You should be ashamed

BY ONEIKA RAYMOND

 

Dear Ponds,

You should be ashamed of yourself. I spotted you in Bali. I recognized the packaging right away. I am disgusted by your actions.

A big multi-national company like you should not be promoting colorism and the “whiter is righter” mentality. As a popular, internationally renknowned beauty vendor, I expected better of you. Oh, I know you may say, “but we are not the only ones in our industry who do this!” and that in my pictures, another brand, Ovale, has a similar product right alongside yours. But that is irrelevant. Would you jump off a cliff just because all the cool kids are doing it? Should you sell these products just because it’s de rigueur and other companies are? I’ve never heard of Ovale, but I’ve heard of you. I have used you before. Your products have been invited into my home and have graced my face. I am (was) fond of you. So I was more than a little surprised to run into you in Lembongan, Indonesia of all places, and in this incarnation. You have disappointed me.

I am tired of this nonsense.

I am tired of seeing Chinese people in Hong Kong walking around with umbrellas on sunny days so they can keep their skin porcelain white.

I am tired of having to double and triple check that I have not picked up a face wash with bleaching agents in it when I go shopping for toiletries in Asia (Dove and Clean and Clear are also culprits).

I am tired of beautiful, darker-skinned people ruining themselves via skin-bleaching creams, lotions, and soaps, in hot pursuit of the better life that they are told they will have if their skin is lighter, if they have a more “presentable appearance”.

Oh, I know you don’t care. I know that you sell whatever is profitable, market what is popular. But the rewards you reap? They come at the expense of people’s self-esteem and physical health.

It’s sick, this whole idea that European features are a fashion and beauty ideal, that one could possibly be “lesser than” for being born with dark skin. I know that you didn’t create this mess, but you are contributing. Not cool.

Luckily, it’s not a problem for me. I am far from the European ideal, but I have enough self-esteem that I am relatively unbothered that my skin colour is as far away from porcelain as the South Pole is from the North.

I just worry for those who don’t.

And so, Ponds, I say it again, and I say it loudly:
YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF.

Do me a favor and spread this message to your peers (like Ovale). Better yet, stop producing and distributing this foolishness so I can continue to keep my blood pressure at a respectable level.

Sincerely,
Oneika

SHARING IS CARING

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