Racism basically refers to; discrimination on the basis of skin colour or, to be very specific, against the tan/black skin tone.
To be honest, we’ve never really considered Racism as a big issue. Shaming others on the basis of their skin colour has been normalised.
Indian beauty standards have a separate column for ‘fair colour’. I bet there are only a countable number of tanned individuals in our film industry. The American perception of Indians in the film industry ranges from a tan-black skin, and we still can’t accept the reality. I am not justifying anyone in particular; both of them are obviously stereotyping Indian beauty to a particular colour. Both of them are wrong. But if we see the bigger picture here, atleast they accept us as we are.
A child born with tan skin tone has to face humiliation for the rest of his/her life which makes them insecure. It starts a trigger. And how do you deal with it? Blame our parents? Our luck? Or the whole ethnicity?
When a person is made fun of by their colour, we laugh and fuel it further rather than taking a stand. How can a person expect others not to react to a racist comment and take it as a mere joke? Ridiculous!
If tan skin had been the standard from the start, the whole world would be standing under the sun right now, just like how the darker tones are mentally pressurized to get bleached or use fairness creams. (Not to forget, the side effect of bleaching is skin cancer).
Instead, why don’t we accept everyone as they are? And not make racist comments just because we’re running out of ‘Jokes’. It’s that easy to think before we speak.
These small things are often overlooked, but I think these are what really shape us into a ‘Human’.
(My tone might sound aggressive because, yes, I am raging.)