A rant about color

In a time when it feels like India is falling into deeper and deeper trouble, it is almost reassuring to return to the familiar set of complaints about India. So today I am going to complain about the Indian cinema industry.

Dear Indian Cinema Industry (yes, all of you across the whole country),

I am tired of the colorism in your movies. You have worked very hard to whitewash the main characters and use dark skin for villainy and ridicule. Where is the diversity that is India? Some milk chocolate skin, some dark chocolate skin, many w/the darkest of brown eyes. Some wavy black hair, Some curly black hair. Some big noses, some small. Some thin lips, some thick. You are representing all of India on the world platform and you are doing a shitty job. Distilling all the colors, textures, features and beauty of India into what looks most European. Worse yet, you are now bringing in European-ish folks from outside India to play Indian female characters. Why? Because light-skinned Indian people are not looking European enough for you? Omg. Wtf.

This level of self-hate is just embarrassing at this point. The rest of the world is moving towards self-love and here we are telling all the boys and girls - various shades of chocolate - that somehow they are inferior, undesirable. America and Europe are starting to acknowledge euro-centric beauty standards and are trying to grow up. But here you are telling Indian people that they need light colored eyes, light skin and hair that is never glossy black. I can’t imagine the amount of emotional energy spent by Indian youth across the globe worried about the very things they cannot change about themselves. You have failed us.

Sincerely,

Chocolate and Proud