You can’t even begin to imagine how racially profiled you are if you are dark skinned in India.  I am brown, and I was mercilessly teased in school by my fair-skinned, light eyed superior Aryan race of classmates.  A day after the heckling, I recall slowly slipping my sisters ‘Fair and Lovely’ cream into my knapsack and in the school washroom liberally spread the lead-infused cream all over my face.  Did it help?  You bet it didn’t!  That afternoon turned into a nightmare of sorts as the teasing turned into a rant, a fist-fight and finally the class bully had to visit the doctor as I bit his arm.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you this story because I enjoyed being a rabid dog, but I’d like to make it very clear that I don’t take someone criticizing the color of my skin, or for that matter any other colored persons skin lightly.

Unfortunately many South Asians judge others by that yardstick.  Some might attribute it to our caste system that segregated it into the 4-tier hierarchy this way: 1) Brahmins = fair skin, light eyes whose main occupation was to be a pundit, or priest. 2) Kshatriyas = fair, but a tad darker than the Brahmins, however they belonged to the clan of kings, princes, warriors.  Heard of the Rajputs?  You are on the same page; they are of the aforesaid clan. 3) Vaishyas = agriculturists, money lenders and traders. 4) Shudras = the black tribes, the lowliest form of species in society whose main occupation was to be subservient to the 3 levels that preceded them.  In short, you could call them the worker ants.  Then there are the untouchables.  Does all of this exist in modern India?  Of course it does, what is generational does not get terminated immediately—it has to be cut-off and uprooted right from the get-go.

Which brings me back to ‘Fair and Lovely’, the largest selling fairness cream worldwide.  Does it really lighten your skin tone?  Psychologically, maybe.  Truly, or genuinely, I highly doubt.  There hasn’t been a single user who has gone to press testifying to the products efficacy. Although the manufacturers may have you believe otherwise.  I admit that I empathize with the users of this cream, having been there done that at some point of my formative years.  There are billions of women, and men who liberally slather the formula on their faces faithfully—and they’ve been doing it for years!  A real example is a once upon a time colleague at work, let’s call her Rayna as we do not want to embarrass her.  She was of a marriageable age, and her parents made her visit a photo studio 6 times because she did not look fair enough in her pictures.  Ultimately her face was photo shopped.  Was she approved of when she finally met her Prince Charming?  Your guess is correct.  He said “No!” and she declined the status quo of being married.  She’s also taken a lot in her stride from “Oh, she’s on the shelf” to “You’re talking about that middle-aged spinster.” Today, she is a VP for a global enterprise, and can pick and choose a multitude of suitors; however she has chosen to remain single.  All because of that one incident that scarred her for life.

A look through matrimonial sites from South Asia indicates this same age-old mentality hasn’t changed.  Example: Parents of 5.9” Handsome guy working for a multinational invite alliances from fair and beautiful girls.  This is just one of them, as you scroll down you find a zillion that say the same thing—fair and beautiful is mandatory!  A couple of ads in a newspaper are laughable as they invite proposals like:  You should look like Kareena, or be a queen like Kangana (both Bollywood actresses are extremely pale-skinned).

How about mainstream media?  Do you see any dark skinned men or women in commercial advertisements, television or print ads.  Absolutely not!  According to a photographer friend, ad agencies prefer “Goras” or white models for every product under the sun—from fashion apparel to credit cards to even a housewife cleaning her pots and pans—they manage to get women from Europe, Ukraine, and Russia.  I question that decision because all these people, wonderful though they may look do not quite fit into the ‘Indian’ physical space.  Everything looks doctored, and completely out of place. “They photograph better.” Admits my traitor-friend.  “Their chiseled faces and bodies look so much better than the typical India model.”  “What about their paleness, that doesn’t look Indian.”  I challenge.  “That’s okay.” He counteracts.  “We’re in the business of advertising.  Who said everything needs to look realistic.  After all we’re selling dreams.”  And might I add “A hell of a lot of fairness bullshit!”

Jude Paul Fernandes is the author of ‘Frost Bites’ which is available at the Toronto Public Library.  He is currently working on a novel ‘Lonely in Mumbai’ and can be followed on Twitter @JudePaulFerns