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* Obligatory side note at the end of this rant.
Alright, guys, be honest with yourselves - How many of you clicked the link thinking, "I know this is going to be pretty stupid, but meh, what the hell; might as well read it..."? If you did actually ask yourself that question, congratulations! You were clickbaited!
Anyways, 'clickbait' is not what I'm going to talk about today (that's BuzzFeed's and ScoopWhoop's job) - I'm going to talk about us Indians' unhealthy obsession with skin color. And boy, do I have a lot to rant about today!
Before I establish the premise of the topic, let's define some pretext: What was my motivation in trying to create an analogy between clickbait and skin color? Simple:
Let's try to analyze (using some psychology-backed evidence, of course) why Indians are being subjected to a horrendous form of negative stereotyping. For doing so, I'm going to enumerate over some popular advertisement media and prove how we Indians have become victims of implicit operant conditioning (also called the mere exposure effect).
Newspapers: Have any of you ever visited the matrimonial section of any Indian newspaper? It's abhorrent! Almost every time, you will find that the family posting the matrimonial will begin their 'requirement' with "Looking for a fair, <insert more shit here> bride/groom". If you consider a normal human being's habit of reading a list, the earlier the item in the list, the more priority it bears.
Even if we choose to ignore priority according to the position in the list, why even have such a requirement in the first place? Is fair skin an/the most important aspect you wish for in your son's/daughter's potential life partner? If yes, well..., kudos to you!
Grandparents / Old dudes:
To truly put things into perspective, let me share a small excerpt from my life:
The other day, I had a couple of friends over for dinner. It so happened that my grandma had also dropped in to say hello. Throughout the event, I could sense my grandma eyeing one of my friends in a weird, hostile way, but I decided to shrug it off (I'm pretty sure he felt her eyeing him as well).
After my friends called it a night and left, my grandma asked me, "That tall boy; he's seems to be very polite and well-mannered."
I smiled and told her about his amazing intellect.
"It's a shame, though; he will never truly be happy", she sighed.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"Well, he's dark-skinned! How will any girl possibly find him attractive?" she asked genuinely.
Nope. I definitely did not hear that right. I asked her to repeat the sentence again, this time, straining my ears even more.
The outcome wasn't very convincing. In fact, she took the opportunity and added a few more sentences about how 'black' people are just born unlucky.
That did it. I love my grandma, but I hate her ignorance. These negative stereotypes have been handed down from generation-to-generation, so much so that colorism is now a hardwired feature in every Indian. That's when I realized:
If the water from a public drinking tank is contaminated, every one drinking it will obviously fall ill.
This is NOT implicit conditioning! This is hardcore, straight-up, downright explicit conditioning (analogous to brain-washing). Authority conformation and observational learning are both at play here.
Remember, people - YOU have the choice - stop this nonsense from spreading within your family.
Banners and commercials: Boy, oh boy! Fairness cream advertisements; the biggest culprit, are undoubtedly the filthiest thing you'll ever get to witness in your life. When done right, commercials can really skyrocket your product value (Take the Fevicol ad, for example), but they're more of a double-edged sword. For all the non-Indians reading this, try to envision the following:
A dark-skinned guy asks a popular girl out. Naturally, the girl looks at him, and with a repugnant expression, rejects him. Along comes an actor and hands him a fairness cream. Two weeks later, Bam! The girl asks the guy out.
On a scale of 0 to practical, how dumb is this? The part where the girl rejects the guy for not having fair skin is completely understandable - we all have our own personal preferences. The ad, however, portrays the idea that fair skin is the only parameter that influences her judgment.
Of all the people who watch the advertisement, the people who have low self-esteem, are depressed, or have dark skin will quickly form an association with the rejected guy (gender doesn't matter), and those hailed for their beauty will associate with the girl. Long story short, we create associations with stereotypes. By re-watching the same ad over and over again, your stereotype is fueled further, and your behaviors start mirroring those of the actors. Oh, by the way, this is called observational learning. If you're interested in knowing more, click here (yes, the link is correct).
Honest answer? Not a lot; that is until people start realizing that the color of one's skin does not, and should not determine one's attractiveness and/or social status. Here's the funny thing - we're always trying to gain a higher quantitative edge over everyone around us - a higher number of likes, a higher number of followers, a larger bank balance, and all that jazz. Ironically, people who have a higher number of melanin cells in their body deem themselves as unattractive. Where's the logic there?
The first thing that the common folk should do is BAN these fairness creams. Companies making a buck at the cost of someone's self-esteem is something I will not stand for. Stop watching those stupid advertisements! The media is priming you with a negative colorist stereotype.
Oh yes, one more thing -
"Sure, I know nothing about the person in front of me, but he/she has a darker skin tone than me, so I'll induce constant humiliation onto him/her and scar him/her emotionally for life."
- The common man.
Colorism, I feel, is an extremely potent confidence crippler. Why term dark skin as a disability? Whoever thought of this ridiculous ideology? Do people even realize how much they hurt someone even when they call out their 'darkness' offhandedly?
It's about time. It's about time we
Kill the stereotype,
Kill the hate, and
Kill the prejudice.
Let me take this opportunity to apologize to everyone for such a long delay in posting new content. I really don't have a valid excuse to make. I'm reading up on more Psychology, I'm also studying Deep Learning (we may see some interesting experiments later on). However, I promise to make content as regularly as possible. Thanks for your patience, everyone!
Until next time!
Should you trust Occam's razor and break contact if someone hurts you?
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Updated on January 05, 2018
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