The Whiter the Face the Better

There is a fascinating article titled Skin Whiter Advertisements Labeled Racist- the article is by Sara Sidner and you can find the article at http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/09/india.skin/index.html. The article talked about how in places like India and China face whitener is becoming more popular. In fact, skin whitener creams have peaked more than one hundred percent in India and the male consumption is jumping more than twenty percent annually. A recent commercial, featured in New Delhi, showed two Indian men on a balcony. One man with a dark face; the other, white. The dark faced man says to the fair faced man, I’m so unlucky that i have a dark face. And the fair skinned man replies, it’s not your face it's your dark skin. He then throws him a bottle of face whitener and the dark skinned man becomes light skinned and gets the hot girl in the end of the commercial. A member of India parliament, Brinda Karet, said that the Ad tells people you have to be white skinned to get a good job, to get a good girl or boy friend, to be socially acceptable.
This article is fascinating because in media history blacks were portrayed out of their skin so to speak. They just participated in roles that would be funny and amusing to white. They could not represent their own culture in the media; instead they had to assimilate to the white culture. Now, in India, people are going as far as lightening the color of their skin. It seems as though consumers have it in their head that being fair skinned is the way to live and be. The evidence is present, even men have a rising twenty percent consumption rate of face whitening products. The white, beautiful culture seems to be imperialistic in a subtle way. People think that looking whiter or fairer is looking more aesthetically appealing.
I think this article is a good lesson for us all. It shows how easily people can be influenced by the media to looking and acting a certain way. The media in this case, is even acting racist. It is promoting a fair skinned person as being better than a dark skinned. The dark skinned people are therefore left in the shadows unless they assimilate to the white culture and buy some face whitener. So be wary of what the media is telling you do be like, because it can be manipulative if you’re not careful.