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Racism in India - Ah neh's obsession with lighter skin

Rogue Trader

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India's unfair obsession with lighter skin

Monisha-Rajesh--003.jpg

Posted by
Monisha Rajesh
17.32 BST

The Dark is Beautiful campaign hopes to halt India's huge appetite for skin whitening products, and has a new champion in film star Nandita Das

Nandita-Das-010.jpg
Nandita Das: 'Indians are very racist. There is so much pressure that perpetuates this idea that fair is the ideal.' Photograph: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images

"You look green!" said a friend. "Are you ill?" asked another. Last year, a respected Indian newspaper published a photograph of me online which had been lightened so drastically by the art director's magic wand that I called the editor to complain and he apologised and replaced it with the original. The art director had thought he was doing me a favour by whitening my skin.

India
's obsession with fair skin is well documented: in 1978, Unilever launched Fair & Lovely cream, which has subsequently spawned numerous whitening face cleansers, shower gels and even vaginal washes that claim to lighten the surrounding skin. In 2010, India's whitening-cream market was worth $432m, according to a report by market researchers ACNielsen, and was growing at 18% per year. Last year, Indians reportedly consumed 233 tonnes of skin-whitening products, spending more money on them than on Coca-Cola.

Cricket players and Bollywood stars regularly endorse these products. But now the film star Nandita Das has taken a stance against the craze and given her support to the Dark is Beautiful campaign which challenges the belief that success and beauty are determined by skin colour. "I want people to be comfortable in their own skin and realise that there is more to life than skin colour," she says, adding that an Indian paper had written "about my support for the campaign and
then lightened the photo of me that went alongside it".

While she agrees that there is a long history behind the obsession with skin colour, owing to caste and culture, she thinks the current causes should be targeted first. "Indians are very racist. It's deeply ingrained. But there is so much pressure by peer groups, magazines, billboards and TV adverts that perpetuate this idea that fair is the ideal," she says.

Das has often faced directors and makeup artists trying to lighten her when she plays the role of an educated, upper-class woman. "They always say to me: 'Don't worry, we will lighten you, we're really good at it,' as a reassurance. It's perpetuating a stereotype that only fair-skinned women can be educated and successful."

In 2005, the cosmetics company Emami launched Fair & Handsome for men, with an ad featuring the Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan tossing a tube of whitening cream to a hopeful young fan, which the Dark is Beautiful campaign is seeking to have withdrawn. "Shah Rukh Khan is saying that to be successful you have to be fair," says Das. "Don't these people have any kind of conscience? You can't be naive; you know what kind of impact you have and yet you send out the message that says: 'Forget about working hard, it's about skin colour.'"
 

Jah_rastafar_I

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Shit skins will always be shit skins no matter how fair and they should have a campaign to change their behavior.
 

oli9

Alfrescian
Loyal
Shit skins will always be shit skins no matter how fair and they should have a campaign to change their behavior.

200% agreed! You can take a keling shit out of india but u can never take india out of a keling shit. They should try to abolish their caste system to improve themselves.
 

Devil Within

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Not only racism, raping women also. India men obsession with raping women. Here's a documentary by the BBC on that. The tittle, "India A Dangerous Place to Be a Woman". Don't expect local TV to air these touchy topics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Zvwje3c50
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/j5Zvwje3c50" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

Kohliantye

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History books show that the Indian masses were anti-British and many a "martyr" rose among them.

They call them "martyrs" whereas the British termed them as absolute bandits, dacoits or terrorists.

Tomorrow India will remember the many "martyrs" with movies, songs, dramas and what not..

During the struggle for independence, Indians were anti-English language and pro-Hindi.

Look at the movies today - every actor or actress speaks in unintelligible English. They don't talk but appears to sing.....Why may I ask???

Their fondness for fairer skin is also high. Many skin whitening products companies are in India to sattisfy the cravings for Indians to have fairer skin.

This was what the late MJ was so obsessed with too till his nose dropped off.

No one knows what the side effects maybe from the use of such products.

I would advise these people to climb up Mt Everest at 8848m and freeze themselves.

How can we believe the Indians to be anti-British or anti-English or anything anti-farangi when the rich and famous send their kids to English schools and Unis abroad.

So all these talk about Patriotism, especially among those that has ulterior motives is nothing but a Sham.
 

mulvi74

Alfrescian
Loyal
It is very weird. Not just Indians but Malay, Thai women. Etc all want skin whitening products.

Yet oz, kiwi, English and ang mo women want to be darker and but tanning products.
 

GoldenDragon

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It is very weird. Not just Indians but Malay, Thai women. Etc all want skin whitening products.

Yet oz, kiwi, English and ang mo women want to be darker and but tanning products.

Strange isn't it? You wanna have what you don't. Relevant businesses smile all the way to the bank.
 

Kohliantye

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
It is very weird. Not just Indians but Malay, Thai women. Etc all want skin whitening products.

Yet oz, kiwi, English and ang mo women want to be darker and but tanning products.


Despite all these fantasies about fairer skins, the Indians must not forget those that are born with such fair skins (Caucasians) always prefer to marry a dark-skinned African, Asian or others.
 

Lordshiva

Alfrescian
Loyal
It is very weird. Not just Indians but Malay, Thai women. Etc all want skin whitening products.

Yet oz, kiwi, English and ang mo women want to be darker and but tanning products.

Agreed !! All Thai people like to be fair skin , not only the Thai woman . In fact many Singaporean woman also want to look fair unless SPG !!
 
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