Feature 
 

Mindset

‘Chitta’ is not the Colour

It’s important to understand how the sense of colour develops
for an individual. We should focus more on how we look from
the inside rather the ‘gora rang’ outside.

By Zara Maqbool | August 2020

For as long as I remember I was told how lucky I am that I picked my dad’s fair complexion and not my mom’s dark one. I was too naïve to question if I had a choice to pick the skin colour. I do remember feeling very happy because I could identify that there was a compliment hidden in the statement. How do I feel about it now? The honest truth is that I like my skin colour and still get validated for it. Having said that, I also love darker skin colours and in fact when it comes to the opposite sex I find fairer guys less attractive as compared to dark skinned ones.

I have multiple opinions on what skin colour means for us as a society. I feel this colour discrimination can be traced back to the colonial era when mostly white Britons ruled over dark skinned Indians. The roots of the fervor for fairness runs deep in the soil of our post-colonial Pakistani and Indian psyche. In Pakistan now, a darker skin colour is very often associated with the Indians whereas we Pakistanis consider ourselves the better looking race than the fairer skinned one.

When looking for a girl to marry a male in our family, among the many ‘musts’ the elders lay down is that ‘larki chitti honi chaye’ (the girl should be fair-complexioned), no matter what the complexion of the husband-to-be is.

I have many times heard comments like,’ yeh to Indian lagti hai’ and somehow in our endeavour to consider ourselves superior to our neighbours, the skin colour becomes an important factor and a sign of beauty.

This colour superiority is deeply embedded in the fabric of our society and I strongly believe it’s not going to change anytime soon. Recently Unilever dropped ‘fair’ from its ‘Fair & Lovely’ skin cream campaign. A great move but will it seriously change the mindset of the people? I don’t think so.

It’s important to understand how the sense of colour develops for an individual. It is the way a person thinks and views his or her traits that to start with are physical and then beliefs and values are incorporated. It’s a truly dynamic and intricate concept because it covers both the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ self. When these two are assimilated, one’s sense of self develops.

In our society particularly, I have always noticed that most families focus on the outer looks more than the inner traits. How others see us is paramount to us and so we continue to invest in ourselves and in our children’s outer looks. The physical looks come first. It’s important to present your best there. There is much less focus on the inner self and how the person focuses on an internal growth journey.

That is why, many times I have come across some good-looking persons with low self-esteem. One wonders why that happens. It needs to be remembered that investment in the inner self is a very important factor for a positive self-image.

In the quest for the perfect looks, colour complexion plays a large role. I have always heard women saying that if one is fair one can get away with even average facial features. This is further reinforced by advertising campaigns of skin products developed around lighter skin. TV morning shows in Pakistan also leave no stone unturned to further shame dark-skinned people, mostly women.

It’s also important to consider here that skin colour discrimination is more relevant for females than males. The criterion for men’s beauty was never their complexion. For women rishtas are rejected over skin colour, no matter what level of society we belong to.

I don’t think this will change because as a society we don’t invest in the sense of the self that should be built on an inner locus of evaluation rather than an external one. Building the inner self would mean loving our children unconditionally and recognizing them as human beings. Essentially, this means teaching them not to chew ideas transferred by family and friends.

For example, a mother who is shamed for her dark skin will hand over the same inferiority complex to her daughter. The daughter should be able to question this rather than internalizing it. How often do we give unconditional and positive regard to our children or to people around us? We don’t because we don’t give it to ourselves.

We are ready to judge ourselves on anything and everything. I don’t think ‘gora rang’ will ever loose its edge as external factors like these help us to distract ourselves from our inner realities. We need an excuse to not indulge in self-love and make the harsh inner critic grow bigger so what better excuse than the colour of our skin.

The buck stops with us. Let’s make a conscious effort not to even laughingly crack jokes about skin complexion. Let us take a moment to think about what the colour of our skin means for us. We should focus more on how we look from the inside rather the ‘gora rang’ outside.

Read More