Colorism IN THE Philippines PDF

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PALTAO, Sandra Marie P.BSN1- COLORISM IN THE PHILIPPINES Nognog. Ita. Uling. These are just some of the words associated with Southeast Asians, especially Filipinos who possess dark skin complexion. According to journalism professor, Lori Tharps of Temple University, colorism (or prejudice and discr...

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PALTAO, Sandra Marie P. BSN1-5 COLORISM IN THE PHILIPPINES Nognog. Ita. Uling. These are just some of the words associated with Southeast Asians, especially Filipinos who possess dark skin complexion. According to journalism professor, Lori Tharps of Temple University, colorism (or prejudice and discrimination based on skin color) is a societal ill felt in many places all over the world—including Southeast Asian nations wherein it remains a stain in its social fabric in 2019. This mentality of degrading someone with dark skin complexion came when the elite Spaniards, Japanese, and Americans colonized the country and labeled the Filipinos as poor laborers and slaves; and that our color is inferior to theirs. Being a person of color has always been regarded as a discriminating factor here in the Philippines because most people incorporate being white as a privilege, and that one belongs to a family of high level of social status and wealth. The norm of having a fair complexion being the perfect standard of beauty is still instilled in the minds of people and worse, tolerated and perpetuated in the Filipino culture. In present times, colorism has become more prevalent due to the rise and patronization of skin whitening products among the public. Recently, last April 6, 2019, SkinWhite, a skin-whitening brand released a poster of twins with both their hairs braided together. One twin was fair-skinned and blonde and the other one was black-haired and tan-skinned. The company’s agenda to promote the beauty of both contrasting skin tones were disregarded because their ad backfired due to netizens noticing that the models who represented the dark skin complexion were black faced (use of makeup to make someone a person of color) for the sake of the advertisement. Days after the controversial SkinWhite ad, on April 13, 2019, Glutamax, another company of skin-whitening products uploaded a series of advertisements, with the tagline #YourFairAdvantage of two women with different skin complexions, facing each other. The said publicity stunt has become the talk of the town and dominated the internet because it highlighted the distinction between two colors, fair and dark and depicted that the fair skin is more favorable than the latter. Various criticisms from outraged netizens were garnered by both controversial advertisements. Pinoy Big Brother host and actress, Bianca Gonzales pointed out that both ads were inappropriate, cultivated a mentality that shames people of color, normalized blackfacing and propagated a culture of hate and discrimination towards what people regard as the “inferior” complexion....