By Nuren Nawar
Growing up, I watched a variety of cartoons, but now looking back at it, I’ve realized that I’ve never really seen a cartoon character that looks like me. I grew up watching Canadian, American, Bengali, and even Indian cartoons. However, I just couldn’t seem to find any dark skinned South Asian or Muslim character in the cartoons that I watched. In Canadian and American cartoons, characters were mostly animals, but when they were humans, they were mainly white. The Bengali and Indian cartoons are a different story because they did have South Asian and Muslim characters, but they were almost never dark skinned and always fair. I’m pretty sure we can all agree that this was a big problem because dark skinned South Asians and Muslims weren’t being represented in cartoons, not even in cartoons that originated in their home countries. But why is there a lack of representation of dark skinned South Asians and Muslims? One word: colourism. If you aren’t familiar with colourism, it’s basically discrimination or prejudice against individuals with a dark skin tone, usually within one racial or ethnic community. Colourism is a big issue amongst many communities, and the South Asian community just happens to be one of them. South Asian people, especially South Asian women, have been taught to believe that fair skin is what makes a woman beautiful and these beliefs are rooted in colonialism. Due to the fact that dark skin was never seen as beautiful, dark skinned South Asians have never gotten representation in South Asian media, and in this case, South Asian children’s cartoons.
Now, I know you’re wondering what any of this has to do with how representation affects me. Well, as a dark skinned South Asian, I was always told that my dark skin made me ugly. Phrases like, “you would be so much prettier if you were lighter,” are alarmingly familiar to me and are probably familiar to many dark skinned South Asian girls. From a young age, we were taught to not like our dark skin, we were introduced to skin lightening products, we were told that we wouldn’t be able to succeed because of our dark skin. Back home, it wasn’t unusual at all for us to walk into someone’s house and see that the soap in the bathroom was a skin bleaching one. We were taught to hate ourselves because of our dark skin and our lack of representation in the media, and especially in cartoons, added to that self-hatred. When we discussed this topic in our groups, I said that the lack of representation of people that looked like me in cartoons didn’t affect me, but the truth is, it did. As a kid, seeing only fair skinned girls who were South Asian definitely caused a lot of internalized colourism in me. I would see these light skinned girls in South Asian cartoons and would wonder why I didn’t look like them and why I wasn’t as pretty as them. I remember a specific time when I asked my mom “when am I going to be light like those girls in that cartoon?” And it’s not just in children’s cartoons, it’s practically everywhere, even in diverse countries. We’ll see South Asian people in the media, but when will we ever see dark skinned South Asian people? We need some positive representation too. I’ve gotten over the belief that “light is beautiful” and have overcome my internalized colourism, but we don’t know how many dark skinned girls out there still think that they’re ugly because they’re dark. This is an issue for all communities of colour and if the lack of positive representation of darker skin continues, it’s going to ruin so many lives.
Comentários