Is the desire to be a white a delusion produced by capitalism? Or are businessmen tapping into a basic human drive?
From the perspective of Torah text, black is not beautiful while fair skin does equate with beauty.
(CNN) It’s hard to imagine anything more blatant than this.
A new Thai beauty ad claiming white skin is the key to success has unleashed a storm of criticism in Thailand, especially online, where people complain the ad perpetuates damaging, racist ideas.
“Just being white, you will win,” says Cris Horwang, a smiling pale-skinned actress, in the 50-second spot by Seoul Secret, a Thai beauty company.
Without the advertised pill, “the whiteness I have invested in, will just vanish,” she warns.
On screen, the actress’ expression turns despondent as her skin is digitally altered to turn black.
Horwang promises that the product, called Snowz, “will help you not to return to being dark.”
“Eternally white, I am confident,” she adds.
On Friday evening, Seoul Secret pulled the video from its online platforms and issued a statement.
“(We) would like to apologize for the mistake and claim full responsibility for this incident. Our company did not have any intention to convey discriminatory or racist messages,” it said.
“What we intended to convey was that self-improvement in terms of personality, appearance, skills, and professionality (sic) is crucial.”
Washington Post: A televised commercial in Thailand for a skin-whitening product stirred controversy and was eventually withdrawn after a backlash against its perceived racism.
The commercial for Thai cosmetics firm Seoul Secret featured a popular model and singer talking about the merits of having light-colored skin.
“Before I got to this point, the competition was very high,” says Cris Horwang, who is also an Instagram celebrity with some 2 million followers. “If I stop taking care of myself, everything I have worked for, the whiteness I have invested in, may be lost,” she says, according to a translation published by the Guardian.
“The new kids will replace me, will make me a faded star,” says the actress, standing alongside another light-skinned woman. Her own skin then steadily turns darker.
“White makes you win,” intones the video’s narrator, adding that the product, “Snowz,” has special compounds that will help “you not return to black.”
The commercial precipitated a heated response on Thai social media and online forums. The BBC cites one commenter on the Thai-language forum Pantip.com: “I’m perfectly fine being dark-skinned, and now you’re saying I’ve lost? Hello? What?”
“Suggesting people with dark skin are losers is definitely racist,” concludes another.
What’s particularly striking about the commercial is the starkness of its message: “White makes you win.”
Across Asia, from India to Japan, skin-whitening products are huge business. In spite of the diversity of the continent — where a majority of the world’s population lives — anachronistic attitudes surrounding the virtues of fair skin still prevail. Myriad Asian celebrities, including some who otherwise cast themselves as sometimes progressive figures, appear in ads for these skin-whitening products.
A few years back, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan attracted opprobrium in India for continuing to be the face of a product known as “Fair and Lovely.”
“Such irresponsible advertising propagates discrimination among men, women— and even children,” read an online petition at the time.
In a Facebook post that followed the outrage, Seoul Secret offered this somewhat bewildering apology for its crass white vs. black advertisement: “Our company did not have any intention to convey discriminatory or racist messages. What we intended to convey was that self-improvement in terms of personality, appearance, skills and professionality is crucial.”
FAILEDMESSIAH: This quote was sent in by a reader:
“Those who are incapable of attaining to supreme religious values include the black coloured people and those who resemble them in their climates. Their nature is like the mute animals. Their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey.” (Maimonides, Guide To The Perplexed, Translation from the Hebrew Version)
In defense of Maimonides, he lived at a time (circa 1200 CE) when such views were common among “civilized” people, and he is not quoting the Torah to back up his claim, meaning his opinion is his own and is not rooted in any Jewish tradition.
Still, it is disturbing that a sage of his caliber would fall prey to such stupidity – stupidity that appears to be anti-Torah.
