Colour Paradox..

About a couple of months ago there had been events of racial discrimination and attacks against the Indian students in Australia.. And Thanks to our media the event had been in news for about a month or so. There were some cases reported of students who did not complain even though they had been facing these racial attacks earlier too.... Everywhere, this was the BREAKING NEWS and the only issue being covered and highlighted upon.....!!

The topic of this post is not to highlight this event or its aftermaths.. But to realise how much we, ourselves discriminate on the grounds of colour...???

Lets begin with the Africans who come to study in India from countries like Nigeria , Kenya etc. Don't we consider them as 'blacks' and maintain distances with them...?? And in the same place if there is some fair skinned person, they are addressed as "foreigners."

Even within our country we discriminate people on such grounds. Our society still gives added importance to the skin tone of thee person than their nature. A boy of marriageable age always wishes to marry a fair and beautiful bride. Now beauty cannot be quantified.. But fairness can be.The boy wishes for a bride to be of a fairer tone than his skin tone. No matter how much ever we deny this fact, this is sadly the truth in almost all parts of our country..!!! There are so many jobs such as Air hostess, Secretaries etc where the colour of the candidate has an added importance. So is this not discrimination ????

Indian market has become a target for all the beauty and fairness products from world over. Today we find so many advertisements and products offered for fairness , rejuvenation of skin and what not...!! So how are these products selling and marketing like hot cakes in our country?? It is because of the attitude of the people of our country who give added importance to skin colour and hence these products have found a huge and ready market for all their so-called fairness products and the market does not only consist of female buyers but also the males have been the target group. Recent additions in the male cosmetic product range and their advertisements prove this.

I read a book recently "Mahashweta" by Sudha Murthy. A really nice book highlighting a very sensitive issue of our society. The book describes the story of a girl 'Anupama' who after her marriage began to get traces of 'Leukoderma' and her plight while facing the consequences of this skin disease. The shocking aspect of the book was that even though Anupama's husband was a doctor himself, he did not stand by her through this and abandoned her due to social obligations. Although the book was a fiction, it is not far from the reality...!!

The whole point is that if we cannot accept people as they are but judge them on traits like their skin colour... We still have miles to go in this fast moving world, before we point out to other nations who DISCRIMINATE AGAINST US RACIALLY............!!!

A really wonderful poem that I had read a while ago......

Here it goes :

When I born, I black;
When I grow up, I black;
When I go in sun, I black;
When I scared, I black;
When I sick, I black;
And when I die, I still black;

And Ü White fellows;
When U born, U pink;
When U grow up, U white
When U go in sun, U red;
When U cold, U blue;
When U scared, U yellow;
When U sick, U green;
When U die, U grey;

And yet U call me coloured......??



Comments

Anoop said…
nice thought..n well said... but when u say this here, u shud be damn sure that u don discriminate ppl by their complexion... :)
nice peom..i hav read this b4.. :)

Cheers,
Anoop
akd said…
everybody discriminates....it's a human nature..

In fairness cream adds, they emphasis on skin color..so how can they show dark people ???
Darshan Chande said…
What a heart-touching poem is that!! Great man is he who has written it!!

And yes, this post is a real eye opener for the people of our country. Before we point a finger at others we have to look at ourselves! How we behave!

It's a shame on humankind that despite being the "intelligent species" they still can not understand the nature of true beauty....
neha said…
nice poem...
good thought in the post...
again its human nature i feel...
anyway..
keep penning...
tc
Nalin Bakshi said…
Yes, its true. We do discriminate. I have seen 4 guys throwing bricks at a Niger here in pune, bricks, can u imagine and no one came to help me and my friend had to reason with the guys.

It doesn't end here. We discriminate with sex, region, language, cast (well now we should discriminate, some got 50% quota thanks to Arjun Singh). I am in Pune, MNS a local party which was involved in beating biharese (including one beaten to death) in thane, pune, mumbai etc roams free and on basis of this alone it has become a leading party in the state.

Lets see further, Kashmir, you go there and people say "so you are from India?" and I replied "You are from Germany?"

We discriminate in cast, its in our system, the very thing we live in. 50% reserved quota can you imagine, 50%, nowhere in the world such a thing exists I believe. Quota in colleges, quota in jobs and quota in promotion too. So why do we think that it will ever go away. We in India have a officially declared discriminating system.

Another thing is that despite our intelligence we are still way behind the developed nations. We might have copied there ideas but have not managed to learn how to work. I work in a IT company here we have managers who believe if one woman can deliver a baby in 9 months then 9 woman can deliver in one month. Its simple lack of knowledge on how to work and I see it everyday.

There are a lot of things, skin is just one of them.

And yeah the ads, now men want to get white too, so long for the phrase - tall dark and handsome.
Ganesh_Dalal said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ganesh_Dalal said…
there are so many kind of discrimination prevailing in our day-to-day life... need not to go further, any parents MAY accept inter-caste marriage but they still prefer a GOOD LOOKING, well educated, girl/boy of SAME CASTE (forget religion/race)..

none-the-less, a good post Urvashi...
Anonymous said…
A good point made here, but sadly to change opinion of the nation is a hard task.We can only try to educate the new generation to be more open minded .
Thanks for dropping by my blog.


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Urvashi said…
@Anoop: Hey...Thnks 4 readin......I dont discriminate ppl by their complexion... :)

@ Asit : My point in emphasisng on fairness ads was that ppl have become so fairness conscious that the brands r doing too well in our country..... I do nt want them to show dark ppl in the ads...!!

@Darshan: Yeah..really A great poem..Dont know who has written it..But ws sent to me by you. :)

@Neha : Of course one side of human nature... TC :)

@The Editor : Thanks 4 ur comments and inputs...!! :)

@ Ganesh : Your point is absolutely valid..It is the case even with my parents....!!

@ Cutestangel : Yes....We can jus make attempts to improve our thoughts and those of the new generations.. :) Tc :)
Varsha said…
somwhere...sometimes i feel that...since we are being discrimintaed against by the whites.. so.we do the the same on on blacks to take out our revenge...
tho its all wronge i agree..........
anyway....humans will always remain the lame old humans....no mater even if we write a 100000 pages book about rascim or pass a 100 laws on it...the mentality will remain non-chalant
Pesto Sauce said…
Racism is the worst of humanity....

Dream of Martin Luther King will perhaps remain a dream only
workhard said…
Well said..

In india.. we have discrimination amongst ourselves.. so why we judge others..

Im glad u brought up this issue on 'the fairness products' in india. i think that is so biased ... its only for people who lack self esteem and confidence..

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