What's Your Story Conversations in Colorism

What’s Your Story? Conversations in Colorism

ZOOM Virtual Event

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Research links colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms, and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people

About this Event

Host:

Varun Gandhi, Ph.D.

IN CONVERSATION WITH:

Lana Patel

Dilpreet from South Asian Today

Kavitha from Dark is Beautiful movement

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Fair and Lovely, a best selling skin lightening cream with 70% market share worth $50 Billion in India, has existed since 1975. After 55 years, Unilever has finally announced plans to rebrand following widespread criticism that it promotes beauty ideals borne out of racism and colorism. It pledges to removal of the words Fair/Fairness, white/whitening and light/lightening from it’s promotion and communication.

Colorism, a term coined by American novelist Alice Walker, is the prejudice against individuals with a dark skin tone, among people in the same ethnic or racial group. Fair and Lovely’s advertising campaign and many other products campaigns have emphasized light skin as a positive quality in a person.

Research has linked colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms, and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people. For example, Light-skinned Latinos make $5,000 more on average than dark-skinned Latinos. A Villanova University study of more than 12,000 African-American women imprisoned in North Carolina found that lighter-skinned black women received shorter sentences than their darker-skinned counterparts.

Research by Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt found that darker-skinned black defendants were twice as likely as lighter-skinned black defendants to get the death penalty for crimes involving white victims.

What can we do about colorism? What industries experience discrimination based on color? What can we do to counter this belief?

Find out more from our panelists.

In CONVERSATION with:

Lana Patel

Lana Patel is an Afro-Indo carribbean woman from New York City. Lana graduated from Florida state with a double major in psychology and arts. Lana currently lives in Southern California and works in Healthcare full time while advocating for the lives of those who are disenfranchised and marginalized communities.

Dilpreet from South Asian Today

Dilpreet Kaur is an independent journalist and founder of multimedia platform South Asian Today exclusively for and by South Asian women and non-binary folks. She is a huge advocate of awareness against colorism and dismantling patriarchal norms. Born and brought up in different parts of India, she is currently based in Melbourne. Australia.

Kavitha from Dark is Beautiful movement

Kavitha Emmanuel is the founder of Women of Worth and the Dark is Beautiful Campaign. She is an experienced trainer, mentor, writer and motivational speaker with a demonstrated history of social activism and public speaking in the education and non-profit management industry. She is a strong advocate for women’s issues and believes that every individual is unique and intrinsically valuable.

In collaboration with:

Indian Health Camp of New Jersey, Indo-American Cultural Foundation of New Jersey, GOPIO, Joy of Sharing Foundation, Sahara, Saahas for Cause, Daya, South Asian Today

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