This is a step but it does nothing significant for dismantling colorism. Dear @unilever this is a mere PR move that still keeps your profits from colorism intact(a thread)

“Indian skin-lightening cream Fair and Lovely to be renamed following BLM protests“ https://twitter.com/i/events/1276107854768824321

@unilever could discontinue and not sell these products but they chose to just rename it. Even Johnson & Johnson did this. Nothing about the Fair and Lovely brand is inclusive. It was built on bigotry. Built on discrimination. It dehumanized dark skin https://www.thecut.com/2020/06/johnson-and-johnson-skin-whitening-creams.html

The Advertising council of India had a ban on calling dark skin inferior, discriminatory marketing, and on any indications that light skin is better since 2014! But these creams still thrived by calling it a “glow” “radiance” “brightening” etc.

The industry still doubled in size. It’s a $450 Billion dollar industry now and projected to keep growing exponentially. They expanded to target men. Now men have to become light skinned to be considered handsome. still dehumanized dark skinned people as ones who should be fixed.

And the new attention on the Black Lives Matter Movement made this happen. We have been screaming about this for ages. They knew it was harmful since day one. They knew it at the very least when the advertising ban went into place. These companies never sold this in the west.

Indian Orgs like Dark is Beautiful have been calling them out for more than a decade. They did it anyway. So only when the Western gaze turned their eyes on how problematic this is and pressure built up from the West did they even consider our pain and put a bandaid on it.

This is the classic case of how our pain only matters to the world when the West sees it. And more importantly when white people see it and then demand action. You can see it in lots of other social justice movements too.

This shows you the power of privilege. White people, upper castes, everyone with privilege, things are always in your hands. Use your privilege. Shout for us because even in our protests we are ignored until you join in and start shouting too because they only listen to you.

If you work at one of these beauty companies demand better. Stop whitewashing. Use dark skinned models not just as tokens on the side. Make sure your company includes products for dark skin and tests on dark skin. Show the power of dark skin in your photos. Celebrate dark skin.

@loreal @olay @ponds @garnier still sell these creams and have defended it claiming that being white is a beauty preference and compared it to tanning. But there is no history of human rights abuse associated with whiteness. Dark skinned people have been abused for centuries.

If you are an influencer or celebrity. Reject these ads. Use your influence for the right things. Many people have already done this. If you were doing these ads in the past, own up to your mistake and APOLOGIZE. Don’t LIE or play victim. https://thehauterfly.com/beauty/bollywood-celebrities-who-rejected-fairness-advertisements/

Also renaming is useless because these products contain harmful bleaching agents like hydroquinone, corticosteroids, mercury, hydrogen peroxide, and glutathione etc that damage the skin. These ingredients are banned in the West but will keep being sold to us as we don’t matter.

So what do we do next? We rise above marketing gimmicks. We change the culture. We change minds, so that even if they call it glow up creams, dark skinned people don’t want to use these products. We shift the perspective on dark skin. We celebrate it firstly, within ourselves

We become loud and proud of our dark skin. We demand better treatment at the hands of makeup artists and photographers and tell them not to lighten us. We put dark skin at the front and center of our marketing campaigns. We unapologetically embody the power in the dark skin.

Like I said, good ideas spread at the rate of thoughts infecting other thoughts, and they cannot be stopped and reversed. So start speaking up. Keep the pressure on to get all these ingredients banned. We unfollow celebs who promote colorism and dismantle their influence.

Promote grassroots orgs doing self esteem work with kids and anti colorism orgs like @disbcampaign We create stories with dark skinned leads and tell our own with our platforms. End brown face.

Love yourself and your dark skin. Uplift your melanted siblings. If you need someone to talk to or have ideas my DMs are open. We got this. Colorism ends with us and the fight is far from over

Phew that took a while. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk . Let’s demand better from Unilever, L’Oréal etc & celebrities endorsing them. @ReallySwara @PadmaLakshmi @drslwebb @anuragkashyap72 @nanditadas @Chinmayi @srivatsayb @sandygrains #colorism #colourism #fairandlovely