When Skin Color Makes Life Difficult

Issues that are very inherent all around us. Not just a "beauty standard", this issue is much broader and more complex than we imagine and difficult to erase because every country has a unique story about how colorism emerged in its society.

The word colorism was first used by Alice Walker, a writer from the United States in her book entitled In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose in 1983.

Walker said :

"Colorism is a prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color."

Colorism is discrimination against people with dark skin. Thus, people with dark skin are considered worse, inferior and therefore treated worse than people with light skin. This can be interracial or intra-racial.

This issue of colorism is difficult to talk about, let alone erase. Why is it difficult to talk about? Because besides there are many layers that can continue to perpetuate and exacerbate this colorism, each country has its own characteristics, where this colorism originates and how the issue eventually develops in that country. For example in the United States, Colorism is very unified with the issue of racism, racism gives birth to colorism. The Europeans came and created a system in which they considered light-skinned people to be superior to other races and it was this system that justified the slavery experienced by African and Native Americans.

Enslaved people with darker skin ordered to do more menial jobs such as workers in the field. Meanwhile, people with lighter skin were allowed to work indoors and even in slave owners' homes. There are also those who are taught to read and write. As a result, lighter-skin slaves were more familiar with slave-owning culture.

Likewise with Mullatoes. a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white an one black parent. They are considered more attractive and smarter than the indigenous people of Africa. They were also more expensive as slaves. When they were freed from slavery, some even inherited their father's property.

The story is different from countries in East Asia such as Japan, Korea, China, the mindset that white skin is better has existed in ancient times. Since the Edo era, women in Japan have been using powder to make their faces really fit. In Korea since the Joseon era people prefer white. The women bury their skin with a white submerged mixed with honey, cucumber, then wash their faces with peach flower water. Some use rice soaking water. And in China their portraits of goddesses are mostly white, they also have the traditional idiom "One white covers up three ugliness".

In East Asia white people are considered more elite because they spend less time working in the sun whereas people with darker skin are considered poor. Since these countries opened their doors to Western countries, colorism has become even more entrenched.

Western influence has entered a lot, for example entertainment, fashion, beauty products, and Caucasian women are increasingly admired. But what's interesting is that the idea of ​​whiteness held by Asians is not all the same as in the West. In Japan, especially Caucasian women are considered beautiful but men are not considered that attractive. Caucasian men like their big noses continue to have lots of hair, but Caucasian men are viewed more positively than black men.

in India the case is different, in this country it seems even worse. Any article or journal discussing this should make India an example. Talking about colorism in India, many think that its roots come from the caste system, where a higher caste, whiter skin means whereas from Sudra for example, darker skin is considered inferior. This may or may not be true.

First, from what I have read, the caste system could have originated from Purusha who sacrificed himself so that there was a profit social order. So when Purusha destroys the four castes, the Brahmins are born from the head, Kshatriya from the hands, Vaisya from the thighs, and Sudra from the feet. This classification means that four castes are born from one body and each of them has an important role in society. So it is not a hierarchical system but it is often assumed that it is.

Second, a person with dark skin but he is from the Brahmins caste, for example, can still type and get the privilege of being not solely by the sound skin color, but there are also aspects that affect. India also does not discriminate between blacks and whites. There are important figures in ancient Indian history whose skin is dark and they are considered as perspective figures for example Krishna, Draupadi, Kali, Parvati, Tara, and others. Perhaps the roots of colorism in India are more precise when India was ruled by Persia, Mugal, English, and Portuguese where they were all light skin and this is what eventually formed an association between white people and people who have power. Because during the British occupation of India, they were quite discriminating against Indians, especially those with dark skin. Indians with light skin are given a greater chance of being able to work while Indians with dark skin are not even allowed to enter restaurants or educational institutions.

Well in my country Indonesia, in my opinion it is also interesting because if colorism is clear there is racism there is also clearly especially against Papuans. Based on his book L. Ayu Saraswati colorism in Indonesia existed before the Dutch colonial era and it is influenced by the Ramayana story, for example, which is more exalted by light skin than dark skin. When the invaders entered Indonesia, they brought with them the concept of their respective whiteness. Like the European colonizers brought their white supremacy while the Japanese brought their own white concept. Basically, white skin is still considered better.

During the Soekarno era, he also tried to recontract a beautiful concept so that it was no longer Eurocentric. However, this beautiful concept is also considered insufficient to represent the diversity of the Indonesian nation because again the concept is considered too Javacentric.

Just like in the case of Japan, Korea, and China in the 60s, Western influence began to enter Indonesia and instilled a beautiful Eurocentric concept in society again. Advertisements for beauty products use a lot of foreigners or the models are a mixture of Indonesians and foreigners. Maybe many feel that this is just a beauty standard for Asian or Indonesian people who prefer white skin over dark. It's just who is prettier or who is prettier and who isn't. And for foreigners, brown skin is exotic. It is true, especially nowadays foreigners are starting to adapt a lot of black aesthetics. They use a foundation that is 2-3 times darker in tone.

If we trivia this, we will dismiss the fact that the rhetoric of white superiority is real. Because foreigners want how brown their skin is, they still have privileges in society. They are not discriminated against, they are not considered inferior or their lives remain peaceful. Colorism does not have a negative impact on white people while people of color this problem can affect a person's life.

in the United States light skinned women have higher self-esteem than dark skinned people and this self-esteem has little to do with their success. They also have a greater chance of getting married than those with dark skin. Those with lighter skin are easier to hire with companies than those with dark skin. There is even one study that discusses the Skin Tone Memory Bias, in which African American men with dark skin and intellect are more remembered as light-skinned men by others.

In this problem of colorism, I personally have never been the side that is ethnically marginalized in my home country. I actually benefit from colorism because there are many opportunities that I get during my life may also be affected by my skin tone. But I personally feel uncomfortable when I hear someone commenting on my white skin and even being asked how to make it white. as if it was everything to be white. But at the same time I can understand the obsession of this person who wants white skin. Maybe for them being white is everything, as I said earlier, if you are white, your life will be comfortable. And people who want to be white don't just hate brown skin, they are very aware of how society views dark skin. They are often ridiculed even by their own parents. They see that the dimensions of the media, people with dark skins are under represented, they do not get much opportunity in society or careers and they have no choice but to follow the existing standards.

The reality in Indonesia is strange, even though the majority of people have brown skin, but white skin is considered normal. If it's not white, it's a strange sign, it's a sign that we can't take care of the body, eventually many people are looking for ways to make their skin white. But many also retain their genuine leather.

Often talk about this problem so that many people understand and influence others that there is nothing wrong with brown skin, Finally we can slowly erode the bad connotations of dark skin and we can create a society that has a positive view of skin color besides white.