Craze for anything white

by B. R. GOWANI

Actress Nandita Das has joined an activists launched campaign to fight back blatant racism against dark-skinned people in India with “Stay Unfair, Stay Beautiful” adverts [Dark is Beautiful/ WOW] (The United States had such a movement “Black is beautiful” in the 1960s.) PHOTO/Al Jazeera

Irreparably damaged psyche

white.
white.
white.
white.
white.

colored people wants white skin.
colored people wants to be like whites.
colored people wants to act like whites.
colored people wants to talk like whites.
colored people wants to feel like whites.

why?
why?
why?
why?
why?

white culture?
white Columbus?
white violence?
white colonialism?
white imperialism?

a combination?
or all of the above?
any one of the above?

whatever.

100% sure is one thing,
colored peoples’ psyche is irreparably damaged.

Self-hatred

People with dark skin are in so much awe of white color that many of them start hating their natural color and their own selves. This leads them to not only try to whiten their faces and uncovered body parts, but some of the females are now also whitening their genitals to please their men. Even though the skin fairness products don’t work, the industry has grown quite big-benefiting the manufacturers, ad agencies, and the big actors and actresses appearing in ads. Once in a while you hear about someone refusing to appear in ad because it sends a wrong and a racist message.

Recently, the Hindi/Urdu film actress Kangana Ranaut refused a Rs2 crore [US$315,843] offer to endorse such a product.

“My sister (Rangoli Ranaut) is dusky, yet beautiful. If I go ahead and be part of this campaign, then, in a way, I would be insulting her. If I can’t do that to my sister, then how can I do it to the entire nation?”

Is it a joke or real?

The Radcliffe Camera, built 1737–1749 as Oxford’s science library, now holds books from the English, History, and Theology collections. PHOTO/Wikipedia

A Geneva, Switzerland-based successful Arab businessman in his late 30s wants to pursue education which he couldn’t finish during his teens. So he put an ad in the Times Educational Supplement for a female tutor whom he would pay €146,700 Euros per annum

“…to learn English to a high standard, learn to play jazz piano, learn about classical music, opera, theatre, Shakespeare. Ultimately he would like to be able to study at Oxford [University] …”

“[And] wishes to learn to speak English so that his Arabic background is no longer evident.”

This Arab businessman must have an intense repulsion for his Arabness that he wants to totally erase it, at least, in accent. But what about his Arab features? Is he going to go for a facelift? Or perhaps this Arab person looks like a white person but just wants to get rid of his Arab accent. Or maybe this person is looking for a slave. Or he wants someone for an experiment purpose. Or may be the ad is a work of some non-Arab person who hates Arabs and wants to malign them. We don’t know what methods the Supplement uses to check the background of the people putting ads.

The tutor chosen will be working 15 hours a day, in a sense that she will have to be in the vicinity that when required she’ll have to report between 8am and 11pm. She’ll also be traveling with him; socializing; attending dinners, lunches, and parties; accompanying him to museums; and other such places.

The requirements demanded from an applicant are many:

“The role requires someone highly intelligent, erudite, well read, musically accomplished, and both socially and culturally versatile.”

But then he is doubtful whether he’ll succeed because

“this is a hugely ambitious goal which will take several years’ hard work, and which is by no means guaranteed.”

One wonders what is he going to do if he succeeds. Will he then be a part of the white elite world? But white elite class is not that bad-if you have money, that is big money, they’ll accept you no matter what the size, shape, or the color of your body may be.

(In South Africa, during the apartheid era, the colored people were not allowed in white churches but were welcomed in some of the business places. This is usually true in many places where any kind of discrimination prevails.)

If the person behind the ad is actually a successful Arab businessman, then he has some serious mental issues and should have advertised for a psychiatrist or psychologist.

B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com

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