Fetish For Caucasian Women

I’m A Brown Woman In India

My name is Shivangi but hitherto I’ve been called ‘wheatish’ or ‘dusky’. Growing up my complexion was frequently compared to others at school and I was tyrannized for those reasons. One of the jokes was, ’you resemble gulab jamun’. Since I was an athlete and a basketball player, I also heard this often, ‘honey, let’s scrub off that darkness now. It’s not presentable’.

In a country where the majority of the population is brown, why do women particularly encounter racial discrimination from their kind? Why are women pressured to conform to the unrealistic norms of society? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a pseudo-feminist, but I do wonder why society urges women of the same color to undergo invasive procedures such as whitening pills and bleaching with major health risks?

We are one of the most racist countries in the world. This mindset is normalized and passed on for generations. Hence, colorism is practiced blatantly here. The reason multinational brands prey on the Indian economy for generating billions is that people have contempt for brown skin. Although advertisements promoting fairness products were banned in February 2020, it’s still practiced in unsubtle ways. Darker skin tone is viewed as a negative connotation and people with it are portrayed as inferior. The country’s fixation with whiteness can be vicious. Be it celebrities endorsing fairness products, or families ‘educating’ daughters to be ‘fairer’ to find a desired life partner. For those of you thinking: that’s hysterical, it’s the reality of a million girls. Thus, most people surrender with expensive treatments, cosmetics or the celebrated home remedy: turmeric/saffron solution.

There have been countless occasions where my family members and close friends advised my parents to ‘beautify’ me so I could make a desirable bride. Rather than acknowledging my independence and individuality, people demonstrate feign ignorance. However, my struggles are nothing compared to the harassment faced by a black man in India. The first word my black friend learned in India was ‘Kallu’. Since nobody would befriend him, fear is his constant companion. He’s slapped with words such as ‘Cannibal’, ‘drug dealer’ or ‘pimp’. He daily suffers from psychological trauma in this country, because the government and society fail him. The fundamental cause is that detestation for skin color is part of Indian subconscious.

Being white is dominant to an extent where this society associates a person’s upturn to their color. Some citizens view this as skin color bias, but it’s racism deeply ingrained in their roots. Activists are fighting against the bias with campaigns such as ‘Dark is Beautiful’, but changing of attitude and consumer habits is a slow process.

It’s ironic how only during my education abroad, in the white country did I receive recognition and benevolence for being brown. Where I made more acquaintances because people approached me on the streets to compliment my complexion and oh, how they envied it. As a gallivanter, oddly I’ve never fought battles across the world for my color but in the country I call home.

Dear Viewer, I hope you choose your battles wisely and don’t make your color one of them. The moment I got comfortable in my own skin, the perception of the world changed around me. I’d have saved the 11-year-old me trying to ‘fit in’ a lot of trouble if only I knew to love and accept myself just the way I am. I hope you learn to rise above the insecurities and embrace yourself.

Self-love is a never lasting journey.