Racism in India

I dont want to comment on treatment of immigrants in India, but I think taking issue with the Indian concept of skin colour contributing towards beauty, as being inherently racist, is stretching things too far. This blog seems to have gone that way..

For one, darker skinned people are not at a disadvantage when it comes to jobs, except in a small number of places where looking attractive is a part of the job ! Neither are they at a disadvantage when it comes to renting a house, no one cares what skin colour you are as long as you are Indian ! I am a fairly dark skinned person myself and I have never had any issues in renting a house in India. Ditto for educational opportunities.

In short, having a light coloured skin may help you in getting a hot date, but not much else !

There simply is no strength in any argument that conflates the indian idea of light skin as beautiful and racist behaviour towards people of African descent or people with mongloid features.

Sudeep

Sudeep, I am glad you didn’t face any discrimination but restricting to discrimination behavior only when looking for a house or a job is taking a partial view.

Shivam writes about social and emotional discrimination. When you are taunted or prejudiced against by the color of your skin like the African students are, it is racism.

The problem with such ’subtle’ discrimination is that it cannot be measured in tangible terms hence it doesn’t seem to be a problem and also the fact that almost everyone indulges in it makes it appear as if it is socially acceptable.

patrix

Thats why I clarified that I am not commenting about behaviour towards immigrants/people of African descent/people with mongloid features/ at all.

I commented specifically on the fetish that anti-racism wallahs have: Indians considering fair skin to be beautiful is a manifestation of their race consciousness.

Since you appear to feel that the examples I put forth in my comment present only a partial view, I challenge you to present an example where a dark skinned Indian is discriminated against because of the colour of his/her skin.

>>The problem with such ’subtle’ discrimination is that it cannot be measured in tangible terms hence it doesn’t seem to be a problem and also the fact that almost everyone indulges in it makes it appear as if it is socially acceptable.

Btw, theres nothing subtle in calling someone a monkey or a negro and I dont consider it to be acceptable in any manner..

Sudeep, to answer your ‘challenge’, any profession that subtly emphasizes physical look of the employees e.g. actors, stewardess, models, newscasters, etc. The concept of beauty based on skin color is observed in our ‘fairness cream’ ads, as noted by other bloggers. As I said, discrimination extends beyond tangible measures.

I may rent a house to you or give you a job but keep calling you a ‘kallu’ or ‘kaaliya’ much to the merriment of my friends who laugh along. Wouldn’t you call that behavior racist?

Like I said, such behavior is so prevalent in India that it isn’t even considered wrong. The victims have ‘learnt to live with it’ or whatever that means.

>> I may rent a house to you or give you a job but keep calling you a ‘kallu’ or ‘kaaliya’ much to the merriment of my friends who laugh along. Wouldn’t you call that behavior racist?

Boss, if you have a big ass, or a big nose, and your friends call you badi g***, will that be racist ? In the context you mentioned, kallu refers only to skin colour, not the race of the person being teased/taunted, unline other scenarios where kallu/blackey/darkey/.. refers to the race of the person being abused.

>> Sudeep, to answer your ‘challenge’, any profession that subtly emphasizes physical look of the employees e.g. actors, stewardess, models, newscasters, etc. The concept of beauty based on skin color is observed in our ‘fairness cream’ ads, as noted by other bloggers. As I said, discrimination extends beyond tangible measures.

Once again, theres nothing subtle about the job requirement of actors/news presenters/etc to appear pretty to as large a section of their viewers as possible. Its true that the Indian conception of feminine beauty includes a fair skin, but how is this different from say, the American obsession with large breasts and narrow waists ? In this case, there appears to be no discrimination, only that dark skinned boys/girls wont fit the job description ! E.g. a friend applied for a civil eng. job in the US that required physical exertion to the extent of lifting 50lbs above ones head. Being an tiny 110lb Asian, my friend was unable to do so and wasnt considered for the job, now was she being racially discriminated against or did she not fit the job discription ?

Are you confusing skin colour with race ? The “Indian race”, if there is one, comes in all colours you know.

Now that is just semantics. You mean all the talk of racism isn’t about color of your skin and just about race alone? There is documented research that shows dark-skinned immigrants are at a disadvantage compared to light-skinned immigrants irrespective of race, country of origin, occupation, and education. You might want to check out these essays too. And this is the case in sensitive United States. I’m sure if a similar study is done in India, it would give similar or highly significant results.

Making a job description such that dark skinned individuals won’t fit the job description is discrimination. Duh! If you wish to call color discrimination by any other name (apartheid?) if it helps your cause, then do so by all means.

>> I’m sure if a similar study is done in India, it would give similar or highly significant results.

I am touched by your faith in negative Indian stereotypes

>> Making a job description such that dark skinned individuals won’t fit the job description is discrimination. Duh! If you wish to call color discrimination by any other name (apartheid?) if it helps your cause, then do so by all means.

Boss, words you use mean specific things, racial discrimination means, discrimination on the basis of ones race, nothing else. for the first part, Where are the races involved here ? [unless you want to talk about the South Indian race and the North Indian race and the punjabi race and the bengali race..] For the second, Where is the discrimination ?

If its not racial, and its not descrimination, what the hell are you guys going on about ?

>> Making a job description such that dark skinned individuals won’t fit the job description is discrimination. Duh!

So what job description in India will/will not fit a dark skinned individual, please elaborate. Also, you mentioned models, air hostesses, news anchors and actors: Exactly how many of these jobs are the ones that are going around these days in India ? Lets at least try to quantify how big this problem is.

Even job descriptions that require a person to appear pretty/presentable do take dark skinned Indian people – [Bipasha Basu, Carol D Souza, Rahul Roy, Smita Patil, that Kulkarni babe, Sanju baba, Sunil Dutt, Salman Khan, Amjad Khan, Dhoni, Ajay Devgan, milind soman, ] – These are all people who would be on the darker side of the colour spectrum in India, and yet they made it big in show biz as models/actors. Also, at least in the time I spent travelling in India, I saw lots of dark skinned girls/boys/aunties/uncles as air hostesses and pursers.

Sudeep, you keep offering anecdotal evidence so it is futile to argue anymore. And as far as my faith in negative Indian stereotypes go, as Nitin Pai once put it, I hope you are right but I fear I am.

A handful of Nigerian students suffering racism stirs a horet’s nest on DP( I’m not justifying it). 30,000 Indians being denied HSMP benefits in Britainfor being non-Europeans (WHITE!) begs a mention. So Typical!

[And this comes from the distant cousin of Mel "Conspiracy Theory" Gibson!]

By repeatedly raising the bogey of ‘Racism’ at every real or imaginary scarecrow, we have trivialized racism to such an extend, that we are afraid to raise our voice against the really RACISM prevalent against our brethren in the world.

And when someone does mention it, it gets brushed aside as ‘Oh, we Indians are racists too’! What I fail to understand is how does a nigerian facing racism
in a remote Indian coolege justify racism faced by Indians in say London!

Boss, at least I am offering anecdotal evidence, you are offering none at all !! Besides, you guys are the ones putting forward a hypothesis – ‘the Indian idea that light skin is beautiful is a manifestation of racism latent in Indian society and leads to a significant amount of hardship to a significant number of people’ – shouldnt the burden of proof or atleast putting forward a reasonable conjecture be on you ?

Lastly, theres nothing ancedotal about me saying that racial discrimination has to involve race and discrimination.