Disrupting Colorism in South Asian American Communities

These three women are dark and lovely and they are proof that you don't have to have light skin to be absolutely beautiful. Thanks to skin color discrimination that has a long standing history in South Asian communities, images like this that depict dark skinned females in a positive way are extremely rare to come by.

Colorism (the prejudice and discrimination towards dark skin that tends to happen within racial or ethnic groups) has recently been widely challenged and criticized thanks to the power of social media. Campaigns such as #unfairandlovely have helped to de-stigmatize and normalize dark skin and empower our dark skinned brothers and sisters. I am deeply committed to disrupting colorism and in the video below I touch on the history of colorism in India and how this toxic skin color bias has managed to survive and thrive within South Asian American communities. I also explore how Black American history is tied into why colorism has been reinforced here in the U.S. which illustrates that colorism is widespread, and doesn't just exist within South Asian communities. It's my hope that we can continue to challenge and confront colorism, because when we do, we are working to disrupt racist ideas, encourage inclusion, and dismantle the system of whiteness that has infected so many communities of color here in the United States.