在有色主義偏見的社會矢志追求淺膚色：是心結根深蒂固，還是無知癡迷？

“Pining for a lighter skin， looking for whitening cosmetics， feeling envious of those who are fair in complexion，” that is usually how most young women feel in India. They are obsessed with the idea that somehow or other those sporting a fair skin are superior to those with dark skins.

Whiter skin supremacy is infested in the Indian mindset in a large way， unlike other serious social issues. They are also convicted of the notion that a fair complexion skin equates with the perception of beauty regardless of a person’s healthy figure with symmetrical features.

Most parents are averse to expose their children to sun light for fear of their skin being tanned. They even seek Divine intervention to prevent their children becoming darker in complexion. Some parents and adults exhibit their preferences by showing partiality towards lighter skinned children， sometimes to the extent of neglecting their darker skinned ones. These practices in turn develop an ingrained attitude in the children’s mindset that a fair skin is associated with love， care and beauty.

“渴望亮白膚色，尋找美白化妝品，妒忌那些膚色白皙的人”，這通常就是印度年輕女性的想法。她們某種程度上癡迷地以為，淺膚色優于暗膚色。

與其他嚴重的社會問題不同，印度人很大程度上對淺膚色偏愛有加。她們也對這樣一種觀點深信不疑，即，不管你體型是否勻稱，五官是否對稱，只要你膚色白皙，別人就認為你漂亮。

大多數父母怕孩子曬黑，總設法讓孩子遠離太陽暴曬。為防止孩子膚色變暗，她們甚至尋求神助。一些父母和成年人在該方面的偏愛表現為對長得白的孩子愛護有加，某種程度上對長得黑的孩子有些漠視。因而，這些做法便在孩子們的心中深深扎根，認為長得白的孩子就會得到更多的愛、關心，就更加美麗。

Discrimination based on skin color is very much pervasive in Indian society. Looking for a fair bride in an arrange marriage setup is very significant these days. In some cases， parents do not permit love marriage to take place where the bride is dark in complexion. This is more than evident from the matrimonial ads. Fair skinned brides are the craze. A fair skin according to the advertisers is more desirable than an overseas degree. What is hilarious is that a fair bride and a dark groom is acceptable while a dark bride and a fair groom is considered unacceptable and almost silly. Stigma attached to the pigment has an adverse effect on nuptial matters.

Color beyond gender is increasingly prevalent. Women comprise the majority of the consumers as they wish to become fair overnight. The industry makes good money from this insatiable female craze. Men are also not above this notion of becoming fairer in complexion at present. They too are obsessed with the fair skin psyche. The conviction that being fair skinned is good， stunning， smart， adorable and guarantees more opportunities in the job and matrimonial market is encouraged and fanned by media outlets with the aid of light skinned celebrities.

膚色歧視在印度社會非常普遍。目前，說親時尋找一個膚色白的新娘非常重要。一些情況下，膚色暗的新娘在戀愛結婚時是得不到男方父母認可的。這一點在征婚廣告中反映的更加明顯。膚色白的新娘頗受歡迎。一位廣告商說，膚色白皙比海外學位更讓人合意?；氖牵藗兘邮苣w色白皙的新娘配皮膚黝黑的新郎，卻不接受膚色黝黑的新娘配白皙的新郎，并覺得這樣的搭配近乎愚蠢。色素特征對結婚也有不利影響。

不管對于男性還是女性來說，膚色都成為越來越普遍的一個問題。在那些渴望一夜間變得亮白的消費者中，女性占了絕大多數。相關行業也從女性有增無減的狂熱中賺了很大一筆。目前，男性也未能突破這一程式。他們也非常癡迷于擁有白皙的膚色。他們認為，膚色白是好事，有魅力，瀟灑、受人喜愛，讓你在就業和相親市場中獲得更多機會，他們對此深信不疑。而這一風氣也借由亮白膚色的名流們的幫助，為很多媒體所吹捧，并愈演愈烈。

Commercializing Pale skin

淺膚色走向商業化

Beauty industries are capitalizing on pale skin syndrome. There are thousands of skin whitening creams and capsules flooding the Indian market. On the top of this product， they have launched a vagina lightening cream in the market. This whitening wash for female’s intimate area is adding further to this harmful and miserable notion.

Domestic brands are more popular than foreign brands in the genre of fairness creams in India. In an advertisement for a local fairness cream， a father with a young woman is lamenting for not being able to support her daughter’s marriage as the daughter’s salary is very poor. She neither gets a well paid job nor a groom because of her dark skin.

Suggestion -- she uses the cream， becomes fairer， got a job as an air hostess with a high salary and makes her father happy.

美容行業正利用這一淺膚色綜合癥，數千多種美白霜、美白劑充斥著印度整個的市場。除這些產品外，他們還向市場推出了淡化陰道色素的乳霜。用于女性私密部位的這一美白清洗產品令原本有害又讓人苦不堪言的觀點雪上加霜。

在印度市場，國產品牌的美白霜比國外品牌更受歡迎。在一則當地美白霜廣告中，一位年輕女性的父親哀嘆不能支持女兒的婚姻，因為她工資少得可憐。由于長得黑，她既沒有一份不錯的收入，也沒能找到丈夫。

建議——她使用了美白霜，皮膚變白了，找到了一個空姐的職位，報酬可觀，這讓她的父親感到高興。

This fanaticism towards the fair skin reaches its peak in the movie industry. Bollywood， which portrays the Indian culture to the world， is bombarded with fair-skinned actors. What is more， Bollywood actors are in the forefront of promoting the sales of skin whitening lotion， creams， etc.

In the work environment too， employers prefer to recruit fair skinned women. Some jobs like Air hostesses， stewards， receptionists and so on are literally confined to lighter skinned women. Even the media world contributes to this obsession for the white skin. Advertisement industries fully feature fair girls in magazines and catalogues. Fair complexioned girls dominate the modeling industries and beauty pageant.

對皮膚變白的狂熱追求在影視業登峰造極。寶萊塢對外界宣傳印度文化的影片中，清一色全是皮膚白的演員。另外，寶萊塢演員本身也在異常活躍地推銷美白露、美白霜等美白產品。

在職場中，雇主們也傾向招聘皮膚白的女性。甚至媒體界也在對癡迷美白這一觀點推波助瀾。廣告業雜志與宣傳冊上刊登的也都是膚色白皙的女郎。模特業和選美比賽也以白皙女性為主。

Discrimination based on colorism

有色主義歧視

This fascination for the lighter skin manifesting a sign of discriminatory practice is a global and social epidemic. The new Miss America Nina Davuluri， the first Indian to be crowned， encountered bitter racial remarks from Americans for her complexion. This is a very good example to prove discrimination based on skin color. The treatment of African students in India at times leading to rapes and death is a manifestation of deep rooted racism in Indian society. This is despite the advances of science and culture consciousness. Racism and obsession with white skin color present in our psyche， and we have to break out of this shackle.

This obsession is plagued the world and the division between fair skin and dark skin has become pervasive. This ugly reality has become a serious issue with the women and men in Nigeria. The business of bleaching cosmetics is flourishing， and the women are in a greater haste to lighten their pigment. Retaining black makes them feel grotesque and incapable. This wrong perception has resulted in an inordinate craving for skin-whiteners among the Nigerian women.

對淺膚色的迷戀表明了歧視的存在，這在世界和社會中流傳很快。新一屆美國小姐妮娜·達瓦魯瑞是第一位榮膺冠軍的印度人。她就曾因為膚色遭受了美國人種族偏見的尖刻指責。這是證明膚色歧視的一個極好的例子。非洲留學生在印度的待遇——時有遭強奸和致死案例，都表明了印度社會根深蒂固的種族主義傾向。盡管科學和文化意識方面取得了進步，但我們心中仍滯留著種族主義和淺膚色的觀點，我們必須要打破這一桎梏。

這一執念正困擾著世界，對黑、白膚色的分歧已非常普遍。這一丑陋的現實對尼日利亞的女性和男性都帶來了嚴重的問題。漂白化妝品業正如火如荼，女性們更是馬不停蹄地去淡化色素。保留黑膚色讓她們感到怪異和無能為力。這一錯誤觀點使得尼日利亞的女性對美白產品的狂熱達到了無以復加的程度。

This infatuation for a fair skin is affecting the mentality of women， which in turn create negative self perception among women. The caste system and the stranglehold of colonialism， paved the way for White-man Supremacy， created the desire for a whiter skin in the minds of the colonized. It is time for us to realize that this narrow standard of measuring female beauty or human beauty in general does not lie on the color of a skin nor is it not limited by color.

As Denis Leary， an American actor， comedian， writer and director has said： “Racism is not born folks， it is taught.”

對淺膚色的癡迷也在影響著女性的心態，進而讓女性們產生了負面的自我認知。種姓制度和殖民主義的束縛，為白人至上鋪平了道路，在被殖民者心中則產生了對淺膚色的渴求?，F在我們該認識到這樣一個事實：總體上衡量女性美或人性美的狹義標準不在于膚色，也不受制于膚色。

正如美國演員、喜劇演員、作家和導演丹尼斯·利瑞所說，“人們的種族主義不是生來就有，而是后天學會的”。

Indians can emulate the “Black is Beautiful” movement. Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that was started in the US in the 1960s by black leaders （Afro Americans） and later spread to much of Africa， Latin America and the Caribbean as well the black Diaspora in Europe.

This movement works against the notion in many world cultures that black people’s natural features such as skin color and hair are not beautiful or just ugly. The Black is beautiful movement encourages men and women to stop “relaxing” their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin. It is also true that people with white skin in Europe or US like to acquire darker skin color through sun tanning or by artificial means.

Parents， media， advertisements and youth groups should raise awareness about the negative and denigrating consequences of our fixation with the white skin and its racist roots. In India insane beauty ideals of paler skin encouraged by media， society and culture are not getting faded but rather becoming more and more omnipresent. It is time that we go back to the old adage： beauty is only skin deep： handsome is as handsome does.

印度人可效仿“黑就是美”運動。這一運動是一種文化運動，由黑人領導者（非裔美國人）于20世紀60年代在美國發起，后來擴展到非洲、拉丁美洲和加勒比海以及歐洲的非裔猶太人離散區。

這一運動反對一些世界文化中描述黑人自然特征的觀點，如認為黑人的膚色和頭發不美或者非常丑陋?！昂诰褪敲馈边\動鼓勵男性和女性停止“拉直”頭發和試圖淡化或使膚色變白的做法。它也贊同歐洲或美國人通過曬太陽或通過人工方式得到深膚色。

父母，媒體，廣告和年輕群體應該就我們對白膚色定位產生的負面與詆毀后果，還有種族主義根源提高認識。印度對于淺膚色的病態審美觀得到媒體、社會和文化的支持，這一觀點沒有消失，相反卻變得越來越普遍。我們該回到那個古老格言：美是膚淺的，行為美才是真美。