Make me whiter than snow.

“Dem a bleach, dem a bleach out dem skin, dem a bleach fi look like a brownin” was Nardo Ranks’ observation in the years following Buju’s controversial Browning.

Skin-bleaching has been around for some time now, but there has been a rapid increase in its popularity in recent years. Bleachers use, individually or in a combination, creams, pills and even injections to whiten dark skin, oftentimes to appear ‘more attractive’ and in an attempt to further their career or enter relationships. For others, it is simply a fashion statement.

Let’s face it, skin bleaching is socially acceptable for males and females in Jamaica and in many countries with darker-skinned peoples. In fact, I have to incorporate it into the list of questions I ask patients about medication use.

Credit must be given to Vybz Kartel, who was quite open about his skin being “pretty like a colouring book” and his advocacy of cake soap to lighten skin. Bleaching is as much part of the dancehall culture as are skimpy clothes and new dance moves every weekend.

In 2017, the skin-bleaching industry was worth US$4.8 billion worldwide and was projected to reach US$8.9 billion by 2027.

Skin bleaching is not just a practice of blacks. According to one study, up to 40 per cent of Chinese women used skinlightening creams, and the highest growth regions for these products are in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our own bleaching issues stem from cultural appropriation combined with the sociocultural effects of colonialism on the predominantly Black Jamaican population.