This Report Surprised and Saddened Me

[Sukerkin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20444798

I don't know how much of the article is 'exaggeration' for effect but it is a sadness if many are afflicted by this blow to their sense of self. We all have hang-ups about class or wealth or how we look but to be so averse to the colour you were born as to risk your health to change it ...

In it's own way this is as bad a thing as the aid dependency that so blights part of the African continent .

 

[Tez3]

I know that in India the lighter skinned girls from the north of India are in demand as wives rather than the darker skinned girls from the south. It seems ironic in a way when we have so many of the 'Essex types' here plastering on the fake tan to get as dark as they can...even if it is actually orange rather than brown.

 

[granfire]

I have been told that colorism is alive and well, and not only in South Africa.


of course, in the US we have the other phenomenon: light skinned black people being told they are not black enough.

And the phenomenon is older than most troubles of the world...the maiden with the milky white skin?

 

[Uncle]

Yeah it's funny in a sad way. I area where the native skin colour is dark, white skin is preferable. In areas with white skin being the norm, darker skin is beautiful. It's like hair. Straight haired people want wavy or curly hair. Curly haired people want straight hair.

 

[granfire]

Yeah it's funny in a sad way. I area where the native skin colour is dark, white skin is preferable. In areas with white skin being the norm, darker skin is beautiful. It's like hair. Straight haired people want wavy or curly hair. Curly haired people want straight hair.

except, we also have the tendencies to dump on the people who do have that other skin...

 

[Ironcrane]

I've read a few articles about the obsession with white skin in places like China, Thailand, and South Korea. It made me wonder what would happen if one of them came over here, and saw all the tanning salons, self tanning sprays, and the like, and how they'd react to this obsession with becoming darker. Has this happened yet?

 

[Ken Morgan]

Here in the middle east, you find skin lighteners, at every little corner store. As for hair....i'm just happy to still have some!

 

[granfire]

I've read a few articles about the obsession with white skin in places like China, Thailand, and South Korea. It made me wonder what would happen if one of them came over here, and saw all the tanning salons, self tanning sprays, and the like, and how they'd react to this obsession with becoming darker. Has this happened yet?

I am sure it has. They are probably astonished to amused....