Beauty, Black, and the Beholder

For ages, people’s desire for fairness products and fairness treatments has always been on the increase. Almost everyone desires a fair skin tone. But, why do people prefer a fair skin tone? What is a fair tone? Well, an article I read on the internet termed fair skin as a word that denotes light-shaded skin.

Doesn’t this go against the meaning of fairness? The literal meaning of ‘fair’ is free from favoritism or self-interest or bias or deception. If this is so, isn’t the meaning ‘fair-skin’ unfair?

I have seen people become light-skinned and brag about their transformational journey on social media. In my opinion, one could not term such a thing as a transformation, but deformation, since they get rid of what has been naturally gifted to them. They do go towards something that is not natural, something that is a pointless stereotype.

There are other kinds of people, who make use of the photo filters in apps such as Snapchat to get their skin to a lighter shade and promote themselves by becoming a more attractive (according to themselves) version of themselves. This characteristic mental attitude has become so normal that many people receive skin-lightening treatment and heavy makeup willingly as a part of their preparations for marriage.

But why do so? Aren’t dark-colored people ordinary, like us? Why not dark complexion regarded with admiration in this society? Why consider it a model of ugliness? Why do the qualities of a dark-skinned appearance not give pleasure to the senses of our people? Despite belonging to the modern era, why do people still use skin tone as a measure or standard for one’s beauty? Why don’t people realize their skin tone is darker for desirable biological reasons?

In our society, a person needs to be light-skinned or white-toned, to be considered beautiful. If you live in a household with siblings, your relatives will start comparing your skin color with that of your siblings. This colorism begins in your own family, and it continues to spread to the entirety of the world. People receive these misconceptions from a predecessor and pass them on to generations at the fore without thinking again about a choice previously made. Society, in general, does not accept people with dusky skin as beautiful.

People even get rejected for marriage just because of their skin color. Advertisements and TV shows predominantly feature white women, but not dark-skinned divas. In addition, I would say people themselves are faulty in some places. They think that beauty lies in light skin and wish to become light-toned. The acceptance level of their skin tone is too low, and so they desire to change it. Such people end up thoughtlessly spending lots of money on expensive cosmetics or going for skin-lightening treatments.

But now, it’s time to bring about a change. This taboo must be done away with right now so that people shall understand that everyone is beautiful in their way. Give not any member of society a chance to make a statement on your color. One must understand that skin complexion acts not as a measure of one’s beauty. External beauty is short-lived and is sure to lose sparkle one day. What remains for a limitless time is your internal beauty. It is high time to fight against age-old preferences for lighter skin and break stereotypes because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.

-Marcus Garvey