Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

Here are a few links to images of Skin Bleaching products for sale in Pennywise Cosmetics store in Trinidad.

http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/sb20140102_172402a.jpg (http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/sb20140102_172402a.jpg)

http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/sb20140102_172448c.jpg (http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/sb20140102_172448c.jpg)

http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/sb20140102_172558b.jpg (http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/bp/sb20140102_172558b.jpg)

Topical issue for me.  I recently had the cheapest form of a makeover available to any West Indian...spent some days in the sun and got properly browned all over.  I am very pleased with the results.  However my co-workers are not as pleased and I'm having some interesting experiences with regard to their own prejudices on the issue of colour.  Some of my colleagues refused to acknowledge that anything is physically different about me and others are awkwardly making comments that belie their own discomfort towards my easy transformation.  One colleague asked me if I'd gone to Hawaii and commented on how my "complexion" had changed, almost no one mentioned the elephant in the room...that I'd gotten quite dark and it was clear that they were struggling with the concept that a person (of colour) would deliberately darken her/him self and still feel self confident and positive.  One colleague stared rather disgustedly (in silence) at me in a fixed manner.  It was interesting to note how many people were uncomfortable with my tan, labelling it from the outset "a sunburn."

Some of the individuals I interacted with did eventually dialogue somewhat, sharing that their families/parents would get angry if they had gone into the sunlight and deliberately gotten dark as I did.  They were aghast at my complexion and did not consider it pretty at all.  Which opened the door to the question - "What's wrong with dark skin?"  They couldn't answer and seemed stunned by the concept of someone wanting to be darker.

Have we always been this biased with regards to colour?  When I was growing up, it was a hidden prejudice that was practiced by family behind closed doors but now its gone mainstream and bold...Advertisements (for skin bleach) are on billboards, online, in the newspapers and skin bleaches I'm told, has become one of the top selling products in the country.  What caused this?  Media?  Societal breakdown?  How did this idea of dark being ugly/bad/negative get such prominence?

 History has shown us, the more European one appears, the more opportunities are afforded to them. This can be traced back to the days of slavery, where African women were taught  that their colour and features made them ugly and they were even compared to animals. However, white men raped African women which resulted in miscegenation resulting in the mulattoes. Th mulatto enslaved women and men  lived a life of privilege. The mulatoo men were afforded the opportunities of being Artisans, being educated and their prospects of attaining freedom  were higher.The mulatto women were usually domestics and the most sought after females by both White men and African men. It is important to note, the closer they were to the European phenotype  the more privileges they enjoyed. Thus, this type of culture continued well into colonialism and post colonialism. As such, this issue has never been properly addressed.

Another example comes from India. For example in India, the movie industry mainly use light skinned Indians, and should they use any dark skinned Indians- well, there are ways of making them appear light skinned. What is even more mind boggling is, stars such as Shahrukh Khan promote skin lightening creams! This is a legacy of India's caste system. The Brahmins who are light skinned- the highest of the caste, control the wealth of India and dictate institutions such as religion, where they maintain their ideology. At the bottom, if not, a caste by themselves, are the Dalits who suffer the worse because they are dark skinned.

Then there is the issue of misinformation or rather false advertising promoted by mass media.  For example, there are products that claim to fade marks, or will help you to recover from sunburns or even out your skin tone.

As such skin bleaching products have found their niche market. We don't want to be dark skin- because it not main stream's definition of pretty. The darker we are, the more social problems we encounter, so instead of addressing these problems, we sweep it under the rug and try our hardest to imitate the European look.

Skin bleaching is not only limited to the face

http://jezebel.com/5900928/your-vagina-isnt-just-too-big-too-floppy-and-too-hairyits-also-too-brown (http://jezebel.com/5900928/your-vagina-isnt-just-too-big-too-floppy-and-too-hairyits-also-too-brown)

Thoughts anyone?