A Response Paper on Return of the Dark Ages

If you are not light skinned, you are doomed to misery and failure, it is the belief that exists in
our so called advanced world, especially in the South Asian subcontinent. Still, discrimination
between light skin and dark skin is here, although there are tons of examples where men as well
as women of colour have become successful. As a matter of fact, dark skinned women are the
common victims of this prejudice. The article published in 24 February, 2012 in The Star by
Anika Hossain points out the same thing. In Return of the Dark Ages the writer first of all gave
an idea about discrimination regarding colour and shared the common perception of the people
around South Asia about this issue. Here, prospective women who are darker gets rejected by
men as they prefer someone having a shade lighter skin. For insurance darker women grow up
hearing about their bleak future and they pray to GOD so that they can avoid such type of future.
Parents and other family members lose sleep in tension of getting good husbands for their black
daughters and how much will they have to pay as dowry? And this attitude is not only confined
within rural cultures. The main reason behind this discrimination is the ridiculous mindset of
people which was developed centuries ago when our people were oppressed by white skinned
foreign invaders. These rulers, especially during the colonial times defined that to be beautiful
one must be light skinned which was nothing but a political construct. They successfully
brainwashed us and made us subservient to this matter. Back in the day, even when they raped
our women, they believed that their victims were gaining something from this. Though
colonialism came to an end, we still associate fair skin with aristocracy, nobility, wealth and
prosperity and dark skin with poverty and manual labour. Since we have preference towards light
skin, various multinational companies come up with different fairness products and use this
perception to make profit by selling those products to us. While doing so, they televise such
advertisements that offensively, openly and blatantly promote racist beliefs. To make people
believe what they are telling is true, they even use the image of superstars from different sectors.
According to dermatologists, fairness products have more negative effects than positive on our
skin and these can cause severe damage to the skin in the long run. Although, most people are
blissfully unaware of the negative effects, nobody is there to go against the fairness propaganda
spread the powerful companies. We should raise our voice and stand forward to bring change.

The theme of the article was relevant with present time and problems, and the style as well as the
language of the article was simple but effective, however the suggestion and conclusion part is
incomplete and hard to relate or understand.

The main theme and features of the article became clear after going through it. As a matter of
fact, in different parts of the article, different types of people were targeted as audience. In the
first place, the article focused on the perception of society about skin colour and its origin. So,
this part targets the backdated and unaware people of the society. Furthermore, the writer gives
evidence of racism and points out how multinational companies use such perception to make
money. Along with it, she states a media analysts comments on this regard. Those who want to
enrich general knowledge, these two parts are for them. Moreover, Hossain highlights the bad
effects of using fairness products and usage of superstars to promote these type of products. To
make her points more stronger, the writer used dermatologists as well as beauticians sayings
about this issue. This part is to make those people aware who still believes fairness products only
have good effects on skin. The last part is suggesting different ways to prevent or at least reduce
ads and use of such fairness products which targets people in general of the society. The content
is compatible with the contemporary issue and relevant with present time. The fairness product
issue is related to the issue of skin colour discrimination. Finishing the analysis of the article and
its pros and cons it is clear that the purpose of the writer is to stop the discrimination based on
skin colour and make people aware about the negative effects of fairness products so that they
can reduce the use which may result in less televising ads of such products.

The recent situation of our country is completely related with the article, the reasons why I liked
the article are its simple and easily understandable language as well as the use of experts opinion
to strengthen the points. From the beginning of colonialism in 1400s this racism started which
still continues. The white people adopted the idea that they were superior to the other races and
it triggered the idea of racism. Still, we practice racism in our society in 2013 and women,
specially the dark ones are the worst sufferers of it. Usually, dark women could not get married
as men of our society prefer lighter skin and this creates hyper tension among their parents and

family members. For this reason, they pray to GOD and wait for a miracle to happen that will
change their future. The advantage of this situation is taken by various multinational companies
to introduce their products and make money through these. The dark ladies undoubtedly believe
on these products and use them as magical weapon to get rid of their dark skin. All the
companies televise numerous ads which promote the racist idea using the superstars and they are
also targeting the male recently. The topic is picked at the right time as it is the view of current
situation and it assists the article to attain readers attention. After that, come the content and the
analysis that Hossain puts before us. As a matter of fact, the article elaborately explains womens
sufferings in regard of discrimination based on skin colour. In the article, the writer gave
examples and evidences related to this issue, thus the main theme of the article gained its clarity
and explicitness. The sufferings and business regarding this skin colour issue is the real content
for the article and the storage of it was executed properly. Comparing to another article I have
recently read on the same topic, A Brief History of Racism from Diversity Web (June 2013), it
can be mentioned that the pros and cons of the article and the relation with the topic is worthy of
praise. Next thing to say, the idea of relating the examples and evidences with the rising points
was very ingenious and this delicate relation made the whole structural pattern of the article
more interesting and understandable.