Written by: Sauharda Bajracharya - 26010, Grade VIII
Posted on: 26 November, 2021
Colorism is discrimination based on skin tone and color. Black or Dark skin toned people are discriminated against but why? In our society, we have been taught that black/dark skin is not a standard color for skin and white or lighter skin tone is the standard color as per the society. We have a mindset like this and whenever someone sees a dark skinned person, they call them ‘Kaale’ or ‘Hapsi’. This is very wrong and problematic in so many ways, to put it simply, we are being racist. In beauty product advertisements, people with darker skin tone apply a cream and turn white. In the same way, in one Chinese advertisement a person with dark skin tone was thrown into a washing machine and he came back white. Do you think this is logical enough to sell the whitening products?
Aren’t people with darker skin tone the same as people with lighter skin toned people? They both are humans, they both have rights, they both share the same characteristics but then why are they judged? Does having different shades of colors of our skin make any of us any less human? Years ago, a research was done where kids were given a black doll and a white doll. They were asked, Which one is the pretty doll? They all answered the white doll. They were again asked, Which one is the ugly doll? They all answered the black doll. Generally in Southern Asia and Africa, people are dark skinned and we get a lot of hate for this. I think we need to dig into the history of colourism and a set of beauty standards so as to why the global market is still busy promoting white skin as a standard color for an individual.
We live in such a society that teaches us to be racist, colorist, sexist and bigots. People with darker skin tone are discriminated against and are treated much differently than people with lighter skin toned people. But, we both are the same aren’t we? We both earn, we both learn, we both have the same characteristics. Due to this discrimination, people with darker skin tone often bleach their skin. They are made to feel insecure and unconfident. This is a serious problem all around the world and this has to be solved.
