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It is a shame that colour rates higher than character in India. What colour is that? No need to guess what it is, because in India there is only one colour.

The preference for fair skin is bordering on the ridiculous, considering that indians are a predominantly dark-skinned race.

\";Dark\"; women have it especially hard, by which I mean getting in to the marriage cart. Everyone knows the typical matrimonial: \";Wanted: Fair, slim bride....\"; or \";Fair homely girl seeks....\"; I suppose its ruled that a fair girl comes with all the desirable qualities in a bride?

In india, many times the second thing that is most important in a child (after gender) is skin colour. I've known some wives who prayed fervently for a fair child all throughout their pregnancy.

For a minute forget the bias in your mind and think about these questions. Does fair skin make you more wealthier? More popular? More intelligent? Immortal? More sucessful?

The answer to all those questions should be a big \";no\";. So then, tell me why is the colour of a complexion such a big deal?

Dark-skinned children born into a dominantly fair-skinned family are in some cases, treated as inferior to their other cousins, and even ignored.

This distorted idea of beauty is not ingrained at birth. In fact, a major exploiter of the idea that \";Fair is right\"; are the manufacturers of fairness creams. \";With your dark skin, all your problems will fade away, and life will be as rosy as the girl in the ad!\";, is the message in every ad and commercial. This idea is mainly targeted to people in the South, who have darker complexions, which no amount of fairness cream can change.

Isn't it ironic that while belittled indian women are desperatly trying every cream and treatment on the market to get \";snow- white\"; fair, white foreigners lie in the sun for hours, and smear themselves with tanning lotion to get that sexy bronze colour?

Its about time that we start standing up to this, and stop letting ourselves be judged by our physical attributes, instead of our personality and character. After all, what can you tell by a colour?



deepa replied. hi everyone,
y do we forget that its not we who decide our colours/complexion but building our personality and character does involve a lot of our effort.
Nina replied. I agree with you.

Why would anyone want to discriminate against their own people or anyone for that matter based on complexion?

What makes a person is their character, their values, their heart.

Wouldn't life be more \";equal\"; if we were all color blind?

Swanee replied. I totally agree with you, Mira.

It is a sad situation that ones complexion can override intellegence to so many people.

I feel a person's skin color does not make that person better or worse than the next guy.

We as a people come in so many shades of tan and brown. Why is it that there is a preference to be more \";fair\"; or something?

I'm a mother of two little girls. It's very true, after it was announced that the baby was healthy, then, the sex of the child was mentioned...then, the question about their skin color.

In my case, my husband's family overall are somewhere in between fair and very dark. My husband has one of the darkest complexions of his family. That is why my inlaws were so curious as to our girls complexions.

My eldest daughter is very fair and my other is probably going to be a little darker; she's an infant right now. I remind my girls that they are beautiful just the way they are.

I also teach them that beauty and looks fade, but, what they learn cannot be taken from them.

I don't see them as having problems in school or anything, however, it's still an issue in our society. My husband and I may have more children later on and I just want to instill the views now for down the line when questions may come up.

I feel people should put away these ways of thinking and behaving in regards to color preference. Why not embrace our beautiful shades of brown and celebrate it. Let's not try to hold each other back in life based on color of skin.

I am sure there are lots and lots of others here that feel the same.