Dark Skin

This is a topic that has been shared and discussed in many spaces and ways. But here is mine (briefly).

I am dark skinned and I love it. Growing up I would be told by others to use this factory of creams to get fair. After getting married, I was told by people to drink coconut milk if I wanted to have fair babies!!

When I was old enough to use makeup I found this to be another struggle. I would walk into a shop to look at makeup and the salesperson would show me something 3 times lighter than my skin colour. So I would walk out with a white clowned face.

Use “pink powder” or “here you need to use this light makeup colour because it will make your skin smooth” or “here try this fairness cream”!!

I would get mad thinking that these salesperson have zero training with makeup and skin matching but then I only realized later that it is not their fault. Or well, it is not entirely their fault. In fact, before MAC and Revlon’s Black up was introduced into Fiji, all the other makeup brands were shades suited for fair skinned people only.

When a dark skinned guy is marrying a fair skinned girl then you may have heard the extended family say, “Oh our daughter is prettier since she is fair and if anything goes wrong she will easily get remarried.” Like aunty please, calm down…have you seen the guy- he is dark skinned but he is so handsome.

Why do dark skinned people want to look fair? Well, I think it really comes back to our own families and what they are taught growing up. It is like that little girl in kindergarten that refused to hold hands with the dark skinned girl while playing a game because her mother told her she would get dark if she did.

I am grateful to have amazing parents who adored me for me. But I still love it when someone describes me to another “Hey you know that dark Indian girl?”