking about height, for example, or another physical trait that is not so historically infused with meaning beyond its inherent qualities, then no one would really bat an eyelash. How many people bemoan the fact that they are “so short?” Every culture has its standards of beauty, and ranks them differently. I think in the West people take standards of light/dark to have a “racist” element, but the skin issue in South Asia is more more nuanced and entirely different. There is a lot of history (caste system, subjugation of south india by north india in the last millenia; invasion of fairer-skinned western/indo-european/turkic cultures; connotation that dark skin=more time spent unwillingly in the cruel sun= lower socio-economic status; +many things we probably can’t even parse out). Clearly it’s a different situation in South Asia; even some African nations have a standard of beauty where lighter-skinned non-white Africans are considered more beautiful, completely independent of “aspirations to whiteness.” While I don’t agree with the video/commentary, I hardly think you will find a culture that does not have some sort standard of beauty, and people who gripe about their misfortune of “not measuring up.”
By FareedaNYC on 09/14/2009 at 10:34am Report Abuse