Does Colour Matter ?

Hi, my name is Kartik. I belong to Ghaziabad, a city near New Delhi, India. I am brown. Does it matter ?
I belong to a middle-class conservative family. Everyone says that I am the brightest of all my siblings. I do well in studies. But they also add that I look good. I don’t understand that why do they say so. Is it really because of my good looks or is it because I am less brown than my siblings? I don’t know the answer. Maybe it is, maybe not.

I had a subject in my second-year at college. Physics. I was not good at it. I used to really work hard for it during my 11th and 12th grade. I did fairly well in my exams in Physics. And I tell you, it was because of my hard work that I got through. The course was different than what we had it in school.More of imaginary stuff. There was a different professor for theory and practicals. The one for teaching theory part was quite strict. I was really scared of him all the time. But the one at the practicals was different. He was not strict. He only used to check our practical files and the readings we got in the age-old inaccurate machines. It was a mind boggling task, really. Every week, we had to get our files checked for the practicals performed last week. Well, who did them seriously. Nobody. Getting our files checked with good marks was the only purpose of the day. I always got 3 or 3.5 on 5. I used to study hard for the practicals before getting my file checked.I always used to answer the viva questions correctly in fluent English. I had a friend Manish, who studied more than me. He always used to answer in greater detail than me or anybody else. But the teacher always gave him 2 or 2.5.I don’t know why. Once the teacher made a comment about his appearance. He had taken a bath that day. Still the professor made fun of him for not taking a bath and smelling badly, in a loathing manner. Everyone laughed. He was really embarrassed. Because of his practical results, he got low grades. Poor boy.I also had a friend, Imraan.  He was very fair. Fairer than the professor or any other student in class.He always answered the questions, but not every time they were right.He never got less than 4. His work was more or less the same as mine.But nobody understood why he scored so much. No one knows why. Maybe being fair worked for him.I am just guessing.Even I don’t know.Maybe color matters, maybe not.

Last month, I had a guest student in my college.He was from Germany.Rich country.There was a lot of buzz in the college about him.Everyone was eager to go and talk to him.No one accepted this, but no one left an opportunity when he was alone. Everyone would go to him and talk to him about his country.Ask him how he feels in India.Tried impressing him by showing their knowledge of his country.He was nice.Girls too went flat on him.6 months before, there was another guest student.He was from an African nation.He was dark.But this there was no buzz in the college.No one looked for an opportunity to talk to him.No one talked to him about his country.No one asked him how he felt in India.Nobody tried impressing him by showing knowledge of his country.I think nobody even knew which country he came from.No girl went flat on him.Was it the color of his skin that mattered?Or was it something else?Maybe color matters, maybe not.

I remember when I went to see a girl for my elder brother.His prospective bride. He is a shy person.But good at heart, like an ‘Adarsh’ boy of Indian families. Earns well, respect his elders and very intelligent. It was all very well till the time the girl came. The parents on both the sides had a good laugh, enjoyed some snacks, shared important information. But when the girl came, the smile of my brother shortened in length. The glow was lost. But he went on to have a chat with girl nevertheless. I was really impressed by her qualification and her mannerism.Really impressive. When we were coming back in the car, my brother said no for the girl.Reason ? Because he didn’t find her beautiful enough.But the girl was good-looking and smart.I really didn’t understand the logic behind it. Maybe he had huge expectations. But my disappointment was deepened when he went on to marry a girl who was less qualified, less beautiful but more fair than the previous girl whom he rejected. I don’t know but I was confused. Neither this bride of hers could match the mannerism of the ‘rejected’ girl, nor the qualifications. Then why did he go for this girl? Maybe because she was more fair. Maybe.Nothing definitive.Maybe color matters, maybe not.

I have a girlfriend.Her name is Natasha.She is nice.Like me, she is brown.She always feels if she could be more fair than the she really is now.One day she told me a story about her friend,Shubhangi. Shubhangi is very fair. And she asked Natasha on why I chose Natasha as my girlfriend and not anyone else.To begin with, she started pointing out her drawbacks.The first question to come out was about Natasha being nor fair enough and hence, not beautiful. I was furious on listening to this. Not just because it was my girlfriend who was being the target, but also because the argument that was being made had nothing to do with something that was under her control.Moreover, she felt more under-confident about her skin color, more than ever.

Why target someone because of his/her skin color, is the dilemma that bothers my dubious mind. I am not Kartik, but the incidents aren’t fictitious either.The names have been changed, but the observations haven’t been tampered with. I do not intend to defame the people of my country, but that doesn’t mean I should not be vocal about the odd practices being carried out in our society.Time and again, people have loathed and spitted upon news of racism in cold countries of the West. Be it against Indians, be it against Africans. But then why is it that when the same Africans visit our country, they are compared to monsters and devils.Leave foreigners, we do not leave people of our own country and judge them badly on the basis of the color of their skin. The truth is that racism is so deep entrenched in our society that we even refuse to acknowledge that it is racism. Beauty standards have been set in accordance with the fairness level of an individual’s skin.The songs I hear, the movies that I watch, the literature I read, the society I live in.Everywhere, I see the same obsession with the ‘gora rang‘. Why can’t it just be that we humbly accept the color of our skin as something related to our genes, and live happily with it. After all, a dark skin skin is as healthy as a fair skin.So, why is lighter skin given the dominance over the darker one? This single question has been lingering in my mind for the past few years, and the answer to this question is yet more complex than the problem itself.

“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them”

– James A. Baldwin

 

History, in my view, is the best subject that answers nearly all your questions in pertinence to human behavior. Not surprisingly, it has a concrete explanation for racism as well. Colorism also known as skin color stratification, defined as the preference for lighter skin and the ranking of individual worth according to skin tone has dominated a broad range of societies and historical periods, specifically in parts of Africa, Eastern Asia, India, Latin America, and the United States.Throughout the world, the lightest-skinned people have the highest social status, followed by the brown-skinned, and finally the black-skinned who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. This form of prejudice has often resulted in reduced opportunities for those who are discriminated against on the basis of skin color.

 In India, there is a long history behind the obsession with skin color, owing to caste, and culture. The desire for lighter skin might have originated from the structure of Hinduism’s social hierarchy, in which those belonging to higher castes typically had fairer complexions and are better placed in the political hierarchy. Furthermore, throughout India’s history,India has been invaded by lighter-skinned nations, such as Great Britain, and therefore fairness, strength, and supremacy have become interconnected. Thus, fairness is an issue that has cultural, sociological and anthropological roots. However, research demonstrates that though light-skinned people have clear advantages even when controlling for other background variables, dark-skinned people are typically regarded as more ethnically authentic or legitimate. However, the underlying cause for the preference for fair skin could be probably attributed to the transnational correlation of whiteness with personal opportunity, success, and privilege and global influence of Western-dominated culture and media. Media and industry are the major culprits in solidifying the place of fairness as a prerequisite for beauty.

 

So, now that we have some insight into the details of how fair-skin obsession came into picture, what do we do to stop it? The best way to curb this obsession is to be vocal about it, whenever, wherever, you encounter it.If you see an advertisement that promotes this fair-skin obsession by false claims, protest against it. Raise your voice, express your concerns, and if possible, start a campaign against it. Choose your friends and partner on legitimate grounds of beauty, and not skin color.Do not Discriminate! Yes, this is the best way we can ensure that our generation can actually oust the colonial mentality that was hideously inculcated into the brains of our fathers and forefathers by the colonial masters, and has passed on from one generation to next.Above all, be proud of your skin color, and never let that under-confident vibe strike you down and make you feel inferior.Let the world judge you, on who are from within and not by the color of your skin.Yes, together we can knock this down and make a difference!