Why do we obsess over fair skin? – Part II
Continuing the discussion on ‘why do we obsess over fair skin,’ I would like to elaborate a bit on our association of certain colours with personality characteristics.
The best example of this is the association created with the colours black and white. We have been conditioned in such a way that there is an automatic, (and strong), association to these particular colours.
We have been taught through many different mediums that black and white are polar opposites. ‘Black’ is associated with being dark, evil, shady, promiscuous, untrustworthy, devious, jealous, etc. ‘White’ is associated with being light, good, pure, trustworthy, angelic, giving, etc.
Many questions pop into my mind…Such as:
- Why are these colours associated with particular characteristics?
- How did these colour characteristics become markings for defining people by their skin colour?
- Were these ideologies used as a justification for the forced subordination of certain peoples?
- Why do we adopt these characterizations so easily in the South Asian culture, and why are they so powerful?
I’ll address more issues that were raised in the comments in future posts, but this should get everyone thinking and moving towards asking questions which will (hopefully) enable us to get to the core issues.
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So true. When thinking about black, automatically evil, bad things come to my mind while white symbolizes all the goodness. Never really thought that it didn’t have to be like this. hmm… this actually is a much deeper topic than it seemed at the beginning.
Yes, it’s a lot deeper than what we perceive. It’s interesting how symbolism is so powerful. It can have a major impact on people, their mentality and how they react to things.
I think with all the symbolism just mentioned here about colours meaning a certain something, I think it could possibly have to do with what those actual colours are as colours alone. White=Heavenly Black=Dark/possibly Evil (I won’t say Hell-ish, becuase that’s more like red although you could still tie it to black). I think it may be an automatic human instinct to perceive nearly all things and beings that way. However it is upto us to be more positive and find out the good in the Black and get the Heavenly out of it as well. It also seems that a lot of the time there happens to be plenty of Evil in the “Heavenly” White as well, which we can relate to by citing the example of our gangster neighbours below the 49th Parallel and our figure head mother across the ocean heheeheee
“gangster neighbours”…like how you phrased that
As for getting to the positive side of things…, that will only happen when people realize that there is actually a problem. If they don’t, things will remain the same.
True say, but at the same time people without even having to interact with different people end up making really bad opinions on others just from what other people say or rumours etc. Just being generally positive toward all peoples helps to counteract that barrier of skin colour.
That’s what I find is happening in Greater Toronto Area. Everyone seems to be joining their own groups, living close to people of the same colour, race, and background.
That’s why I am noticing that people are less tolerant of each other and a lot of people don’t even speak decent English despite being in this country for over a decade. Result of always being around people of same background. That’s too bad.
What do you think the reasons are for this?