Some of what the Author said are true but apparently he didn’t stayed in Asia long enough to investigate further. It’s true that dark skinned one laughed when other people make jokes of their skin color, NOT because they’re okay with it but because there’s nothing they can do about it and by joking along with them makes it less painful. My mom and brother have light skin and they made fun of me all the time, I had to laugh it off but it hurts deep inside.

Over there, having a light skin is very important, especially for women. The darker you are the less beautiful you are. My mom (she has a light skin) used to worry about my skin color, she’d buy different kind of whitening products for me to try to improve my skin tone. I never felt pretty at all, don’t get me wrong…I have a pretty nice looking face & body but most of the guys didn’t look at me that way (because of my skin color). I used to be so stressed out about it, but now that I live in the U.S, everything is the oposite. People here are actually think that I look great, I got compliments everyday, guys are hitting on me all the time, some people have asked me why I never thought of going to modelling school or something like that. It makes me feel better, but honestly…I still think that I’m not pretty. Thats how bad the skin color discrimination over there have made me feel.

Of course asians don’t think about it as a racism, it can’t be, because we came from the same race to begin with. But it’s still a discrimination. There are many job oportunities that require you to have light skin (NO KIDDING). Trust me, when it comes to discrimination, asians are way worse than westerners. If a company is trying to sort out the resumes for interviews, most of the time they’d pick the good looking one. If they don’t like the good looking one (if they’re too stupid or something) after the interviews, then they’d interview the rest. But sometimes they don’t really care if they’re dumb or smart. Unless it is a high position like managers or higher, it’d be a different story.
Oh, if you are a handicap, there’s no way you’re gonna have a job, you’d end up living your live doing nothing and being useless. You think you can get a disability check from the government? NOPE, not one penny. Sorry for being harsh, but thats the awful truth.

Another example. In the U.S, most of the times you can argue with your manager/boss, stand up for yourself, defend yourself. Over there, higher up people are always right and you have to listen of what they have to say due to respect of their position.

I can share many other examples of “discriminations” in Asia. But they’re too many. Hope you can get better understanding of Asians.

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And for sure, people can joke about skin colour. Many people joke about physical appearance and it seems a lot of Thais would not be offended to be called ugly or fat, either. But, when a dark-skinned Thai ABSOLUTELY cannot get a date because of his/her colour, or cannot get certain jobs because of his/her colour, do you think that is acceptable?

And that’s without even touching on the subject of the black and south Asian people in Thailand. A great many Thai people will tell you without any shame that they point-blank would never date a black or Indian person, and that is entirely due to their skin colour. An educated, middle or upper class black or Indian person in Thailand is for the large part considered unattractive by Thais, and that’s without knowing anything of their background. So, where is the “class” argument there?

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Unfortunately for the person who has to deal with this psychological and emotional as well as social disorder, they are in the midst of social and emotional battering of the kind that has become a disease and is probably not able to be removed as it is institutional and within some societies glorified and held up high.

This is an example of how sad the human being can be. Despite their intelligence and creativity the human psyche is also rife with serious personality flaws and racisim is one of them.

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Same goes to the skin color here in Asia. Making skin look paler is very deeply rooted in Chinese tradition. In the old days of Chinese Dynasty, the queens already used pearl to whiten their skin. We believe that whitening can cover many flaws and we always aim for flawless skin. So really.. it has nothing to do with class.

There are a lot of tanned skin models here in Asia who looks gorgeous too. They definitely don’t look poor. But it doesn’t mean everyone with tanned skin would look as gorgeous. It’s pretty much on individual taste.

Cheers.

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That being said, I don’t give a hoot about anyone else’s skin colour. I don’t treat people differently just because of their complexion. I just prefer this for *myself*, and that’s my business. Not everyone with pale skin is racist.

And discrimination goes both ways too. When I tell people I don’t want a tan, they look at me like I’m crazy. They’re like, “How could you POSSIBLY want to be white, that’s DUMB!” – so arrogant. Why can’t you just respect people’s preferences? Not everyone’s perception of beauty is the same. If someone wants to be white/black/orange/purple/green, at the end of the day it’s their skin and their choice. No colour is better than any other colour, it’s simply a question of personal choice.

So my point is, this isn’t always a racial issue so much as a cosmetic issue. Superficial, yes, but racist – not necessarily! It’s perfectly acceptable to whiten or darken your skin so long as you don’t try to force your ideals onto others.

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