The sun doesn’t receive a lot of love from us. We’re told to stay away from it, to avoid going outside and to cover every inch of our brown skin. For centuries, we have hidden from it, not because of its intensity, not necessarily because of the heat, because of what it does to our skin – it makes us darker – and in my culture, dark ain’t lovely. From the short film Shade-ism

Tamil-Canadian filmmaker Nayani Thiyagarajah used the above words to open her short film Shade-ism. The film, which gained notoriety in 2011 for its examination of the impact of discrimination based on skin tone, has been well received for its role in launching a dialogue about this taboo subject.

Great efforts have been made throughout the world and within Canada to eliminate discrimination based on race and ethnicity.

Thiyagarajah’s film contends that a subtler and more insidious form of discrimination known as shadeism or colourism exists. This can be a negative bias on the part of one’s own ethnic community towards dark skin. Wendy Roth, a sociology professor at UBC, agrees with this assertion.

“The really interesting thing is that it seems to exist within almost every ethnic or racial group,” says Roth. “I think it is the same phenomenon that leads to the worldwide norm that white is good and black is bad.”

This attitude is seen in popular culture, like the photo-shopping of African-American models on magazine covers to make their skin lighter, Time Magazine famously altering the skin tone of O.J. Simpson to make him appear more sinister, and Indian matchmaking sites listing light skin tone as a particularly high ranking feature in potential brides.

The topic of shadeism or colourism is not easily broached in open conversation, and even less so with individuals from outside of the ethnic group.

“There is a big stigma, people don’t like to talk about it,” says Roth. “We’ve moved to this understanding of racism and discrimination as being a member of a group. If someone discriminates against me because I’m a member of a group, then I can fight back, I have protection under the law and it’s okay for me to blame it on the other person instead of internalizing it. With colourism, there’s much more of a sense that it is me, as an individual – biologically who I am, my genetics – and that makes it very hard to stomach.”

While the complexities of historical attitudes towards skin colour cannot be quickly summarized, there seem to be underlying common threads. These commonalities include labour classes or castes working in the fields under the sun and elites working indoors, for example, within the bureaucracy. This stratification, which became visually symbolized by skin colour, was amplified by several centuries of European colonialism.

“When there is a group that gets to decide who gets privileges, usually the members of an ethnic group [who] look more like them tend be seen as more attractive and are also given higher status positions,” says Roth.

This can lead to members of ethnic groups trying to minimize traits that are perceived to be negative, such as dark skin. One example is the millions of dollars of fairness creams or skin lightening treatments that are sold each year by major cosmetics companies like L’Oreal and Estée Lauder to customers in places like India. These products are marketed as solutions to even out one’s complexion and achieve the right look.

Locally, Surrey’s Bio-Balance produces and sells a skin care treatment called Dr. Kohli’s Fairness Treatment, marketed to members of the South Asian community.

“Fairness may also be perceived as ‘beautiful’ in the South Asian community because that person will stand out in the same group of people,” says Gagan Kaur of Bio-Balance.

“Today, especially among the South Asian communities in Canada and especially in the Vancouver area, South Asian immigrants have been Canadians the longest, meaning there are families who are second, third and fourth generation Canadians. These Indo-Canadians may not be ‘obsessed’ with fairness as some people still may be in India. They are more interested in seamless beauty without any uneven skin tone.”

While the ideal of fair skin may be less important in Canada, the product remains a strong seller.

“The reason Dr. Kohli’s Herbal Fairness Cream is one of our best sellers is because it helps with lightening, and herbs like chamomile, licorice root, rose hip and uva ursi help with blemishes (brown spots) and even out the skin tone,” says Kaur.

In speaking with both beauticians and customers from this community, similar attitudes were shared. While lightening one’s skin may not be a direct goal for these women, the desire to eliminate dark spots, known as hyperpigmentation, and evening complexion were listed as priorities. With that said, the generous application of sunscreen was a common beauty standard. Having “the right look” or skin tone was said to be more of concern of women back on the subcontinent, but there is still a conscious attempt being made by these South Asian Canadian women to avoid getting a dark sun tan.

“We don’t like to call attention to the way that race really affects our lives in very subtle ways,” says Roth. “Colourism points to all those things that are uncomfortable to deal with.”

One person who is calling attention to the subject is Angela Brown, anti-racism and diversity mentor at the Vancouver School Board. Brown works to educate students about different types of racism, including individual, cultural and institutional racism.

“Students of Asian, African [and] South Asian descent have shared that they feel [is] a hierarchy in their culture based on skin colour,” says Brown. “The lighter their skin, the more they are told they are beautiful. I absolutely believe that skin colour shapes the racial identity development of young people, particularly girls.”

“Most importantly, they learn that the danger of cultural racism is that it may lead to internalized racism, when they are forced to perpetuate and agree to their own oppression, turning the patterns that result from racism from the dominant society upon themselves, their families, and their cultural communities.”

There is no doubt that whitening products will continue to be made and consumed by those who feel discriminated against by the colour of their skin, especially within their own communities, but Brown hopes that through education, these cycles of racism and shadeism can be broken down.

“Once [students] understand what discrimination is, they are taught how to respond to discriminatory incidents as active witnesses, using appropriate and effective language to address the various parties involved in order to help diffuse the incident.”