What a lot of fuss is made over Black Face Minstrels, Gollies, Robertson jam figures, or certain Morris dancers; even a UK fundraising Carnival Float recently came under fire after depicting the Jamaican Bobsled Team from the film 'Cool Runnings'. None of these people are being discourteous to people with darker skin, just depicting something different to themselves for a bit of fun.
So I was quite surprised to hear that absolutely no fuss has been made of people who artificially try to LIGHTEN their natural skin colour. WHY NOT, one has to ask? (Think Michael Jackson, et al)
Is is simply because it's OK to complain in one tonal direction, but not in the other?
Above is just one photo from a skin lightening product advert; there were plenty of others. The net is filled will such products, all proudly claiming to whiten skin.
If it's 'racist' to 'black-up', surely it has also to be 'racist' to 'whiten-up'. Personally I think that neither is 'racist', but one can't be seen to be hypocritical. Therefore I wish to complain most vigorously about these racist 'whitening' products. I insist they must be removed from the market.
Does that sound as stupid to you, as it does to me? Good!
I saw my father's care giver a Philipino young woman using one of that skin whitening productsonly yesterday when she asked me i could find it on the net because it is very expensive here,she told me it is for pimpels and only in search i discovered for what it was.
ReplyDeleteAnd what did you think of the idea?
DeleteIt was only yesterday,strange that you wrote about it to day and i thought about it last night with the same direction as you, why should she want to be white? she is a beautiful woman.
DeleteQuite right, we should all be happy as we are.
DeleteIt's called pigment. People with lots of it can lie on the beach all day. Do rich white women in the thin air on the ski slopes or the thick air of Costa Brava still plaster themselves with bronzo and surround their faces with silver foil to reflect the sun for maximum carcinogenic effect? I don't know. But lightening the skin is like tattoos a foolish vanity. In fact there are times when I'm on the beach and feel I look like a white alien amongst healthy brown bodies. All I can do is follow medical advice and limit my time in the sun before I cover up. Hollywood and the cosmetic industry has to a lot to answer for. Do they still their useless expensive products on monkeys I wonder?
ReplyDeleteThose who are pale wish to be darker, whilst those who are dark wish to be paler. Such is life, and it will continue as long as humans roam the planet.
DeleteHuman nature. You want what you can't have.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't like is my two tone colour in the summer. I keep out of the sun. I'm brown from elbows and knees down and the rest is lily white. Not a good look for a swimming costume.
I tend to be a bit the same. I wear shorts all Summer, but my legs hardly change colour. I've given up worrying.
DeleteI have never had a sun tan in my life, I just remain lily white whatever or wherever I go.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a young Adonis, I would strut the beaches of the Med' with a beautiful tan. Now that I am no longer middle-aged (ahem) I no don't tan like before, and I couldn't care less.
DeleteSpray tan is the answer for ye whities who want to be brown :)
ReplyDeletePersonally I hope to re-incarnate back into a coffee coloured world in a thousand years time.
I wonder if that will ever happen; somehow I think not.
DeleteIt is not racist. It is just crass and embarrassing for everyone concerned who is not one of the minstrels. Think about it.
ReplyDeleteNo-one at the time thought anything of it, it was only much later after PC had been invented that folk began to complain.
DeleteThat is just rubbish. I remember the overwhelming feeling of embarrassment watching the B and W Minstrels or Al Jolson when I was a child. AND the music was crap.
DeleteI've just read that (white) girls should not dress as Disney's Moana (?) this Halloween, as it is racist. Nor should they dress as the character Elsa from the film Frozen, as it 'promotes white beauty'.
ReplyDeleteFor heaven's sake; what can they bloody dress up as?
Can you imagine how a black actor feels if they are passed up for a role in a film in favour of a white actor who has to put make up on to play the part? This is not just to do with political correctness, it is more to redress the balance of about 100 years of Holywood's portrayal of black people in films as being at best friendly, simple servants who roll their eyes whilst serving the white people their dinner. If the pendulum swings back, it will inevitably swing too far until some sort of sensible balance has been reached. That's just the way it goes.
DeleteI believe the original Amos and Andy actors were white, then they were replaced by black actors who continued the stereotypes.
DeleteYes. That's called acting.
DeleteLightening is a personal choice. Changing skin color for the entertainment of others mocks choice.
ReplyDeleteAmbre Solaire is also a choice.
DeleteI'm not following this.
DeleteAs you all probably know, I do enjoy dangling worms, but here I only had a couple of nibbles. Rather disappointing for a such a contentious subject.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think as "A Heron's Way" suggested that in the future all races will homogenize into one color, one type of hair, one eye color....maybe a little boring but perhaps if we were all similar we would all get along better?
ReplyDelete