Closed Doors (Ongoing)

Colourism

Discriminating one, on the basis of their skin colour is termed as colourism. It is a social evil which promotes hated, disrespect and negativity. They treat others differently on the basis of their skin colour, as if that's what their personality reflects upon. Be it while choosing a partner, or selecting one for a job, "skin-colour" is always taken into consideration, as if that's what matters the most. There was this experiment conducted in one of the schools in USA, where a group was given two dolls, one with a lighter skin tone, and the other with a darker skin tone, and was asked to choose just one. Almost everyone chose the one having a lighter skin tone, and when asked the reason, they replied that the darker doll looked ugly. Hearing this statement, a brown-skinned girl among them showed her darker-skinned doll and said, "Yes, she's ugly, just like me."

You may say that times have changed now. It indeed has, but not the beliefs which has been forcibly put into the minds of man, generations after generations.

I remember going through the newspaper, flipping through the pages of matrimonial advertisements where all of them demanded a "fair" wife/husband. It surprised me as I could hardly find a single one which was cohesive. Days passed and I forgot about it, until another advertisement pops up on the television. This time it's about one of those fairness creams, which make promises of changing your skin shade. "They don't even work" I heard my grandma exclaim. "I will make some turmeric paste for you tomorrow. It will make you look a lot fairer." She added. I didn't even get it why she wanted to make me "fairer". Before I could even answer, she spoke again, "Don't worry, once you apply it, you will look really pretty, like those film actresses."

Then it dawned on me that it was what society had normalized, media promoted, and people absorbed.