Subtle Racism

We live in the 21st century; of course you must be knowing it, if you are reading this. But then why do I start my first post with such a boring line. Because we need to remind ourselves that this isn’t the age of colonial expansion and imperialism when it was considered a ‘White Man’s Burden’ to make the world civilized, as if we weren’t then. Leaving the past behind, lets fast forward to the present and ask ourselves one question- Are we still racist? Most of us would blatantly say a NO. But think again because after reading this you might realize how subtly racism is a part of us.
Do you remember having a childhood friend who was darker in complexion than you? And by dark I mean black here. What was the most common name given to him by all your ‘fairer’ friends? Don’t say you don’t remember because we all know that common name across all of north and central India was ‘kalu’. That’s the Hindi name, but other local languages must have some synonyms too. And the next was ‘madrasi’, literally meaning someone who belongs to Madras (Tamil Nadu), even if he or she might be from any part of India. Questions were raised about his/her mother and father and if by chance one of them was fair he/she was questioned about his birth. And all this I am talking about is experiences of 8-12 year old children. Sometimes even parents or other elders would be involved in this ‘harmless fun’ which I too was once a part of myself but now feel the guilt and how hard it must have been for the ‘kalu’ of our group to listen to these taunts every day.
Now coming to the marketing perspective, if you are a girl (‘not so fair’) from India reading this, then you must have sometime used a fair and lovely cream and as for the males, even we tried it till we didn’t get our own fair and handsome. Didn’t we? But why this tag of ‘fair’ and lovely or ‘fair’ and handsome? Can’t some pretty dark girl be lovely or a dark skinned boy be handsome? Just see how the ad works. It shows that till the time the girl/boy was dark skinned, success used to elude him, but when (s)he got fairer skin, the world was at their feet. Isn’t this related to the idea of whites ruling the world in the 17-18th century. And it is really a shame that people who call themselves superstars and know what their actual skin colour is not fair endorse these products and their fans  follow them blindly.
Limit was breached when there came an ad for fair genitals of females. As if the fairness of face wasn’t enough to be ‘happy’ in life you even need a fair vagina to be ‘happy’.
So you, the one reading this post, the next time you tell a person that (s)he should be fairer, means you endorse racism and you are a racist. Try not to be one. Reject fairness products, for every person is beautiful with the colour (s)he has. And to all the non-fair I appeal to stand up together in action to make people aware that its not the colour of the skin that makes people attractive, its their good deeds.