By Dhriti Seth
The image of racism often transcribes into the persona of an aged, white man, pot-bellied and reminiscent of ages past (maybe sometimes even into the familiar figure with orange skin and a mop of blond hair) but more often than not, the root of the problem stems from familiar soils. The majority of our country likes to believe that our inherent bias towards light skin is a subsequent side effect of the centuries of British imposition on our motherland but in today’s time and age, this has been reduced to not more than a façade to shield the citizens of India from the blame that befalls upon their blatant display of racism.
The world is a gradually evolving conundrum of hypocrisy and prejudice, with India as its frontrunner. A couple of the pillars that act as a foundation of this great nation are unity and fraternity which is often forsaken by the brethren of our country for familiar practices that are based on the principle of exclusion. It is not solely the rural class or the uneducated or the old that preach this twisted retelling of their own truth, but the problem is increased tenfold by the perpetuation of these morphed expectations by the rich, the influential and the famous.
The greatest irony is that the bracket that promotes embracing of inclusion and professes that beauty appears in all shapes and size through their daughter brand Dove, profits from encouraging the bleaching of skin, insinuating that fair skin equates to beauty, through the mouthpiece of the southeast market specific financial giant Fair and Lovely. The brand, first started in the 1975, has since catapulted into a multimillion dollar industry estimated at 30 billion rupees, further inspiring small-time brands to reap the benefits of the new market of bleaching that flourishes from the storm this monstrous butterfly has created.
This whirlwind of self-hatred induced by such marketing crutches on upcoming actors, many of whom have recently taken the platform to apologize for the harm to the millions of esteems that they have created, for endorsement, thus, coiling their increasing influence into a noose of obsession with the lighter end of the skin colour spectrum. One such example is Priyanka Chopra who was recruited at the tender age of 26, when she was still in an attempt to establish a name for herself, for a five-part series ad campaign for another brand’s fairness cream. She recently voiced out her regret at being a part of something as scarring as this. She isn’t the only one who has spoken out against the usage of skin lightening creams. Over the past few years, multiple influential Bollywood icons (Ranbir Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut and Kalki Koechlin to name a few) have taken the stage to boycott the rite of skin lightening processes.
This generation of impressionable youngsters rely heavily on representation in media to dictate their lifestyle choices. The toxic culture of endorsement of fairness in our society has already rendered thousands of the youth with a compromised self-image and will continue to do so unless these ads are altogether removed from media and banned from sale. Lastly, I would like to conclude that instead of pointing fingers at external sources to blame for the prejudice against the dark skinned, it is time to reflect on our own endorsements instead.
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