Let ‘colourism’ fade

My new classmate asked me on my first day at a Thai school after having moved back from the United States: “But you aren’t white. So how are you able to speak English so well?”

I initially thought she was asking why I wasn’t white, as in, culturally Americanised. But having grown up in the United States, I was as American as apple pie.

Later, it dawned on me that she was referring to my skin colour. Why my honey-coloured skin — the same colour that so many Americans used to envy me for — wasn’t white. My English was so much better than she had expected it to be.

Over the years this continued. People in Thailand just couldn’t seem to associate the way I look with someone who grew up or studied abroad and could speak more than one language. My darker skin colour labelled me as “poor and uneducated” in Thailand. Like many others, I was subjected to the “colourism” that is widespread in Asia.

Colourism — the prejudice or discrimination against individuals with darker skin, among people of the same ethnic or racial group — has long persisted in Thailand. For centuries, darker skin was associated with farmers and laborers who spent time working under the sun.

Having fair skin was an indicator of having higher socioeconomic status, i.e. the privilege of staying indoors. Modernday Thais hide under umbrellas, wear long sleeves, and make all attempts to avoid exposure to the sun. You would think we were a nation of vampires from the way we cower from daylight.

Colourism is not new. But it has gotten worse.

The obsession to be white is fed by the media. Thai television, billboards and magazines are full of pasty white faces — very rarely are brown Thais cast as anything other than villains or slapstick comedians. Most celebrities are in fact half-Thai, half-Western, including in beauty pageants. Three out of the past five Thai Miss Universes have been half-Caucasian.

Not long ago, a famous beauty product company held a campaign asking university girls to send in pictures of themselves holding a bottle of its whitening body lotion. Winners would be judged on the product’s “efficacy” and would be awarded scholarships of 100,000 baht. This further reinforces the skewed ideology that skin colour is a label for wealth, education, competencies — or lack thereof.

Our insecurity has given rise to a skinwhitening beauty industry that’s projected to be worth $31.2 billion worldwide by 2024, according to a 2017 report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. The Asia-Pacific region is the largest market in the world for these so-called whitening products. As I walk down the aisles of drug stores, whitening facial creams line the shelves left and right, some coming with “colour strips” guaranteed to move you up three shades lighter in two weeks. Whitening deodorant. Whitening nipple cream. Whichever part of your body you want to whiten, we’ve got you covered.

And we haven’t forgotten the men: Some clinics in Bangkok now offer “penis whitening” laser treatments.

Yet there are health risks involved that aren’t so laughable: The mercury and hydroquinone that act as bleachers in whitening products can cause ochronosis, a skin discoloration resulting in bluish-blackish patches — quite the opposite of what you bought the cream for in the first place. Oh, the irony.

The stigma around skin colour poses a real concern. Many darker-skinned women are perceived to be from rural provinces, as workers in the nightlife business, or, the most condescending of all, as mia farang, when they marry Westerners.

At the end of the day, colourism remains a cultural problem. Because of this, I dread the future. If my generation feels the need to whiten our genitals to fit into society, what will my children’s generation be faced with?

But I have hopes that one day colourism will fade away. Thais must acknowledge each other as equals sharing a common identity and culture, regardless of complexion. Through self-acceptance, I have learned to embrace my skin colour. I hope others can do the same. And that my future children can enjoy the beautiful beaches our country offers, without being scared of getting a little tanned. And that they will never ask me for money to buy whitening products.

TUNYATHON KOONPRASERT