From a young age, I saw people give more glorification and significance to light skin. I had also seen and heard people discriminate against dark skin. I had seen people worrying about their dark skin. It didn’t really bother me much at that time. But later in my life, I thought about it a lot. Even these ideologies started to influence me at some level. This made me question this ideology.

Why do we give more significance or glorification to light-skinned people? Why do people discriminate against others based on their skin color? Have you ever thought about this?

In general, we have been addressing just one part of this problem — that is, discrimination against dark-skinned people in terms of their basic rights. This discrimination has been happening in different parts of the world for a long period of time now. It is one of the most cruel things that we can do to any person. There is no biological or scientific proof that a particular color is superior or inferior to another.

Throughout history, there were a lot of unfair or random events that led to today’s discrimination. For example, initially, African Black people were taken to America for manual labor on tea estates by Europeans. This happened because there were existing and easily accessible slave markets in Africa at that time. Also, those people were good at surviving harsh environments. Because of their life conditions at that time, they might have been forced to do some unethical activities. By using this as a justification, Black people were denied opportunities to grow, and it became a vicious cycle. Even though a lot of people were trying to break out of this cycle, others were not allowing them to do so.

In India and other parts of the world, in olden times, light skin was associated with people who had the luxury of working indoors — like rulers, priests, and wealthy people — while dark skin was associated with farmers, outdoor laborers, and poor people. Later, during the British colonial period, this ideology continued, and there were different kinds of discrimination against dark-skinned people. This vicious cycle continued for a long time.

This topic has been popularly discussed, and we have been creating laws against the discrimination of people of color to protect their rights.

Nowadays, people have a lot of awareness about this discrimination, but it is still not complete. This discrimination is taking new forms and new methods of oppression. For example, if you look at the entertainment industry, lead roles in movies were portrayed by light-skinned actors. There are also a lot of advertisements promoting light skin as the standard of beauty. When someone watches and is influenced by this content from a very young age, their life decisions will largely depend on these influences. I asked AI models: is there any biological reason for this?

The answer is no — by nature, there is no inherent reason for attraction to light skin. Romantic attraction depends on many physical and psychological attributes. In reality, a person chooses the right partner when they are more aware of themselves and their surroundings. It is a very complex subject. Let’s just focus on attraction to and glorification of light skin today.

My next question was: does attraction based on skin health include skin color? You see, biologically, healthy skin, hair, and body are more attractive. But light skin does not mean healthy skin. Apparently, there is a scientific reason behind our skin color — it is simply a survival mechanism.

Our skin cells produce a pigment called melanin. There are two kinds: Eumelanin, responsible for black-brown pigments, and Pheomelanin, responsible for red-yellow pigments. After all, we are all just shades of brown. The ratio of these pigments is inherited from our parents. So why do some people have light skin and some have dark skin?

The DNA of people who lived near the equator for thousands of years naturally has the capacity to produce more Eumelanin to protect themselves from the sun. The DNA of people who lived in northern regions for thousands of years is hardwired to produce more Pheomelanin, which allows greater absorption of sunlight to generate Vitamin D. So this is simply our body’s way of surviving, rather than any beauty or hierarchical standard.

Then why are women expected to be light-skinned more than men? When light skin is glorified and women are objectified, men compete for glorified objects. So this is wrong in both ways. The objectification of women is a huge mistake, and on top of that, the glorification of light skin color is another mistake. Combined together, these create enormous and unnecessary social pressure on women.

There are also theories that try to link light skin to generations of wealth and indoor living. This does not only apply to light skin. But when wealthy people avoid outdoor work, their skin tends to be at its lowest level of melanin production. However, there is also an alternate view — that rich people are the ones who have the leisure to do a lot of outdoor activities, while most middle-class people spend the majority of their time indoors working nine-to-five jobs. Even so, do you want to choose your partner based solely on their wealth?

There are also researchers who say that lighter skin signifies more vulnerability. This is because newborn babies are generally light-skinned, due to low levels of melanin at birth. Naturally, we tend to trust and take care of our babies — this might be the reason for our favorable feelings toward light skin. But this does not have any direct connection with attraction. This idea is very speculative and does not have any concrete proof. Also, consider this: when you become aware of these psychological factors, don’t you want to overcome them to make better decisions?

So, in our generation, the real culprit is the influence of movies and the entertainment industry. The influence from these industries slowly and strongly tunes our brains to find familiar-looking people — those we see in movies and ads — more attractive. Even though people are trying to address this issue, it is still not enough, and it remains commonly accepted within the industry and among the general public. There is also some capitalistic greed behind the promotion and glorification of light skin.

If you are still wondering about the title of this blog, it signifies the shades of human skin color. Even though we have been differentiating and discriminating against people based on their skin color, in the end, we are all shades of brown. We are all made this way based on our ancestral lifestyles. This in no way signifies one as better or worse, beautiful or ugly, or any other comparison. We need to stop these psychological propaganda campaigns and try to follow more logic and empathy toward others. On the surface, these two seem like contradictions, but when used together, they become stronger than either ideology alone.