Now that we Like BlackLives Can I finally be Brown? — Indian Girl
Colourism in India, why we’ve always been told to be more “white”, it’s time to accept “brown”.
Colourism is common in India. For a country of brown people to hate brown colour is not an anomaly. We are the people who celebrate fair skin so unabashedly its shameful.
To us Brown = Ugly. Black=Unaccapetable in Society.
My first encounter with Colourism.
So was the case in my family. I belong to the North of the Indian subcontinent, which prides itself on its fair and radiant complexion or as we like to call it “Gora” skin tone. Being part of a close-knit Punjabi family has its own pain. For starters, we consider it our birthright to comment on every child’s appearance. It's perfectly common to meet your niece after 2 years and tell her how much she’s grown, but also be concerned about her “weight” and most importantly her “fair complexion”. And of course, this was no exception with me.
I was the first child in my family. More than 50 excited family members came to visit me when I was born. This list started with my gorgeous grandmother who prided herself on her complexion. So much so, all through my childhood, I called her “White Nani”(fair grandma.. but that's a story for another time).
Well, the first time my grandma came to see me — she lifted the fabric covering my cot, had one look at me, gasped and covered the cot.
She couldn't believe how the first child of the glorious fair Punjabi house was a brown girl! Of course several years later when I confronted her about it, she justified the story by saying my complexion had “improved” considerably over the years. To date, she loves me dearly, but her obsession with skin tone was natural. For her, it was a matter of great concern that her granddaughter was not fair enough.
This is just a small example of our Cultural obsession with white skin. Despite being a predominantly brown country we hate dark skin and we don't even try to hide it.
We have all shades of brown from beige to dusky to chocolate browns. Yet being a British colony for 150 years absolutely changed how we perceived our skin tone. We hate being brown. It’s extremely rare to find an Indian who truly who loves their brown complexion.
But its these very same Indians who are currently supporting BlackLivesMatter. The people who wrinkle their nose when they see a black man in the city are the people who are tweeting about BLM. The Indians who use Snapchat and Instagram filters to lighten their complexion in every photo are now putting up posts showing their love and respect to the black community.
Our love for BlackLivesMatter comes from the same place as our obsession for white skin — The West.
On one hand, we have celebrities, actors tweeting about this movement showing their support to be relevant. Yet at the same time, most of them have endorsed fairness creams at some point.
We have multi-billion dollar industries set up to make brown-skinned people feel inferior.
We hate being Brown but love #BlackLivesMatter
All our actresses, influencers, celebrities are as fair as Indian skin allows them to be. They are the biggest endorsers of our “lightening creams” which according to Vice is used by 60% of Indian women, and we have a population of over 500 million Indian women. Our cosmetic industry which worships foundations, bb creams is always at least 4 tones too light for the Indin skin. 61% of our dermatology market is just skin lightening procedures which is an estimated half a million dollars.
According to Vice is used by 60% of Indian women, and we have a population of over 500 million Indian women.
Our matrimonials explicitly request for fair-skinned women. The term brown or dark-skinned in our conversations is considered rude and offensive. The word “Bhura” or Brown should be a matter of pride, but it's a word that creates extreme discomfort. We don't want to be called a Brown race. We want to be fair, glowy but not dark, dusky, brown.
I know a lot of Indians who claim to not be affected by the colour of their skin. This is something of the past. But you’ll be surprised how ingrained it is in all of us. It's completely normal for parents to ask their daughters to play indoors so she doesn't get a suntan. I’ve been asked by my grandfather all through my childhood to put face packs made of our kitchen ingredients that will “fix” my skin tone. It's completely normal for people to compliment you not on your appearance but with “Oh…You look so fair!”. We have songs dedicated to the whiteness of Indian women, we ridicule little brown girls and insult them to their face and the list of daily cases of colourism, that every “dark” Indian is subjected to is endless.
We have come a long way — we finally talk to people with dark complexions without making fun of them or insulting them. Yet we have a very long way to accept the skin tone that is considered the defining feature of a population of 1.2 billion people.
Let's take the first step and celebrate the Indian Skin Tone of our people. Yes, it's wonderful that we’re supporting the BlackLivesMatter movement but instead of simply using a hashtag which is trending let's raise our self-worth with their cause. If black lives matter, so do browns. Stop trying to destroy your skin tone. Stop being ashamed of it. Being afraid of it. I am a brown girl. And I know all, our lives we’ve been programmed by Indian and Western media, by the British Raj, by our friends and family to test our self worth in terms of the colour of your skin. And no I am not asking you to ignore your appearance.
I am not asking you to think that you’re beautiful despite being brown. I am asking you to believe you are beautiful Because You are Brown.
Don’t let people cash in our insecurities. The West alienated a significant part of their country by disrespecting their black counterparts. Today the Blacks are reclaiming their lives as citizens of their own countries.
Let's reclaim our lives as citizens of a Brown country. Be proud to be Brown.
Every time we use #BlackLivesMatter let us also use #BrownisWorthy.
While the West is learning accepts the colours of its country from Black to White and everything in between. Let's accept the Shades of Browns in ours.
This Brown is a Genetic Insignia of our Culture and heritage. Preserve it. Love it and respect it.
#BlackLivesMatter#BrownisWorthy #BrownisBeautiful