...........Why?

According to society, light skin might be the right skin.

A recent Vaseline ad campaign in India recruited Bollywood hunk Sahid Kapoor to be the face for a new skin-lightening cream.

Representatives from Vaseline- a subsidiary of the Dutch-Anglo conglomerate Unilever- added an application to Facebook for males to upload a picture, and then “transform” to a lighter skinned version of themselves.

Those who oppose the product claim it racist.

Others say the $500-million-a year industry has been controversial since day one-but is deeply rooted in India’s ancient caste system.

Rupa Subramanya, a skin-whitening advocate, wrote to the Wall Street Journal and defended the use of the product.

“In a country where a dark complexion is seen as a liability, a deal breaker for putative nuptials, a stumbling block for one’s career prospects and — correctly or not — a marker of one’s standing in the caste hierarchy, the skin-whitening industry does well,” Subramanya said.

When the first skin-lightening products hit the market 30 years ago for women, it sparked outrage, but didn’t die down. The only difference now, men are being targeted.

Representatives from Unilever stand by their product and application. They compare the want men and women in India have for lighter skin, to Europeans and Americans wanting darker skin and their love for tanning.

However detractors don’t buy it. They believe the skin-lightening ads are blatantly racist and manipulative. In 2008, an advertisement in India showed a man considering leaving his dark-skin girlfriend for a light-skinned woman.

A poll in 2009 from an online dating company surveyed 12,000 people living in northern India. Participants said fair skin is directly associated with beauty, wealth and affluence and also a major determining factor in picking a spouse.

In America, women of color, Hispanic women and West Indian woman have also admitted to using skin-whitening creams. Chicago Cubs player Sammy Sosa has also made the dramatic change from his darker Hazelnut complexion to a lighter skin tone.

With all that said, do you think the want for fair skin-whether it’s in India or America-has it roots in slavery, or are people just not satisfied with how they were born?

Thanks to thankgodimnatural.wordpress.com for the article!!