Posted by I read a post over at Girl You So Well Spoken detailing an apparent casting call for a Ciroc commercial seeking “light-skinned african americans”. Now that it’s been discovered and publicized, Ciroc is taking to denying, denying, denying having made such a request for their commercials but the larger point still remains.
Unfortunately, it’s not unknown phenomenon that in the black community, lighter-skinned individuals are seemingly given more preference than the darker-skinned. The same prejudice against darker-skinned individuals also exists among many South Asians.
Skin-lightening creams are a very popular beauty product. Check out this commercial from India for a product called Fair & Lovely. You don’t need to know Hindi to understand the jist of the advert.
In Bengali, there is a phrase that says, “sundar-forsha” which literally means, “pretty-light skinned”. An Indian friend recently introduced me to the phrase “No BMWs”, which means No Blacks, Muslims, Whites. Apparently, Black is more objectionable than Muslim? As if.
Most Bollywood actresses are light-skinned or those who sometimes show a little color inevitably get lighter-skinned or fade into memory. Magazine covers often use more lighting that washes out any color a person may possess.
I find this all to be utterly disgusting. Whether it is the influence of our pale-faced former colonial masters or Aryan aesthetics, skin-color prejudice is alive and well. It should be long-dead.
Now there are those who will say that it’s just as unfair to apply any prejudice back on those desi’s who are naturally forsha. Maybe so but if you’re forsha, you’ve already been benefitting from people’s prejudices all your life. As far as I’m concerned – the darker the flesh, the deeper the soul.
