Todays Times of India had a middle by Radika Vaz, a clever, brainy woman comedian and I remembered a middle that was rejected in 2009, found same and sent it to her. After thinking about it I realised that it really is a good example of what/how/why I write and I realised I should share it with you also. Comments appreciated….. Pesky Dusky By Buzz Burza Growing up in the United States during the 1960’s, the civil rights struggle brought home the fact that Black was beautiful. Long standing aversions to “colour” melted slowly but surely and now, a few decades later, the President is a “person of colour”. When I first came to India as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1965, the existence of a similar colour line was discernable although only faintly so. Matrimonial ads extolled “wheatish complexions” and cinema screens were graced with ultra fair heroines/heroes. Actors of a darker hue were cast as rogues, rascals or buffoons. The media was still in a nascent stage without the in your face visuals that would come with the advent of television. I cannot remember print advertisements for what the Black market in the United States called “fade cream” but I am sure such bogus elixirs have been sold in India forever. Now with the arrival of 7/24, 100+ channel television benumbing our sensibilities and warping our perceptions, something is seriously out of whack and totally at variance with the simple adage of being yourself. What’s driving me nutty is the increasing number of gosh darn ads for all sorts of faux nostrums promising to lighten the colour of one’s skin. This stuff is now marketed toward gullible men as well as dissatisfied ladies. The ads utilize crypto scientific scales that range from disgusting dusky to wonderful white that give the pitch the hint of credibility. The ads begin showing an actor, male or female, unsmiling and suffering because they are wearing a darker hide. Then, after spending their hard earned money to buy whatever product is being flogged [and religiously using same], presto chango, hocus pocus, the actor is seen beaming, possessed of a significantly lighter cast. To compound the damage, these products are now being sold in mini packets at a low price targeting the financially challenged whose limited financial resources had better options to being frittered away in the pursuit of what will never be. If black is beautiful then brown is wonderful. Think of all of vacation money white people spend to go somewhere and cook in the sun so they can go back home and have their friends compliment them on the new found tan. In short, be yourself and be the best that you can be
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 08:34:52 +0000
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