As an Indian , I have always had aunties , grannies , sisters and friends telling me not to play in the sun . Even some guys wouldn’t come out to play , but being the stubborn kid I was I never ceased . I am a product of a Dark chocolate dad and White chocolate mother hence a Milk chocolate . I was always happy with what I had , even if I would have been I do not remember . So I have crossed level 22 and I never had such issues . Something happened a few days back that enraged me , Our domestic help a lady that I respect so much , one of the most smartest women I have come across . She would have mad a great engineer , If given proper education . So she tells me about some news going around in her area about a cream that will make you fair instantly , not the first time though she asked for a fairness cream to a neighbor who lives abroad .
I find us Indians so racist that we cannot even digest a fellow Indians skin colour . So studying Population Genetics has taught me that whole of India has a diverse population of people resembling all ethnic groups around the world . Eastern population resembles Mongoloids ,North Indians have some Caucasian traits such as skin colour and South Indians resemble Australoid so we have all sorts of features from each ethnic group . It’s a beautiful diversity , how our country is all in one and the only one in all . Skin colour is a quantitative trait Β , you will be your parents average colour . More the alleles you have they will add up to give you your colour .
So we are shown this image in Grade 12 . I wish this image must be shown a lot earlier than grade 12 . It shows how skin colour is inherited . M.S. Swaminathan the father of Green Revolution in India made the Mexican Dwarf Β Wheat variety of wheat more acceptable to Indians by making it whiter . Only the modern generation is accepting Brown rice .
The British rule did have a long lasting effect on our population . Ruling Britishers were considered more superior and now we consider the fair skinned Indians superior . Girls have to go through this more than boys but I do acknowledge that boys also face it too . To test this bias , just open the matrimony page and all Brides wanted must be fair . It’s not just one belief but a religion to prioritize white skin .
If you ever travel to India or visit any popular destination where International tourist are abundant , we Indians prefer talking to White skinned people more than other ethnic groups , weather its a salesman , a guide or common Indian people who want to be photographed with white people and save it as a memory . I did that too way back in 5th grade but now I find no logic to it , yes I have a picture with two Belgian girls just because they were white and it’s embarrassing .
Fairness is an Industry in India . As soon as the girls hit puberty they are inclined towards being fair . Getting Tanned is not a concept in India , if you get tanned it’s considered stupidity and you are labelled inferior . We all have one aunt who is so beautiful but will definitely use this specific brand of Fairness Cream which is just like the British Rule . We have all seen the package at different ages , but when a girl enters this impressionable age she does what she has seen the ladies in her life do . Our helps daughter is one of the most beautiful girls , but she thinks just because she is dark she will not be accepted so does her mother . It’s a part of growing up , trying to find yourself and accepting yourself but I think fairness creams have taken the difficulty level up a notch . Girls who are hardly able to spend money on a square meal are ready to spend upto 500 bucks for a cream that will make them fair , I just saw this yesterday . It’s ridiculous to the next level but what enrages me is the fact that we do not consider it a problem . A mother never sits her child down and tells us that she looks good with whatever skin colour she has , because the mother was never told that .
I envy how the African Americans take pride in their features and how the other ethnic groups accept them with open arms . We Indians are not even aware of our own heritage and rushing towards abolishing it . There will be no Krishna no Kalika if we let fairness creams invade our lives so drastically . Variation is the root to evolution , why are we so much against colour .
The lovely lady who endorses this brand is a beautiful dusky maiden , but this lady is seen promoting fairness creams by holding shade cards . If only all the actors and models made no deals with the brand , it would make a huge difference . Shade cards are for painting your room not your face . Moreover I have never seen a foundation that matches the Indian skin tones , very rare brands have those , and we are made to look like we are wearing a mask all the time .
I wrote this as an attempt to make a skin colour more accepted ,so that what girls have to go through today they do not face it after a few generations . I will keep trying and I wish that who ever is reading this makes all the ladies feel accepted and do try to educate who so ever you can reach to . I know some Orange guy is giving the world troubles , but we are trying to accept diversity and being tolerant.
Deep!
β€
L.R.
THE RINK
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Thanks , you took out a moment to read it !
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As an Indian, I can relate to you and that is what makes it even better! I love your writing!
β€
L.R.
THE RINK
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L.R.@TheRink , I hope that we see a change one day . There are a lot of ladies who need to change their ideologies . Thanks , I hope you will spread the word. It came from my heart , I just write to vent it out π
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It is sad for girls to not feel beautiful. I hope that some day we broaden the definition of beauty to encompass all colors.
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True Brenda . Every new day brings new trends , I wish we could make everyone feel accepted. Thanks for you took the time to read !
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Important post π
All parents should tell their kids, that they are beautiful, no matter how they look. The beauty in a human is mostly inside, but kids need also to know, that they are beautiful both inside and outside, no matter their color.
What is inside is, what is counting for real and this we do also need to teach our kids.
Respect for other living souls, all living beings, are important, no matter where we live in our world.
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So true Irene . Moreover a little tolerance should also be instilled , so that they know whose opinion matters and whose doesn’t . It’s always our choice to act to suggestions in our own way . Thanks for you took the time to read it!
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By mutual respect the tolerance will follow too. I hope, that time will help in this case.
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I agree , ideologies can’t be changed in a day π
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Very impressive post. How sad that too many in this world are prejudiced all due to skin color. When will mankind see the “heart” instead of the “skin”? Bless your Heart for writing this. β€
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Thanks Amy for your kind words !
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Thanks for the follow π
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The pleasure is all mine !
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By adding your voice and raising awareness about the silliness of placing value on skin tone (and its connection to remnants of colonial attitudes), you are contributing to much needed change. India and Indians should feel proud about its vast diversity of people, its richest “resource.” Thank you so much for visiting and following Beauty Along the Road.
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Thanks for you appreciate it! π
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All skin colours are beautiful! Though I recognise that as a white-skinned person I say that from a position of privilege. Well said, and thanks for visiting The Glasgow Gallivanter.
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Thanks Anabel for paying a visit . Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
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A beautifully written, heartfelt post. I knew this self perception issue was a problem but you’ve given me details and evidence. When I was a teacher in very diverse UK schools, so many children would colour self portraits a lighter shade than they were, although we always supplied all the skin tones and I made sure to point out I wasn’t “white” but a peculiar sort of apricot/peach/pink color with added broken veins, and not nearly as beautiful as my little Tamil, Bengali, Afghan, Ghanaian or Nigerian pupils. As you say, the Afro caribbean children were much more confident in their own beauty. Meanwhile the white mums turned up late to pick up their children after sometimes a literally blistering session under the sun lamps!
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Thanks Jessica for sharing your views , it feels great to have so much support .I wish there were more people with your ideologies over here . Thanks for making life easier for your children , teaching in itself is a great social service . It would be great to share more experiences with you .
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Jessica ,Goddess KALIKA is shown black in colour and we still are using Fairness creams here in India !
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Thanks for the follow.
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It is interesting to learn of how varied attitudes are on many things in different cultures. I hadn’t heard of this type of struggle Indian women have before the post. I just know many Indian women I see online or off are beautiful without even needing makeup.
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It’s nice to hear that
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π
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Very good post! I am married to Indian (I mean British, but still Indian :P) and I know how crazy Indians are to have a fairer skin. Every cream, lotion or any cosmetic in India must have that ‘special’ feature- to make your skin lighter/brighter/fairer. AAAAAAAAA!!!!
Imagine that in Europe everybody wants to be tanned and brown. Few tanning salons are open in every city/town. It causes skin cancer, but who carees- nobody wants to be really white.
To sum up- we are never happy who we are.
Let’s accept and love our skin colour/race! Let’s embrace the differences! Well…. I can shout about it, but nobody listens to me in India anyways π
Have a lovely weekend ahead π Go to the beach and enjoy the sun π
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@fabulousfusions Yeah we are never happy! so true . We Indians are very stubborn , It’s great that you try , but we can’t change opinions in a day . Thanks you too have an awesome weekend . π
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Cosmetic industry is so sneaky they are replacing fairness with the word glow and just as you said brighter , subtle promotion .
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Indian women are very beautiful in their features and coloring. It’s sad that women are given such impossible standards for comparison… unnatural standards. I’m glad more women are speaking up. Someone is always listening – your wisdom is highly worthy if it only reaches one person. in lak’ech, Debra
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Thanks Debra it’s all this acceptance that encourages us to share our thoughts . I just wish that people accept the fact that beauty has no standards. Thanks for visiting:)
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I had no idea there was all this pressure for people to have light skin. I wish parents would let their children know that they’re wonderful regardless of their skin or looks in general.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. π
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Thanks for visiting π .
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Thank you for following my blog today. I like the color palette here!
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It’s my pleasure:)
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I totally agree with you on this,
fairness and a person’s complex is so much hyped in India that we tend to disregard the dark/dusky people. It is absolutely wrong. We should try and be more flexible with our thoughts. After all color is just color it doesn’t define our heart.
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Now we even have Moana to look upon . π
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Your compassion, wisdom, critical thinking skills, kindness, and loving heart radiates from every word you’ve shared….you are a light and a much needed spark of charismatic charm….thank you for using your gifts to contribute to the good in the world π
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Thank you for being so kind , it was just something I strongly felt about . π
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Fairness is an industry in india…..
So true…… It hurts……
And it’s so because people fall for the tricks……
Because we had someone giving wrong definition of beauty
Hope it changes one day…..
Glad to have come across your post and ofc your blog
Cheers!!!
π
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Cheers O Shaggy Re , Thanks for visiting π . Nice name btw .
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You’re welcome….
And thanks for the compliment…..
Name’s Ishan actually!!
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Hello Ishan !
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Hellooooooooooo ummm what do i call you. Apparently crazygenesblog doesn’t seem like your real name π π
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For starters call me human .
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How about senorita……
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How about Hritik Roshan π
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Ummm……. !!! Oaky!!! Such a pleasure meeting you Hritik Roshan ….
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lol ! nice one π
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Pleasure !
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Well I was calling you Hritik Roshan !
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Ow really??? I was stupid from the beginning, one of the belans hit my head it seems………
Man!!! Sure……
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Belan’s were made to correct our disorders , try hitting once more (works in bollywood movies) .
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Haha will ask my mom to do it……
Hope it works
………
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π
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Arre I din’t meant to offend you .
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Arre not even slightly offended…….
Its rather amusing talking to you…..
Aur waise bhi….
Bade bade desho mei aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain Senorita
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Excellent post!
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Thank you π
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Of the people I have encountered from India their spirit and souls have been the best colorful thing about them. Skin tone isn’t all that. Being fairer in complex doesn’t mean you are better. I am as white as it gets and I don’t think I am any more special.
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Thank you ! π
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This is such a wonderfully enlightening post. So rich in information and thoughts to ponder. It is going to be so fun tagging along with you and you share the world through your eyes and words.
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Thanks a lot , I am looking forward too π
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Beauty is defined by media.. they make people believe in fairness, slim fit and so many so called beauty dimensions..one should have that thoughtful mind to imagine all these as some marketing plays…. at least let us make the next generation escape from this trap..
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Yes Akhila and we bought this notion for a long time . Thanks for sharing your views on the cause . π
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I have heard of this before, but you really shed light on how to encourage each other. I’m definitely shaded and throw sunscreen on all the time–but that’s only to prevent skin cancer. That’s the only time we should run from being outdoors. Wonderful words of encouragement you’ve written. I’m so glad you’ve followed my blog. I’m looking forward to more of your thoughts. π
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Thanks beautiful lady π . Sunscreen is really important though !
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Yes! π
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π
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Interesting! Just today I had a conversation with an American born Puerto Rican. He told me that inPuerto Rico skin color is very important. When he first got married and took his Italian wife with him to visit his family in PR they all congratulated him on having married a “white” woman. Thanks for this post. Very informative.
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Thanks Anne leueen for sharing your experience.
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Hi there. Thank you for visiting and following HoB. Much appreciated!
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π
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I saw advertisements for those products while visiting my daughter (a population biology student herself), who was working in public health, and was a bit sunned when she enlightened (no pun intended) me about such feelings of perception of “beauty.” May your views prevail, and heaven forbid the approach of the Orange Menace….
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It’s great you are already aware , one more person adding her voice to the cause π
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Wow that is wild but very common across many groups. African American’s don’t have all the pride they should have, although it has come a long way. In America, there are a lot of people who still value a light skinned black person and many kids will pick on each other for being dark skinned. And white Americans HAVE to have tan or they are “pastey.” Like you, I am refreshed to see many people seeing that that is hog wash and basking in the beauty that is all skin tones. I have never seen a shade of skin I didn’t find beautiful! Thank you for your interest in my blog and I look forward to following yours.
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Thanks for sharing your views . It’s a pleasure π
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What a beautiful and thought provoking post. This one sentence is so intense “There will be no Krishna no Kalika if we let fairness creams invade our lives so drastically .” Thank you for visiting my blog and thank you for your own amazing insights. ~~dru~~
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Thanks a lot π .
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100% agree. Being an Indian girl with even a wheatish skin tone is difficult because the milky white skin is considered beautiful. Sometimes I think it is fault lying deeply within our society, moms are afraid of their girl or even boy getting darker skin tones because it is not considered as beautiful as the whitish ones. Having fair skin and thin structure makes it easy to find a man to marry their girls. I love the chart of how our skin tones can be based on certain DNA structures, it is not shown in every school though. In future, they might start putting white genes in the embryo’s build up so that the child turns out to be a certain color. lol We won’t be far from Cryptonic future then.
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Yes Hemanigi white coloured babies with faces and voices of Amitabh Bacchan and Shah Rukh Khan are not far away.
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This one is so prominent!! Somehow I’m the fairer one in my family.. And whole of my life I have been asked ‘ koi tips dedo fair skin ke liye’. It’s so irritating… I don’t understand when will people see beyond color and physical appearance. Good write-up.
Cheers, Charu π΅οΈ
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Thanks Charu!
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Ever wonder how this idea of lighter being better phenomena began, especially, since the origin of civilization mostly began in Africa and the Middle East?
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Yeah exactly our ancestor was dark skinned, Homo erectus came from Africa . We need to research this topic ! . Thanks for giving us some food for thought .
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I know all young girls are insecure for whatever reasons, but how awful to think you need to lighten your skin to feel more important or be more desirable or acceptable. I believe that God makes people of all colors for a reason, and He doesn’t make mistakes. Each of us was made on purpose to be uniquely us, with all of our differences and imperfections! No person has no more value than another.
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You are right Kerbey we all are unique in our own way !
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I enjoyed this. Strange how brown wants to be white and white wants to be brown. Is it really an aspirational thing rather than a skin colour thing ? Whites = west = wealthy etc. I generalise, of course. Creams don’t change your DNA, do they? I understand the attraction of wearing make-up, even men do it now, although I’m not inclined to it – too old. π But I agree, skin is skin and that’s it. Go with it. Again, interesting post.
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Yeah 3W’s , we are never satisfied with what we have . Thanks a lot !
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We are all living with the legacy of imperialism. It continues to this day, though it is now more systemic and less noticeable. I am African American and we in many ways suffer from the same perceptions you recognized in your culture for many of the same origins of reason. As a child I had color issues. I always wanted to be lighter skinned with a smaller nose. These concepts were reinforced by other members of my own ethnic group (since race isn’t biologically real). Now, as an adult, I wish that I could be as dark as the night. I remember the hurt feelings I had when another African American girl I liked told me my skin looked like dirt. I am so much wiser now. I would’ve told her thank you, today, because dirt gives life to trees and grass and food. Dirt, can be piled high into strong mountains. My only regret is that I didn’t understand early on what I had. I’m happy you see your beauty and the beauty in the color of brown.
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That is nice Malakhai , we all grow out eventually . I just hope the next generations don’the experience it. I really like your name .
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ice piece. Color of one’s skin should not be important yet gori was considered beautiful even in Vedic time..
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I am white. Not the whitest white, mind you: I have brown hair and eyes that shift between blue-gray, gray, and green. My Ayurvedic doctor says it’s my Vata π
I stayed in Tamil Nadu a few months studying. My lady friends sometimes cried, “because you are so white and we are so black!” And when I tried to tell them I was staring at them because they are so very, very beautiful, they thought I was just trying to make them feel better. Then it was I who cried, because that barrier was so complete, like stainless steel: their minds are so poisoned by self hatred that they really could not take in the fact that to me, their black skin is BEAUTIFUL.
How loud can I shout it? Not loud enough to penetrate the hugeness of the evil Whitening Industry.
As a person born white, it’s a different sort of sentence. A non-white person who looks at a white person sees “superiority.” That’s what the English and the Germans taught. White is right. So when dark skinned people look at me, they assume that I assume that because I’m so many shades lighter, that I myself consider myself to be that many shades….better.
I want to wear clothes that say, “My skin is white but my blood is red just like yours.”
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It’s eye opening to hear your experience . What great effect colour has on our lives. In the end you can just explain someone but cannot understand it for them . Just let them be . Stay happy Beautiful .
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Without at all wishing to downplay the social problem you discuss, I must note that, from an artistic perspective, many different skin colors are beautiful, and perhaps we can say that many of us (I include myself, a “white” person) have not been endowed with particularly beautiful skin colors. But certainly on the street and as an artist, drawing people, often I find myself saying, to myself, or to another person, something like, What beautiful color you have! And, again, this other person might be classified as black, brown, copper-colored, white, pinkish, or some wonderful mixture. Cordially, William Eaton, Montaigbakhtinian
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Yes William all skin colours are beautiful , You are lucky you get to see the diversity and it’s great that you accept them all with open heart . White is beautiful in it’s own way π
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Past, present and future ( if the present state of affairs do not change now) of our society.
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Yeah , it will take a lot of time , considering the fact that the actress stands by her decision to promote fairness cream .
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True.
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Thanks for sharing. Get insights!
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π
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That should be “Great” not get
Lol
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Yeah I was confused π
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I am glad you read it π
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Highly resonates! Thank you for penning β€οΈ
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You are welcome π
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SUCH A PROFOUND POST!πππ
Gosh!! People don’t see the beauty of dusky coloured human beings..
I’m so very inspired by your words!!!
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Thanks @shonessa , I thought we Indians had this issue , but here in the comments it seems the whole world is having some unrealistic expectations of beauty . Glad you liked it π
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This one topic needs to be discussed a lot. ‘fair is superior’ or ‘fair is beautiful”. Indians really need to came out of these gross beliefs. I am glad to read such a powerful post on this. Good work π
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Thank You π
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