How Bad is Skin Tone Discrimination in India?  

Adults bullying children is beyond disgusting

Dudes like we’re supposed to be dark lol he was speaking facts

Let's be real colourism is more harsh for women in India

When I was young, I heard the phrase "you are so cute. If you were fairer you would have been perfect.". Whether it be complete strangers or relatives. I heard it frequently. But as I grew older and actually took care of my skin ( sunscreen was the biggest change as well as less direct exposure to the sun), my skintone got a little lighter (never bleached) and everyone complemented me and asked me if I bleached my skin. And then they focused on my weight because they couldn't critisize my skin any longer. Moral- People are going to find any reason to dish out back handed compliments and critisize you. Jealous people will always focus on making you feel negative.

this is not just India's problem... it's in 80% Asian countries...

There is no reason for an adult to bully a child, especially about their appearance. I hope that teacher is no longer teaching kids

As an Irish person (who are notorious for being extremely pale) it's interesting to me that for us, we are always pressured to tan to have a deeper skin tone, and Indian people often want paler skin and sometimes bleach their skin.. i think people just often want what they don't have and maybe just embracing yourself is the better option:( and tbh coming from experience having pale skin really isn't all its made out to be. in reality we usually burn VERY easily in the sun and walk around looking like a tomato after even 30 minutes outside lol

This is sad to watch, but it's true. As a Korean when I was little, I witnessed that my sister was treated better to my father since she had lighter skin, which considered prettier. It broke my heart that I was not loved by my skin tone even though mine wasn't considered dark among Korean girls back then. So I guess that my dad had sort of racism. 😢

It's Indian girls who face the brunt of being dark in India. No matter a boy is black or brown or fair he always wants a fair girl to show off.

When I was little like 5 year old, I had told my dad that I wanted to be a performer who appears on television. He said, I still remember the words clearly, "One Bipasha Basu is enough. You don't have to become the next dark skinned girl who makes movies. Who will watch your dark skin and body on TV?" My dad has a thing for fair complexion. He always expresses that when I was born, I was fair but with time, I got tan. He also prefers company of fair skinned people. My dad is dark himself. I don't know how he developed this mindset that his own children are not beautiful. When my brother was obese, Dad would never take him anywhere with himself. But today, my brother has become one of the best looking men of my family. Now, Dad wants him to join him for public functions. But my introvert brother just refuses to let go of his self time. Coming back to me, Dad still criticizes my looks. I am 23 and have a baby face. When I had bangs, he said "you look ugly, ugly as a monkey. Never get bangs again." When I had a french bob, he said "you look funny. But ugly." I have lost some weight due to work stress. He always points that out. One time when he tried to call me ugly, I said- " You are right, do you know why am I ugly? Because I have got your face. I am your carbon copy. Had I gotten mum's face, I, too, would have been good looking as my brother." That made him shut up. Love my mum for always calling me her most beautiful girl. She says that I am the prettiest girl she has ever seen. I should not be ashamed or unconfident. I have also given up on fair skin. I know nothing is gonna change my complexion and this is the color I would take to grave. So why not love it. Let me tell you, good skincare would make your dusky skin glow. My mum says when dusky skin glows it looks like gold.

Colorism is so ridiculous, it's literally a shade of skin, why would it say anything about the person. It's literally skin.

Indians just have the nicest accents man. Its so cute😁

Imagine a teacher bullying a child for her skin tone! 😤 Just appalling!

This fair skin syndrome should stop in India. Its high time.

whats crazy is they’re all literally gorgeous 😭 i’m east asian but every indian person i’ve seen or met has been stunning !! crazy beauty standard they have. i would easily give up my skin tone for their features 🥲

A teacher bullying little kids should have their license revoked and be banned. That guy is intelligent. People should imitate his thinking more than the skin color.

Bodyshaming is a joke in India. They'll make you feel bad and then they'll say it's a joke. Teachers, Family members,etc they will call you owl or glasses, they'll call you old man and worst thing is that you can't talk back.

Being brown in a brown family was considered ugly.. it still is

as a dark skinned girl who is indian, i do feel insecure about my dark skin. i have tried EVERY diy face mask to get my tan better. i get tanned so easily. i have always wished to have fair and clear skin like a north indian girl in my class.( she is a brat though 😂) please fellow indians, lets stop this hatred towards dark skinned people. we are all very pretty people and we should remember that!!

For a tiny Island to teach the entire world that fair skin is the ideal, is quite an achievement. 😅

As a naturally fair skin toned person who gets sun tanner extremely easily, the difference in how people treat you when you are fairer and darker is extremeeeee

As a Southeast Asian, I agree with the 2nd girl. I often observed that mostly women with fairer skin were treated differently.

Indians have diverse skin color, mostly though are caramel brown but I never encounter one that has low self esteem because of skin color. All of them that I encountered are kind and respectful. ❤❤❤ from 🇵🇭

As a woman who has fair skin, I always wanted to be darker. We should all learn to embrace who we are and see the beauty in every skin colour.

When I was in Class Six, one day i sat on first bench, I usually used to sit on 2 nd or 3rd, so when my teacher took notice of that she made me sit the 5th row, at the start I didn't know why she did this, but one day I said no ma'am, I will not sit at the back because my eye sight is quite weak and I can't see properly what's written on the board, then she replied back and said prettier people should be sitting in the first row and on that moment, I started crying, I told my parents, they complained to the head, and they suspended her✨

Ofc the guy doesn't have this problem, bc it's the women that are shamed for their skin (too dark to find a husband etc.)

It's always on women. Whatever bad happens in India, it mostly happens to women. Men just get off everything easily

I also faced this when i was a kid. I still face it. Just because i have a dark skin tone, people don't leave a chance to point it out. I am very successful in my professional career, but this desire of a fairer skin remains : not because of me, but because of the society, because of how the society has treated me since I was born. My friends themselves have actually called me 'badsurat' when we were in school. That time I didn't know about standing up for myself and all. Still today this continues. One aunty told me "who will marry you? You are so dark?!" I didn't say anything to her. Because whatever i say she can never get out of that ugly mindset she carries. I didn't select this skin colour for myself. I was born like this. Whatever was in my hand to change, i did. I have topped exams, studied in high ranking colleges, am working with a high salary, even preparing for competitive exams which I will crack soon. I go to the gym daily, and have a great toned body. So I'm doing what i can change to build myself. But i can't peel off my skin because it's dark. Society should understand that it's not the container which matters, it's the content. Because when you have been bullied since you were a child for your skin colour, you really feel low.

I was a college student when I volunteered at a govt school along with my classmates. These were middle-high schoolers. One of the darker skinned girls was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said looked at my fair skinned classmate and said “I want to be as fair as her”. Others started laughing like it’s a joke but that statement just broke my heart.

3rd girl was spitting facts. School teachers literally treat fair kids way more better than kids who have dark and dusky skin tone. I have a dark and dusky skin tone and I am good at studies but some of my teachers never appreciated me for this and treated kids who have a fair/light skin tone way more politely even if they don't do well at studies.

They always had such a gorgeous skin I was like my gosh they're pigment is gorgeous so it breaks my heart to hear that they're told their skin is ugly It's radiant actually. I think it's magnificent seeing the different depths of melanin throughout the world globally It's really unique everyone has like a unique melanin hue about them. So I hope that they can learn to love themselves and value themselves

In order for Indians to respect themselves they have to overcome this inner racism. They always bow to the European and western travellers.

Judging from this short, it looks like amount dark skinned children, girls got shamed or bullied while boys got reassured that it's normal.

This is not just colour discrimination It's gender discrimination Full respect to the guy who was speaking facts but bro it's kinda different for us girls

Their skin color looks so smooth and beautiful

For an American looking at you, I think you’re beautiful. I think you have beautiful features whether you’re lighter or darker.

I had that one teacher who constantly punished me because she’s didn’t like the way I looked. Being a 11 year old, I never understood why the pretty girl who didn’t do her homework was excused while I was made to do 100 sit-ups every time.

Literally feel this to my core..i was really fair when i was a newborn and due to some infections i turned dark all of the sudden ..was builled my dad's sisters, dad's mom saying i look dark if i was a boy that's diff and when i was weak at my studies my dad's sister told " if she is good looking atleast we could have got her married and now without degree who will marry her"...heard from a neighbor saying "Kaali" and saying are you adopted coz your sister has fair skin..and she was loved by all neighbors and got gifts for her birthday but i never got anything ...i know she was my little sister and loved her to core but the kid inside me was jealous..i tried to grow up and become mature fast to avoid this taunts...applied pond's white beauty to fair and lovely to become fair but realized when i was 18 that am beautiful and don't give a f to other people who say otherwise..my request to young kids / teens stop taking their words into mind..you are beautiful they are the ugliest coz they have issues with you...rock your melanin...

Brown skin is so beautiful, I was just in Sri Lanka and the women are so beautiful and vibrant to look at. I feel I look frail and old because I’m pale. I hope Indians will understand how deeply beautiful their vibrant skin is

I'm actually really really fair, but I still want to bleach it, so guys, even you have fair skin or finally accomplish it, you'll still feel sad

Woman get discriminated against more for their looks you can see that with the man’s response

I was in class 1 , I used to sit beside a girl who has fair skin tone. After some day she told me not to sit beside her. When I asked about the reason .... She said " My mother told me not to sit beside you. As you are a dark skinned person I will also be dark as you... by sitting beside you" ... I was really shocked 🙂 And that was the start ... I have heard many bullies afterwards😔

As a fair skin Indian women who has to work a lot under the sun sometimes, I know the difference of how I get treated when I get really tanned.

It is true. I am just a teenager but my own family judges and taunts me on my complexion . Honestly I am neither fair nor dark . I am in between. When I use to attend swimming classes my complexion darkened , they started pointing in way of taunting me that I got darkened and ugly. But during covid when my complexion was somewhat fair they called me white lizard. I don't know why Indians are obsessed with having fair skin . I do agree with the guy . But the boys in my family have really dark complexion no one says a word . I just feel like no one should be bullied or judged for their skintone whatever it may be

Teachers are way worse. This one teacher knew my father somehow and they'd good connections, yet whenever she corrected my notebooks, she made me stand infront of her and slapped me at every spelling mistake in front of the whole class. And when I complained to my dad, she dragged me from the front to the back of the class and kept hitting me. Said she didn't like how I looked. Mind you, she's childless and probably the only thing I'm thankful for.

I remember my grandmother telling us that fairer-skin people were good people while people of darker skin tone were not nice. As us grandchildren grew up we realised how bad of a notion it was, but my youngest cousin was heavily influenced by it. It had come to a point that my cousin wouldn't even interact with any darker skin toned people even if they were being all good. Thankfully she's grown out of it now, but still it's so messed up.

Where I grew up everyone wanted to have a darker skin. I was occasionally mocked for being too pale. I don't like it either, it makes me look quite sickly. But I've come to terms with it. Your skin tone is beautiful! Don't forget that someone on the other side of the planet wants to look like you.

Your skintones are beautiful. Remember we all crave what we don't have. Curly hair ladies want straight hair. Thin ladies want to gain weight and pale skined people want to be tanned. Love yourselves and the beauty God gave you!

I still remember that when I was the centre in a school dance function (I am a dancer now) and our head female teacher came to check the performance and she directly said to my face in front of everyone that I'm not appealing to the audience and I won't look good in bright centre costume and she threw me in 4th position. I'm not a person who is bothered by any position or smthng but I was sure even that time that I deserve to be in the centre. I can be appealing to the ppl with my dance but I had no courage to say anything to the head teacher and danced with no heart in that 4 position.

It doesn't matter if your skin is dark or fair,But having a good nature makes a lot of difference.

I once saw this Indian girl buying from a 7/11 store back in the Philippines It was the first time I had seen someone with a perfect brown skin. She was shining literally shining her skin was so smooth I couldn't take my eyes off of her I think she was the most beautiful woman I had ever laid my eyes on and I'm a heterosexual woman by the way. I don't know what they have to change to look fairer

It's so strange how beauty standards change in the world. I was born in North America and do not tan- I only burn. So my cousins and sisters would always make fun of me for being so pale. Here, it is desirable to have tanned skin, and yet in other places people are bullied for being darker.

Frankly as a dark skinned mexican american, the only time i have ever felt insecure about my features was around other mexicans.

Teacher bullying kids is so common in India. I knew several teachers who have bullied me for various other reasons 😂😂😂. I used to come home and cry and get sick as well. My mom was just giving me the boost to ignore those senseless teachers. Im glad my mom was always there to scold those teachers to stop me from crying

I used to go for this driving school and the instructor was a beautiful brown skinned woman. She complimented me by saying you're really pretty since you have a fair skin and I wish I could have fair skin. It's crazy how people have imposed such kind of colourism toxicity from childhood and made children feel insecure about themselves from childhood. Genuinely hope people stop defining beauty based on skin tone.

That is always a terrible shame because all these women are beautiful

India is such a vast place from the peaks of the mountains to the shores of the Indian ocean. I hope indian girls from all over grow up knowing they're all beautiful!

that guy is 100% right. i’m thai and while there are lots of pale thais, there’s even more tan/dark skinned thais. where we live receives so much sunlight and heat, and yet so many thais believe they are ugly for being dark.

No you don’t need to bleach or whiten your skin. Please don’t. You are amazing just how you are. No need to change anything about yourself, seriously. I was once a kid in school and everyone bullied me for being white. Even the teacher joined in and didn’t stop the continuous bullying. I was literally so young, i didn’t know how to react to that situation so i just let them do it. 🤷

Brown skin is the most beautiful in my opinion and melanin is literally worth more than gold. This is coming from someone who has naturally very light skin

As an Indian who becomes just shy of fluorescent in the winters, we need to come together as a community and agree that all skin tones have personality. And they’re all lovely personalities.

I was 11 when my relatives started comparing me with my cousin sister who is fair and they will say her marriage will be a piece of cake, guys will be swooping around her for marriage. On the other hand i being dark they would say it would be very difficult for us to search a groom for you and we will have to give him hefty dowry to marry you. I remember going back home and buying fair and lovely, marking my skin tone on the fairometer counting how many weeks it will take to be fair (they claimed one shade lighter each week😂). I was pissed when i realized cream will not make me fair i couldn't accept the fact that it did not work and i will never be fair.

omg they are all gorgeous!!

I wish people would realize how beautiful they are. It's bewildering because they feel as if they should bleach their skin meanwhile the fair skinned people try and tan to get darker.

I married into a South Asian family and colorism is a real problem. When my baby was born my mother in law was talking about how glad she was that the baby was fair. And I was so annoyed by that self-hating comments because the extra melanin would come from her side.

I'm a moderately tan Indian, and I go for walks in the sun a lot, which makes me darker. I've had to hear from my parents and grandmother that I bad when I get tanned. But I ignore them because their upbringing prompts them to say such things. I have no insecurity about my skin when I'm tanned because I believe all skin colours are beautiful to look at, and that the content of ones character dictates real beauty.

My sister was continuously bullied by her teacher for not being fair. She was removed from the group dance for not being fair. My sister was in 6th grade. She was in depression for over 6+ years. She still becomes insecure about her looks. Teachers like this needs to be punished. This affects the mental health of students. School is about studying and having fun and not about being fair or beautiful

I love indians

Even my father is too obsessed with fairer skin. I mean i respect and like my father's most decisions but this is just something i hate about him because he blames my mother for my darker tone. Though both my parents are of fair tone, still my father blames her because my grandfather (mother side) is darker in skin tone.

Our India literally is the most diverse country in terms of physical appearance. We’ve got the typical brown Indians, the Mongolian looking ones in the northeast, people who look like typical white people in parts of Jammu & kashmir in the north and also those who look like the black people in the southern parts of India.

You know , I had a very low self esteem , I used to think most of my time thinking to fix my dark skin and pimples but I made myself understand that being prettier doesn't do anything in your life 😅

Such sweet girls, so resilient to taunts and discrimination, they are strong!

In kerela, beauty is not a huge problem compared to other states and countries in my prospective.. most of the people are being discriminated by their personality, smartness, family background and wealth.

I could relate so well to the third girl..me being a good dancer of my group I was always kept at the end or at the corner just because 0f my complexion and the girl who doesn't dance properly is always kept at the front just because she was fair and beautiful... it's been years till now I face all these kind of discrimination not only in the stage but everywhere in genreal life too

I have fair skin and not from India. The only thing I can say is that it doesn't really matter what color your skin is. If you have fair skin, you don't get anything or you don't win any awards. What matters is the beauty of your heart, don't forget that. Being happy does not depend on things like skin color. Love yourself and accept yourself as you are.

Im very glad these issues are being discussed. I really hope Indians will stop giving excuses by saying its in all Asian countries. Its an indian problem lets focus on resolving that. Other countries can handle it their own way.

To Asians (especially Asian women) please don't waste your time and money trying to lighten your skin because it's perfect. Bullying a child is so harsh, shame on that teacher.

Back then, Bollywood played a big role in skin tone discrimination srk fair and lovely ad 😢

It's unbelievable how depending on where you are you'll be judged for your skintone in completely different ways. Where I'm from since it's a small village in the mountains people are hella pale so every time someone comes back tanned from a vacation or something they'll be the center of attention for a while and receive compliments, and if you're "too pale" you're often told to go get some sun because you look sickly. Lots of people are really self conscious about it, especially those with red hair who have a hard time going in the sun without getting sunburned. It's not a racial thing since it all happens inside the same group, but it goes to prove just how arbitrary certain beauty standards are

My teacher motivated me and told me how to respond when someone call u dark and I respect her very much❤❤

It's crazy how within a country there's such a thing as color discrimination of their own kind, as well as from school at that. I'm Filipino, and here in our country we've alwasy been taught to be proud of our "kayumanggi" skin tone. Although, a lot of girls here do still sought out whitening or bleaching their skin, there's no such thing as being bullied for skin color here since we've accepted darker skin tone to be normal.

Imagine being a grown adult who is entrusted with teaching children and then beefing with one just because they have a dark skin tone

Any woman feeling this way, you should know: White guys love dark girls. But our cultures have been hijacked by anti-male sentiment, and after generations of persecution we don't really learn how to approach women anymore. But we're quite approachable. Light guys like dark girls, and light girls are the same way as you - they want to look darker.

If your discriminating because of color you must be ashamed of yourself. What that guy said melanin and sunny days...

I guess that's more of a woman issue. I don't see any man bleach. But for women it's a huge deal. It's so horribly disgusting to put someone down because of their skin and even more so when you bully or influence little children with that

i live in asian country too and when i was in elementry school the teacher told my friend"you are tanned beacuse you are not praying enough"😂💔🤦

That dude was so straightforward...and about skin my skin colour is pale white nd i actually wanted to have that brown coloured honey skin from always , it's soo beautiful nd am still jealous of those people who has honey coloured skin

That second boy is the upsc aspirant

I have been bullied verbally by my teachers so many times.I remember one time we were auditioning for a play & I did great. But one of my teacher told that if we take her we need to use too much powder ( to make my skin look fairer). And they all laughed . Plus I wasn't selected either.

also, ppl will darker skin get backhanded compliments, like “she’s dark, but she’s pretty” or “she’s good looking for a brown girl.” no one even mentions if a man is dark. but if a girl is dark, she’s seen as less attractive. this is also a huge problem in Bangladesh.

As a Spanish white (not Latino or Hispanic American) person, I think those girls are absolutely beautiful just the way they are.

Same my teacher also bullied me for my skin tone. Like i have yellowish type skin. So she would say "why your skin is so yellow?" , " your skin looks like that you have jaundice" , "you are very dark" and all and all . Infront of my whole class and juniors. From 3rd to 8th , she does this. I cannot also complaint about her coz once i did in 3rd grade . She made many jokes about me that iam this and that and my classmates agreed to her. After that time she always had grudges toward me. In 9th i changed my school

I am dark skinned girl. Yes I have faced this and I am 28 and still facing it. People make fun of my skin color on my back. There were times when I started hating myself and lost my confidence Thanks to Srila Prabhupad and his teachings. When I hurd his lecture on Who we are? We are not this body but the soul which is eternal. Since then I laugh when people comment on my skin color. Hare Krishna...

I have stopped thinking like this. The only thing we need to take care of is to keep our skin healthy. People with shining dark skin of African or Caribbean descent look so good. That is also something we can aim for.

India has many different skin tones yeah we are supposed to be darker but in warmer areas mostly but in the north-east or North people are light to fair India has a lot of diversity and we should just accept it

In my house when we were discussing this topic with my sister some ads were playing infront of us in the tv and she told me 'you know what that sathyabama said was partially true. The discrimination exists in our country. For example look at these ads do you see any dark skinned person there ?' i didn't have an answer to tht .. i kept searching for a dark skinned person to this day and haven't found one yet .. people say that colour doesn't matter but still shows favouritism by the most obvious ways

I have a fair skin which gets tanned very easily. My relatives used to remind me all the time that “a fair person can have an eye missing and would still be considered prettier than a dusky person ” so that I won’t go outside.

Heartbreaking. Indian people are amazing.

Everyone think that every fair skinned Indian is showing off or something. I'm an Indian and i was born with very fair light skin and as Everyone thinks it's not a blessing or dream come true to me because many people say things like "your showing attitude because u have fair skin" like wth!? I'm born with this this skin and I don't even care about this colour appearance and often people bully me by saying i look like Chinese and all GROW UP PEOPLE.(no hate to anyone and this is only for people who thinks that way)

True, Teachers ALSO Discrimates us students based on the skin colour (not every teacher but many)... I Went through that in class 4th, 6th, 8th and that shattered my self confidence cuz i was just a child back then when i didnt knew what i did ao wrong to be treated so badly and rudely. But as i grew up and left the previous school, i REALISED that nothing was my fault, but the teacher was wrong.