By Gurnam Singh | Opinion |
Introduction
Skin pigmentation has long been politicised, serving as a basis for discrimination and prejudice, whether that is in the form social segregation, economic exploitation and cultural exclusion. Historically, European colonial powers leveraged skin colour as a marker of superiority, developing all kinds of pseudo-scientific racial theories to legitimise slavery and imperial domination (Eze, 1997). One of the effects of these new theories of ‘race’ was to hierarchy place lighter-skinned individuals at the top, associating whiteness with intelligence, beauty, and moral virtue, while those with darker skin were systematically marginalised. The legacy of these ideologies persists today, evident in global beauty standards, employment discrimination, and socio-economic disparities. In many post-colonial societies, including India and Brazil, prejudice based on skin tone, remains deeply entrenched, with lighter-skinned individuals often receiving preferential treatment in education, marriage, and professional opportunities (Hunter, 2007).
The politics of skin pigmentation continues to shape contemporary power structures. In the United States, for example, studies indicate that individuals with lighter skin tones receive more lenient criminal sentences and higher wages than their darker-skinned counterparts, even within the same racial category (Monk, 2014). Similarly, the global cosmetics industry, worth billions, thrives on the promotion of skin-lightening products, reinforcing the notion that fair skin equates to higher social status (Glenn, 2008). This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in East and South Asia, where advertising frequently depicts fair skin as a prerequisite for success and desirability. In India alone, the Indian the skin lightening cream market is estimated to be worth US$500 million with leading brands, such as, Hindustan Unilever (Lakmé), Procter & Gamble (Garnier), and Lotus Herbals manufacturing the products to meet market demand.
What is skin colour?
The logic of racism is built around the idea that there are certain immutable or inherited human differences, of which skin pigmentation is one, and that these correlate with ability and/or certain traits. However, from a scientific perspective, associating skin pigmentation with human capacities or worth is fundamentally flawed. The deployment of the notion of ‘black people’ and ‘white people’, which is common within race related discourses, when put under scrutiny black and white are not colours in a strict physical sense; in absolute darkness, all objects, including human skin, appear black, while white is a composite of all visible wavelengths of light. Our perception of skin tone is simply the result of how different levels of melanin interact with light.
This basic principle of optics underscores the irrationality of associating skin colour with racial identity. There are no truly “black”, “brown”, “white”, or “yellow” people; there are only individuals whose skin tone reflects light differently due to evolutionary adaptations to varying climates. Indeed, based on reflected light, no two human beings, other than identical twins perhaps, will have precisely the skin colour! Yet societies have constructed deep-seated hierarchies around these superficial differences, treating pigmentation as if it signifies innate moral, intellectual, or biological distinctions.
Race and myth making
There is general consensus amongst sociologists, historians and scientists that the idea of the existence of different human races is a myth. As historian Barbara Fields argues, race is not a biological fact but “an ideology that emerged in specific historical circumstances and for particular social purposes” (Fields, 1990). Race was created to justify economic and political systems, most notably colonialism and slavery, rather than to describe any meaningful scientific category of human variation. Genetic research confirms that differences within so-called racial groups are greater than those between them (Lewontin, 1972).
Sheena Mason, in Theory of Racelessness, challenges the very foundation of racial categorisation. She contends that since race is a fiction, sustained not by biology but by constructed beliefs, the entire concept must be dismantled rather than reformed (Mason, 2022). Instead of combating racism within the framework of race, she advocates for rejecting the framework itself.
The Politics of Skin Colour
James Baldwin, in The Fire Next Time, famously wrote, “Colour is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality” (Baldwin, 1963). Race is not a neutral descriptor, but a construct used to maintain power structures. The association of whiteness with privilege and blackness with marginalisation is not a reflection of human nature but of systems deliberately designed to uphold racial hierarchies.
Frantz Fanon, in Black Skin, White Masks, argued that racism strips people of their individuality, reducing them to racialised projections rather than recognising them as fully human (Fanon, 1952). Those who internalise racial constructs, whether as oppressors or the oppressed, reinforce the very myths that sustain discrimination.
Dismantling the Illusion of race
One of the major manifestations of racism is the assignment of hierarchy and value to the illusion of skin colour. Most historians argue that this form of racial thought is not ‘natural’ but a product of European colonialism, the transatlantic slave trade, and the rise of capitalism, all of which were reinforced by racial theories to justify human exploitation (Eze, 1997). This included the association of whiteness with beauty, intelligence, and moral superiority. Dismantling these structures of thought requires challenging the deep-seated association between skin colour and worth at both institutional and cultural levels.
The way forward
Believing in racial differences based on skin colour is as irrational as believing in fairies. It is a fantasy, one with devastating real-world consequences. But if we are to overcome racial fantasies, such as those associated with skin colour, we cannot be confined to confronting individual prejudice also; it requires dismantling the economic, political, and cultural structures that perpetuate the ideas associated with racial differences. This means rethinking everything from educational curricula to media representation, from economic policies to global inequalities.
The ultimate goal is not just the elimination of racism but, as Sheena Mason argues, to undo the belief in race itself as a meaningful construct and the development of a ‘raceless’ consciousness. One might reasonably think that by learning that making judgements based on skin colour, which is a simple play of light, one can rapidly move towards a raceless world. However, like most complex problems that transcend logic, this is much harder to achieve and will ultimately require nothing less than a paradigm shift.
References
Baldwin, J. (1963). The Fire Next Time. Dial Press.
Eze, E.C. (1997). Race and the Enlightenment: A Reader. Blackwell.
Fanon, F. (1952). Black Skin, White Masks. Editions du Seuil.
Fields, B. (1990). Slavery, Race and Ideology in the United States of America. New Left Review, 181, 95–118.
Glenn, E.N. (2008). Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners. Gender & Society, 22(3), 281–302.
Hunter, M. (2007). The Persistent Problem of Colourism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality. Sociology Compass, 1(1), 237–254.
Lewontin, R.C. (1972). The Apportionment of Human Diversity. Evolutionary Biology, 6, 381–398.
Mason, S. (2022). Theory of Racelessness: A Case for Antirace(ism). Palgrave Macmillan.
Monk, E. (2014). Skin Tone Stratification among Black Americans, 2001–2003. Social Forces, 92(4), 1313–1337.
Gurnam Singh is an academic activist dedicated to human rights, liberty, equality, social and environmental justice. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick, UK. He can be contacted at Gurnam.singh.1@warwick.ac.uk
* This is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Asia Samachar.
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