Care for colour

The crowd was excited, the atmosphere tense, the black people sat with their eyes lit with hope as Martin Luther King Jr. started with his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. At the same time as South African anti-apartheid idol Nelson Mandela served in prison for his movement against racism, the world stood with him as one.

Racism, the battle between the blacks and whites, the era when blacks had to wipe the floor the whites walked on. The age when the blacks were considered impure.. dirty. An age that supposedly ended with the black power movement in 1975. Then today why do we still see famous personalities endorsing fairness creams and whitening powders? Why are fair people still considered more attractive? Is being dark a crime? Poor you with excessive eumelanin, the world will never see your fair heart.

The world judges a book by its cover and man by his colour. There are so many people in the world who pray for a fair and lovely baby. Why, dark isn't lovely? In South India (where people are rarely fair), a light complexioned person walking on the street is like an angel on earth.  Every head turns in their direction. Every eye follows them until they turn the corner of the street. Even today when an Indian household arranges their son’s or daughter’s wedding, skin colour is one of the main characteristics while looking for a bride or groom. Hundreds of proposals are rejected because the proposing party is not fair enough. Terrible!

Instead of wishing for a fairer skin, why don’t you wish for a fairer heart? All those tears shed over your complexion, all that money spent over every fairness cream in the world, have they ever been of any use? Why don’t you understand that your colour does not matter! What matters is the colour you paint your life with. Yes it is true that there are hundreds of prejudiced men and women out there who judge you by your colour. Let them. Be proud of what you are. Have you seen how beautiful actress Nandita Das is? And she has never allowed any make up man to make her look fairer nor has she allowed any editor to make her skin look lighter on screen. She is proud of her dusky beauty.

For all you old wives and prejudiced men out there let me remind you that we live in the 21st century. It is high time that you stop grieving about a person’s skin colour and start trying to look at the person beneath the skin. A thumbprint does not differentiate between fair or dark, a shadow does not become lighter for a fair man. We all were born equal and will die equal. If someone calls you black, it’s not an insult, it’s just the colour of your skin. Why should you feel offended if someone calls you what you are? Colour and creed do not matter as much as your deed. So pray for your child to be a good nut instead of a fair nut. Keep Martin Luther’s dream alive.