What It's Like To Have Darker Skin In A Culture That Tells Me It's 'Ugly'.
After that, I distinctly remember noticing that I was living in two different worlds with my skin tone. It didn't help that I had hobbies that fueled my parents' vitriol to my tanned skin, and they made it very clear they didn't approve of these hobbies for those very reasons. "Do you really have to run outside all the time?" and "Why are you still in marching band if you have to be outside all the time?" Suggestions of wearing a long sleeve shirt when its over 80 degrees Fahrenheit turned into yelling matches after every summer of how I need to start using Fair & Lovely, a commonly used skin bleaching cream among South Asians, so my skin wouldn't get darker than it already was.
It felt like no matter how much I told them how hurt or angry their comments made me, the conversation would always end in "You have to listen to us because we're your parents." There were instances where I tried explaining that no one made me feel worse about my skin color than other Indians. It seemed as if the rude and judgmental glances from extended family or "well-meaning" strangers fueled my parents's desire for me to lighten dark spots or avoid sunlight.
It felt like no matter how much I told them how hurt or angry their comments made me, the conversation would always end in "You have to listen to us because we're your parents." There were instances where I tried explaining that no one made me feel worse about my skin color than other Indians. It seemed as if the rude and judgmental glances from extended family or "well-meaning" strangers fueled my parents's desire for me to lighten dark spots or avoid sunlight.
I think this young lady, the author of the article, is ungrateful to her parents for moving her away from all those dark skinned people in New York, where she was born, to the lighter skinned communities of East Tennessee where she was expected to more closely fit in.
