Colourism
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“Fully Booked”: How Colorism Shapes Who Gets In
Starting from Afro-Brazilian accounts of colourism, X.T.M describes being waved off at two Boston restaurants and seated at once at a third, and reflects on how skin colour and perceived…
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So what’s wrong with being kaala?
Razib Khan, prompted by a comment thread, asks why South Asians recoil from the word ‘kaala’ (dark) even when well-off and Westernised. He treats it as learned conditioning that should…
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How Indians view themselves vs. how Westerners view Indians
Razib Khan comments on a headline about dark-skinned Indian-origin actresses in Bridgerton, saying casting will not change subcontinental norms but offers a window into aesthetic standards and the assumption that…
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Open Thread – 08/15/2020 – Brown Pundits
Open thread of 15 August 2020, opening with an observation that Indian American discussion of Indian culture and politics is filtered through American concerns, for instance turning talk of colourism…
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Browncast Episode 110: Kala!
In Browncast Episode 110, Razib, Mukunda and Suraj discuss being dark-skinned and South Asian: prejudice from Punjabis towards Tamils, whether ‘black Madrasi’ is insulting, Indian American attitudes to social justice,…
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Episode 61: Lisa Mahapatra, another neoliberal shill
A Brown Pundits podcast conversation with Lisa Mahapatra, in which the host and guest discuss her self-description as a non-woke global human, her Oriya background and her experience as a…
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Dark Skin & Getting Married | Stand Up Comedy by Saikiran
Praising comic Saikiran’s stand-up on dark skin and marriage as a challenge to ‘Casteocracy’, the author sees a turn towards cultural authenticity in Modi’s India, though the comic must still…
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A darker shade of brown
The author examines attitudes to skin colour among South Asians, noting how Bollywood aesthetics define ‘Indian’ even for Western casting, that Indian-American culture pays less attention to shade, and predicting…
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The Rise of the Quarter-breeds in Bollywood
After seeing Kabir Singh, the author remarks on a trend of Bollywood starlets with a hidden European maternal grandparent, arguing that Indian beauty standards of sharp features and fair skin…
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Hollywood’s rising South Asian Starlet
A short note on Jameela Jamil’s rise in Hollywood, adding that casteism affects far more people than Islamist terror and that readers who demand evidence when he attacks caste show…
