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Sammy Sosa’s new vampire complexion is a jarring reminder that, from the Dominican Republic to Dakar to New Delhi, white is still right, yellow is still mellow and if you’re black, get back.
When I saw Sammy Sosa with his jarringly lighter complexion at the Latin Grammys last week, I wasn’t all that shocked—and I certainly didn’t think it was steroids. I’m a brown girl who knows the work of skin lightening creams when she sees it.
In an era when countries like the Dominican Republic and India have put colonialism squarely behind them, you’d think that we would be throwing concepts of caste aside, embracing our brown selves and celebrating that no one is forcing their aesthetic standards (or anything else) on us anymore. But instead, it seems like people of color across the globe are still colonized by colorism.
To be fair, it’s certainly not just Sammy Sosa, the Dominican Republic and India. It’s Japan, Malaysia, Cuba, Iran, Britain, Singapore, Mexico, Sri Lanka … the list goes on and on. The skin lightening cream industry is a $432 million a year industry in India, $7 billion a year industry in China—and it’s growing globally.
Even though I’ve never used skin lightening creams, I’ve known about them since childhood and remember being hyper-aware of cultural messages that “fair” was prettier than dark. In the world of Bollywood and Indian cosmetics, fairness creams are as old as human vanity and as common as hair dye. I’ve seen it all before. Someone you know has a dark-coffee complexion one week—and then, bam!—it’s café con leche the next.
The thing is, despite the popularity of skin lightening creams, no one wants to admit that they use them. At first, Sosa tried to deny it, too. It was the side effect of a treatment for a skin infection; it was the bright lights of the cameras; he really wasn’t trying to look like Michael Jackson (or a vampire). But it seems Sammy doth protest too much.
Now it turns out he may want to endorse the cream as a spokesman. Oh, Sammy. If he does, he’ll join the ranks of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan (think South Asian Tom Cruise, minus the Scientology), who came under fire for his advertisements endorsing a new skin lightening cream for men in India.
This would be yet another blow in the long line of attempts to spread the word that some people happen to like dark brown skin, thank you very much, from the Black Is Beautiful movement in the U.S. in the ‘60s and ‘70s to the recent Dark Is Beautiful campaign in India.
Of course, it’s easy to rage against Sosa’s skin lightening and colorism in general. It’s everywhere, and it’s not especially subtle. Just pay attention to who’s dark and who’s not in a Bollywood film, or even a black Hollywood movie, for that matter. Turns out the fairest of them all is typically the sweet, virtuous Snow White/Prince Charming types, whereas the darker-skinned characters are usually fumbling through life, if not downright villainous.
It’s also easy to take the Sosa incident personally. I know countless people who use skin lightening creams, and they’re all smart, confident and beautiful. But it doesn’t change the deep-seeded message about dark skin they’ve heard all their lives. It’s summarized perfectly in a quote from the movie Mississippi Masala: “You can be dark and have money, or you can be fair and have no money. But you can’t be dark and have no money and expect to marry Harry Patel.”
So what can we take away from Sammy Sosa? Well for starters, oddly enough, I think his willingness to come clean about using bleaching creams can only be a good thing. Part of the problem is that this is a trend that’s happened largely in silence for generations now. This could start an important dialogue about what hydroquinone actually does to your skin, about treating skin conditions that really do affect people of color and about the difficulty of finding makeup as a brown woman—even today. Maybe we’ll start talking honestly about our deeply rooted preferences and prejudices that make skin lightening a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide.
I remember the excitement I felt the first time I saw somebody who looked like me on TV. (I’m pretty sure he was playing a taxi cab driver, but it was still pretty thrilling.) Like it or not, Sammy’s a role model—and his decisions affect others in ways he might never imagine.
That doesn’t mean the man can’t lighten his skin if he wants. But I wish that, before his makeover, he would’ve considered this: As a baseball player of international renown, he had the power to hawk something a lot more powerful than a tube of hydroquinone cream—that is, the message to love thy brown self.
Shiwani Srivastava is a Seattle-based freelance writer covering South Asian American community issues and cultural trends.
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Comments
Hey Root Team,
Great job with the site, by the way.
Can we get some clean-up in aisle seven?
It's not the shameless hocking of Ugg boots that's the issue so much as the 19th century-style phrenology (e.g. Bill and P.O. below).
Thanks.
But I will not live long enough to see it and I do things to make me feel (or think I look) better - die my hair - use to get nails done (like I had perfect nails all the time in real life), wear makeup, shave legs, underarms, etc.... Perhaps one day people will love who God made them to be---but I know I will not live long enough to see it.
We think if we look one way or the other and we try be attractive in a certain way instead of just trying to be healthy and clean that people will (and they do) think about us differently. Sometimes, we forget that making ourself look one way to be attractive to a specific group we lose another group of people who would find us attractive.
But I know that because we are human we will look in the mirror and based on what we have seen and heard in our life we will decide to change the way we really are to something we want to protray. Somewhere we decide that one thing is ok (wearing makeup) and then we decide that another (changing skin color) is not. We decide that getting hair done or fake nails is ok but having plastic surgery (depending on what it is) is not ok.
So the "great decider" whomever you are will pass judgement and make what one person does ok and what another does wrong.
It amazes me that we hold such judgements in our hands.
I grew up(sort of) in Chicago and spent a lot of time with black girls/women/ladies.
They used to be negroes. Imagine that.
Well, one of the aspects about a black woman which attracted me was their various skin tones.
At the other end of the spectrum, I'm grossed out by a white woman who has that sickly looking alabaster white see through skin.
Also, as a straight guy, I'll tell you that there are some black guys who I think look really cool.
For some of you old farts, there was a guy named Billy Eckstein.
He was a singer and gave birth to a really neat 50's fashion statement~~the Mr B collar.
I think Harold Reynolds is cool.
Even Michael Jackson looked great before he did to himself what he did.
This whitening is both gross and unnecessary.
It seems that it exhibits a lack of identity and self confidence.
That's too bad.
Wouldn't it be funny if some assclown from the kkk suddenly turned really dark as a black guy.lol
Vampire is right. Mr. Sosa made a very handsome appearance - until now. I am white, and his new persona would make me hold up a crucifix and hang a garlic braid around my neck. On the tanning/bleaching controversy: has there been any research about the carcinogenic properties of these products? Remember, they used to tell us it was healthy to get a tan. Beware cosmetic industries - they really don't care about YOUR appearance or emotional health; all they care about is your MONEY, whether you're black, white or green.(Green is actually fun.)
I thought Sammy was quite handsome before the skin lightening. However maybe he didn't feel handsome. I believe in a natural appearance because the genes of your ancestors came together to form you, however if you have issues with your appearance that you want to correct and have the funds to make those corrections than so be it. Lighter skin, small breasts, or straight hair should not be considered a political statement or a racial one, but a personal choice.
Whites tanning is no different than blacks bleaching. No excuses.
Dye? If ANYONE dyed their skin "heads would roll and criticism would fly." Tans are indeed permanent -- as long as there are tanning salons. :-)
Skin bleaching takes more than one application. So, it's only extreme if you want it to be. I ignored your global statement that each color wants what the other color has as it is a generalization.
For most level-headed people, it's not about wanting to be white or black. It's about defining what tone an individual feels is attractive. Sammy cannot turn white by simply bleaching his skin nor more than Justin Timberlake can turn black with his "healthy tan" and curly hair.
In the '70s, I endured a few wisecracks about my skin color, but it did not affect me. My sister and I used to joke about our skin color being "the perfect shade." I guess some of it has to do with upbringing.
Tans and bleaching are an individual choice. Individuals in ALL races do it. No excuses, Hannibal.
It doesn't mean an individual "hates" their race. It's about individuality -- wigs, contacts, butt jobs, crinkled hair, lumineers, lip plumping, orange skin tans, bleaching -- one day, this, too, will not matter.
The difference between tanning and skin bleaching is that tanning isn't permanent. Skin bleaching is more drastic and permanent. If whites went and pigmented their skin with dye, heads would roll and criticism would fly.
Although if Sosa is really doing a "rejuvination", I'm interested to see the end result. Maybe this really is only temporary.
Your rudeness is forgiven.
I, too, like to be entertained sometimes, but we've got to get serious about our plight. Drop that Thanksgiving Turkey by Hosea Feed the Hungry in ATL. Thanks.
He has kids, Four of them. Two named Keyshia, and Kenya, so clearly he is embracing his African roots somewhat, or is he too ignorant to know the origins of those names?
Are the children light or dark, I wonder?. Whatever their complexion, I feel so sorry for them. All that wealth and their father is still too ignorant to realize the damage he is doing. Money can't buy everything.
Damn how he do that? I wish I could do that to my face sometimes