Colourism is rampant in India. It is not something new. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, colourism is defined as the dislike and unfair treatment of the members of a particular racial group who have a darker skin colour than others.
Colourism has been prevalent since the colonization of India by the British people. They were fair skinned and often looked down on dark skinned. It brought the idea that white = superior and any other colour was bad.
Fair skinned people in India are much more privileged than Dark skinned people. They get more opportunities than the latter.
Usually, the marriage advertisements in the newspaper have many specifications; for example, they have to be of a certain age, height, cannot be married before and they have to be fair. This puts the assumption that dark skinned people are not wanted.
If asked, the people would pick a fair skinned partner for their child rather than a dark skinned person.
Dark skinned people are subject to abuse. Many get bullied for their skin colour. They get ignored and rejected because they are not light skinned.
In fact, many products take advantage of colourism in their advertisements and sell them. Fair and Lovely is known to be endorsed by many celebrities as a “good” skin whitening cream. They (and many other skin creams like them) show how people with dark skin get ignored and are made fun of but when they use their product, their skin is lighter and they are now they are more beautiful. Ironically, the company changed its name to Glow and Lovely but it doesn’t make any difference aside from the name change.
Due to this, many feel that they have to do something to not be dark skinned. They feel that society could accept them if their skin was lighter. Although society has started to slowly unlearn this, there are still many who have backwards attitudes about skin colour.
We need to understand the impact these kinds of things have on children. We have to stop making colorist jokes and stop thinking dark skin is abnormal. Dark skin is beautiful and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. If we don’t speak up about this,
Colourism will never end. Let’s try to change the future.