I am back after a long time with a rant post 🙂 And it is mainly a result of discussion with a friend yesterday and what I have been experiencing for a long time. It is a very cliched topic but I still wanted to have a post about it on my blog.
You guessed it right, it is about the obsession with fairness that Indians have. Why do we Indians think that white people are better? I mean, what is wrong in being dark?! Why do we crave for white skin so much?
We were dominated by white people for 100 years and we still crave to become fair? Or is British rule the cause for our liking towards white skin? I guess we have been brainwashed ever since we were born that white skin means good looks. I have seen so many white people who lack any facial features and there are plenty of dark skinned women/men who are beautiful. But still if you look at any matrimonial site, the first and foremost requirement even from the darkest guy will be “fair girl”.
I feel like punching someone in the face when they start talking about skin color. No, seriously I feel like doing that.
Will we ever stop obsessing over skin color? What can be done to stop this kind of discrimination? We must ban fairness creams from the market to start with.
My friend and I were checking Google to see what Indians really want and you will not be surprised to see the results. Check out what Google has to say:
This is what we want : Fair skin, to become white
Indians “love” white people. Indians were treated like scum in the past but still they love them.
Indians like Cricket alright, but fair skin?!
Indian men seem to be famous for holding hands of probably each other 😉
I do not understand why within our own country, we have to discriminate people based on their skin color?! And yes we think we are inferior because we are not fair.
Deviating from the topic, here are few more searches on Indians:
Bookish Muggle 
🙂 i think we are under that myth that we are ruled by british the WHITES .. since then this mentality has been following us ..
but google pic’s 🙂 made me smile
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yeah even I feel that.. I guess it is imprinted on our brains that white means better.. 🙂
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Sad but true. Dunno why though. I have spent my life fielding questions over this and it pisses me off.
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me too.. I still dont understand this obsessiveness with white color..
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It is because of such superstitious beliefs that we have superhit songs like, ‘white skin u girl u girl u, heart colour u black u!’ 🙂
It requires age, maturity, knowledge, wisdom, time and experience to bring out the truth behind certain superstitions. It teaches us that we cannot believe in anything (including scientific concepts) without proper introspection.
Destination Infinity
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oh yes.. that song came to my mind too.. 😀 hehe
Agree with you.. one more superstition that our country must get rid of..
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My 4 year old grand niece asks me, ‘maami, am I white?’. I was wondering why she was asking that question. Then came to know that the new born sister of hers was very fair and everybody were commenting about that and comparing this girl’s colour with hers. Felt really sad.
Nice to know about ourselves through ‘google’…Interesting!
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oh 😦 😦
that is so sad.. such a small kid thinks like that..
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Really sad and terrible mindsets we have!! 😦
The Google results are amazing and shocking!! 😐
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😦 😦
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Do Indians think so? Or others think that Indians think so? I have my doubts.
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hmm I think it is both ways to an extent..
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😀
At last… A post from you ! 🙂
Though I’ve seen this topic being discussed before, but I wonder if it will really end. There are a lot of mindless mindsets about things that we as a nation have. And fairness is one of them.
You brought up the exact point about the relation of facial features and fairness. Actually, people seem to think that fair color will cover up for any lack of sharp facial features. It is built in their subconscious minds.
But, even bigger question is that whether facial or external attractives defines true beauty ? We are programmed to accept what’s visible to us.
Though we will never accept it, but we are immensely racial people not only for the skin color but for various reasons. We may have crossed the age of sixty, but we have yet to grow up ! 🙂
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yes they think fair color ensures that someone is beautiful.. but what they dont understand is beauty does not lie in skin color..
God knows when people will come out of this kind of thinking.. like you said, we need to grow up as a country..
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I meant we are immensely *racist* people. 🙂
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sad but true 😦
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that is the tragedy..whatevr we might say but we give more importance to fair people, cconsider only them to be beautiful and then intelligent too:)
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yes we give importance only to fair people 😦 which is really sad..
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Its amazing what these google searches throw up! 😀 Shows a lot of insight, doesn’t it?
I once remember an amusing moment in office where I had to write up something about ‘Innovation in the Media’. I was trying to google up some ideas and typed ‘Ways of …’ in the search column, meaning to complete it as ‘Ways of Innovating’ or something to that effect. The first auto complete option I got was ‘Ways of GETTING PREGNANT’!!! I was mortified 😯 and scrambled to close the browser window before anyone saw it!!
And mind you, this was even before I got married or engaged so it would be 10 times worse if someone had been peeping from behind.
I still laugh at the memory 😆
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oh yes Google results sometimes are so surprising.. lol..
omg! ways of getting pregnant?!! God! that was too much and why were people even searching in Google for that I wonder? 😛
haha.. that was funny Ash..
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I agree.. I have an aunt who, when having me and my sister(who is darker than me) next to her, will start a discussion of who is fairer. Now that my sister is 7 yrs younger to me, should she take that topic? What happiness she gets out of it is what I don’t understand. One more problem among indians is they give a lot of importance to looks. Who is more beautiful is one of the most important questions for gals. If the elder sister is dark and younger sister is fair, then the groom who has come to see the elder sister will choose the younger sister for marriage. this particular phenomenon is taken as a very big problem. Once the dark gal is rejected, who will marry her? Cheap mentality!
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these aunts and older people are soooo obsessed with fairness.. atleast people in our generation are little wiser I feel..
Oh yes.. dont even get me started on looks.. looks is everything to people in India.. nobody cares about a person’s nature or intelligence.. as long as someone is fair and good looking, they neglect everything else..
Even the darkest guy will want a fair girl..
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Ah… my fave irritation!! Skin colour and our obsession with the colour white!!
The google search images are kind of sad, but true!
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yeah google results are pretty sad! made me realize how obsessed we Indians are with white color..
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I’m glad i’m not fair! 😀 means ppl (IF they like me) will like me for who i a, and not my skin color!
baaaah!
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same here..even I am so glad that people who like me, like me for my nature or attitude, rather than my color 🙂
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I like vanilla(white) with hot chocolate (brown) 🙂
Don’t get angry.. Word of God says it’s getting better now a days .. But still most pretend to be and most hate to be
“Pride should be reserved for something you achieve or obtain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being Irish isn’t a skill… it’s a f***ing genetic accident. You wouldn’t say I’m proud to be 5’11”; I’m proud to have a pre-disposition for colon cancer. ”
—George Carlin
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But still most pretend to be (insert race here) and most hate to be (insert nationality here)
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yes and that is the sad part..
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Great quote Prasad.. makes lot of sense..
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Aha … PhD on google search results … way to go 😛 😉 …
But seriously … I think it’s passed on from generation to generation … Until we stop this practice this obsession won’t go anywhere … not by far …
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hehe..
yeah atleast our generation must do some effort to stop this practice 🙂 hopefully this will change soon
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Its easier being Grass!
Its always greener on the other side 😉
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Very true 🙂
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hey
happy new year
nice post …. really nice one …
in addition to the British, i think it’s also coz in most cases, the upper castes are fairer than the lower castes .. well, I do not want to talk about that here, but that might also be a factor.
Being fair means more choice of dress colours also, I guess …. but in the end , more than the colour, it is the way in which a person carries himself that defines his looks. Bipasha Basu, Chitrangadha Singh … etc … are not fair, by indian standards. And if you see the fashion shows, most male models seem to have tanned themselves … so what message does it give out ?
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Hmm maybe.. but even within the same caste, people prefer fairer skin. I still dont get it why people are so obsessed about color in India..
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ahh ranted about this a long time ago…
http://opinionsandexpressions.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/lost-love-and-fair-skin/
I think Indians, even the new generation, have a long way to overcome this prejudice.
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Yeah situation is pretty much hopeless!
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how have you been gal ?
happy new year to you
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Thanks Deepa.. I have been good.. but pretty busy with life and hence did not find time for blogging.. how have you been?
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