The Dark Is Beautiful .

Oprah was in the House. And Kerry Washington.
Days before the Academy Awards, Actress Lupita Nyong'o addressed the Black Women in the Hollywood luncheon with a speech that has become viral.The Oscar-Winning star of "12 Years A Slave" read a letter from her young fan, and entered into conversation that has gone on for centuries.

It goes like this, "Dear Lupita, 'I think you're really lucky to be this balck but yet this successful in hollywood overnight.'And she went on to say that I was just about to buy Dencia's Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the World map to save me."

The actress went on to address her own anguish growing up, at having dark skin and perhaps more importanly, how she eventually cast off "the seduction of inadequancy" and came to embrace darkness.
Nyong'o wrote in the latest chapter in a long story, says Nina Jablonski, the author of Living color:The biological and social Meaning of Skin color.

"Skin lightners were created in reconstruction era United states,"she said."y former slaves who wanted to have lighter skins so that they will be socially accepted and would get a better job and living and not to be discriminated against as much as with the dark skin."

A $20 BIllion industry

That's not quite how things worked out. Skin lightners started out in US but moved to sub-Saharan Africa,then East and South Asia. It is estimated that by 2018,global Sales of lightners will hit $20billion.

Jablonski thinks the country with biggest skin color fixation is South africa, but India comes in second place.And all you need to do is walk into an Indian supermarket such as Panel Brothers in Queens to see the amazing selection of skin lightners.

On a recent morning,Dilshad Jiwani was leaving with some purchases, including a bottle of Fair and Lovely, the world's number on ebrand of skin lightner, according to the company, used by one in 10 women globaly.

It makes me feel younger, said Jiwani,who's been using the cream for past 20 years, along with her mother and now, her Daughter.

People look at you differently when your dark especially in America,so we're treated badly.So i want to look fairer too.

Skin Color in Popular Culture

That can beobserved in different ways, including the evolcation of skin color in popular music, from James Brown's "I'm Black and I'm Proud" to D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" and Eric Benet's "Chocolate Legs".

The same cant be said for India,however. Within Matrimonial ads in newspaper or online, for instance, people regularly pitch themselves(or their daughters) on the basis of their "fair" skin.

Indian actress and activist Nandita Das is the spokesperson for the Dark is Beautiful,a five year old campaign, and says the mass media constantly drives home the gospel of light skin.


"Every as is saying if you're not fair you can't get a job, you can't get lover,you can't get a husband.You are just not good enough."

Indian stars like shah rukh khan and Surya shivakumar often play along, by endorsing Fair and lovely and related products, often in ads that highlight the woes of an aspiring actor, struggling and pathetic until they undergo the transformative powers of a lightner.

And in countless Bollywood songs,the favoured term of endearment is "gori", which means Fair skinned-girl.

Nandita Das along with Vishakha Singh (pugal kanna Laddu thinna aasaiya) has campaigned that dark is lovely ,which aims at removing the obsession with the Fair skin that most Indians seem to be fixated.