Every Asian woman has a colourism story to tell. Maybe it was last week, when a relative remarked on how dark she had gone in the sun. Or perhaps it’s a story from girlhood: the first time someone said she shouldn’t play outdoors because she would “tan”. Either way, wherever we are on the colour spectrum, we have all had a moment when we realised that, among our own people, darker skin wasn’t valued, loved or admired.
“We grow up with a discourse,” says Roshni Goyate, co-founder of The Other Box, an organisation that celebrates and supports people of colour in the creative industries. “It’s never direct language like ‘dark is bad’, but it comes from little comments. Because of that there is a lot of unlearning to be done.”
The model Neelam Gill works with Burberry and is the first British Indian face of L’Oréal UK, but even she is not immune. “I’ve experienced it in every aspect of my life,” she says. “I never thought I was beautiful because I thought being fair was beauty. I remember coming back from holiday and everyone would say, ‘Oh my God, you look so dark’, as if it was a bad thing. I remember crying sometimes about it. It’s only since coming into the modelling industry that I was embraced for it.
“Growing up, I was made to feel as if that wasn’t good enough – not by my immediate family, but other people in the community. Colourism is a huge part of our culture. I talk about it a lot, because I think if I feel this way, there must be so many other people who feel this way, but who are too ashamed to talk about it.” Some Asian women cry when they chat to her, because that’s how much it means to have someone in the mainstream banging this drum.
Young girls and women are already in a bad situation with self-esteem. We know that issues begin young and that they escalate when they hit their teens. Colourism then adds a whole different, complex set of insecurities – and the ubiquity of social media adds yet another. A recent study by the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Essex University and University College London (UCL) found that social media lowers the confidence of girls more than it does boys. Social media can be an insidious enabler when it comes to colourism, because there are so many filters on Instagram and Snapchat that allow you to lighten your skin.
Sharan Dhaliwal, editor-in-chief of the brilliant magazine Burnt Roti, says she has noticed Asian people choosing lighter filters, but the tide is turning. The idea for Burnt Roti came to Dhaliwal after she started writing blog posts about being a hairy Indian and her relationship with her mother and noticed they got a huge response. “People were just thankful there was a space where this was being discussed,” she says. But she also knew that as a “very privileged, light-skinned Punjabi” it couldn’t just be about her experience, but a platform and magazine for all voices and shades.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
