Back in the Sixties there was a joke going the round among stand-up comics, about how whites used a tanning oil called ‘Man Tan,’ (that was for real, by the way) and blacks used a skin bleach called ‘Yellow Fellow.’ Truth seems to have followed humor in India.

AOL News reports:

‘Cosmetic advertisements in Asia are targeting men with blunt campaigns aimed at skin color that one lawmaker claims is racist.

‘In one TV commercial, two men, one with dark skin, the other with light skin; stand on a balcony overlooking a neighborhood. The dark skin guy turns to his friend and says in Hindi, "I am unlucky because of my face." His light-skinned friend replies, "Not because of your face, because of the color of your face." Suddenly the light-skinned guy throws his friend a tube of cream. It's a whitening cream.

‘It is one of several television commercials aimed at men in Pakistan and India. In the end the darker skin actor is shown several shades lighter and he gets the girl he was after. Most of the ads end up that way. The commercials are sending a not-so-subtle message to men in Asia: Get whiter skin, and you'll get the girl and the job of your dreams. Or at the very least you'll be noticed.

‘"We always have a complex towards a white skin, towards foreign skin or foreign hair," Jawed Habib says. Habib should know. He owns a chain of 140 salons located in India and across the world. "We Indian people, we Asian people are more darker, so we want to look more fair."

‘In India skin whiteners were once targeted only to women. Now the products are a hot commodity for men. Many of the brands being advertised for men are well known around the world -- including Nivea and Garnier. A marketing study found sales for skin whitening creams have jumped more than 100 percent in rural India and sales for male grooming products are increasing 20 percent annually. Hindustan Unilever, one of the largest consumer products companies in India, noted in recent annual reports that skin lightening continues to be a major area of emphasis for its skin care division. (Well, of course. Have you ever actually looked at Hindu men? They're uglier than a monkey's b***.)

"...In a country where most people have brown skin, the message being sent to men and women has some people outraged. "Basically if you need a job you have to have white skin. If you want a good partner, a companion you need white skin and you always seem to get it once you've used the fairness cream. Basically I think it's completely racist and highly objectionable" (says Brinda Karat).’

I wonder what this woman says about a little-known aspect of her own country's history? During the days of the British Raj in India, the local rajahs, nobility and dignitaries would invite the tallest, blondest blue-eyed British officers they could find to long, luxurious house parties in their palaces. By day the young British men hunted tigers, played polo, and went boating down the Ganges or whatever. At night, after sumptuous feasting on curry and other delicacies, they were given free run of the Rajah's harem and especially encouraged to select among his multiple wives for their nocturnal recreation.

The reasoning behind this was cold and calculating eugenics: the Indian nobility, descended from ancient Aryan invaders themselves, wanted to replenish, improve, and invigorate the racial strain of their dynasties, which had become dangerously contaminated down through the centuries with Dravidian mud. Their caste were in danger of turning into n*g**s, and they needed an injection of new Aryan blood from the gene pools of northern Europe.

The children born of these weekend fornications would be raised and educated as the rajah's own, and officially acknowledged as his own, although one look at the light skin and sometimes blue or green eyes of these progeny was enough to let the cat out of the bag. One of those very British situations where everyone knew quite well what was going on and nobody said a word. To this day, many of India's ruling elite are surprisingly light-skinned and soft-haired.

http://www.northwestfront.org

http://downwithjugears.blogspot.com