Black is Beautiful

     Actor Nandita Das pioneers a new cause  by batting for the dark skinned girls in a fair-skin obsessed society. Besides a talented actor-director, Nandita is one of the best brains and a gem of a person. She greatly deserves appreciation for taking up this cause. Dark skin is not considered beautiful and women are biased based on their skin colour. Light skinned girls are favoured in the glamour industry and marriage market in India.  My little niece often complains how she is let down by her teachers and other students due to her skin colour despite being an  intelligent and talented girl. As a light skinned south Indian, I am often asked  ‘Keralites are dark skinned, why are you light skinned.' Once a North Indian businessman in Chennai embarrassed me with his  extreme racial prejudice, he has gone to the extend of saying that he avoids being friends with black people there.

      I have been asked few times by western men about our preference of light skinned girls in the film-model industry, but it is the same in Hollywood as well. Despite being an immigrant country, having different ethnic community,most of the Hollywood  actress’ are white European origin girls. Even today white race cannot escape from the superiority complex and brown-black race from inferiority complex.

   Anyways, obsession to fair skin is not exclusively Indian , rest of the world has its contribution too. In Macleodganj, Tibetan girls are the highest consumers of whitening creams (It is strange because they are light skinned people). When  

I had gone to TCV(Tibetan Childrens Village) to meet a Tibetan student,I was surprised to see her mother gifting a 13 year old girl whitening creams.To my advice against whitening creams especially on tender skin , she retorted that many girls use it there. I heard light skinned Chinese origin girls are preferred in Thai glamour industry. Japan,Korea etc also have their share of colour prejudices.

     There must be an attitudinal shift to appreciate black skin and understand it is not colour of skin that decides one’s looks. And in a look-obsessed world, we must go beyond the skin to appreciate real beauty.