Bini Dahal

Five weeks have passed since George Floyd, an African American, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis of Minnesota. This incident has triggered massive protests and violence across the United States of America (USA). And its impact is no less on other parts of the world as well.
Colourism has always remained a big issue. The idea of colourism has impaired our mind. Though we outright reject this sort of discriminatory notion and practice, it is something that lies deep within our hearts and minds. Be it homemade remedies, skin whitening products or makeup products that don’t match our skin type, we have tried them all. These actions may not be deliberate and we may not be trying to show direct hatred towards dark skin. Yet, our love for skin whitening remains strong.
In a situation as such, we need to remember that we are promoting brands like Fair and Lovely, a quite popular product in Asia. By using terms such as ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’, this brand here has promoted fair skin to make the users look attractive and beautiful.
In one of the very old ad of the same brand for India, a father is sitting, asking his wife for a cup of coffee. His wife asks him if he will continue being dependent on the little money earned by their daughter. The father immediately becomes sad and exclaims if only they had a son. The daughter hears this and runs to her room without delay. She finds a job vacancy for an air hostess and looks at her dark skin in the mirror and tears up. Right then an ad is shown on the TV. She begins applying it. And lo! a magic happens. As her skin turns milky white, she becomes confident and even gets the job. Look at the hypocrisy! The fake confidence that our society gives us when we undergo chemical procedures or apply fairness cream is itself a matter of concern.
Now that so much activism is going against colourism, companies like Johnson’s and Johnson’s have decided to put a ban on two of its products that hinted that fair skin is better than dark one. Unilever, which brands Fair and Lovely, is renaming the product. Despite this, there are many opinions out there that whatever the product name be, its main function, i.e. skin whitening, will continue.
This has to be changed. Not just “Fair and Lovely” for women, the “Fair and Handsome” for men shows the pressure that women used to face in our conservative society has transferred to men as well. We need to change our thinking, especially our words. Let’s stop calling someone “kali” or whatever derogatory terms we can find. We should try to be confident with our skin tone, boost our confidence and not run after chemical procedures and cosmetic products.
Nature is always at its best and how we are today, we are good and doing well. What others say on this matter should never be your problem. They themselves lack proper self-confidence to pass on comments to you. And if they do try to judge you, you should be brave enough to forget what an “educated or ignorant illiterate” said to you. It is high time we boycotted such products that promote fairness above naturalness and darkness.