Racist ads

[Feolf]

Recently I stayed with a Thai friend who has a son of ten. This kid is so cute with a lovely personality. Everybody loves him. Unfortunately, he does not seem to be aware of that. When I was about to leave, he said to his mother (in Thai), ‘I wish I was white.’

‘Why?’ she asked.

‘Because then everyone would love me.’

Why is it that at this tender age this boy is already unhappy with his skin colour? I wonder, could it have something to do with the racist ads that appear on Thai television day and night? I refer, in particular, to the ads for Ponds Whitening Cream which imply one has to be white to be beautiful.

Is anyone else offended by these ads? I wonder how long ads like these would last if Unilever chose to promote their products on American television in a similar way.

If you feel like I do, please join me in a personal boycott of all Unilever products.

[Avex]

sorry wrong section!

[pnustedt]

It's a general Asian thing - white is beautiful. Many Thai beauty salons also offer whitening treatments.

My wife (Thai) used to avoid the sun - a tan is a sign of having been working in the fields, being white indicates you have a better job/lifestyle and social status.

I understand your concerns Feolf but I don't think Unilever is being racist - just one of a large number of companys exploiting a fashion market.

[Feolf]

So pnustedt, are you saying it is about status rather than race?

[pnustedt]

More about fashion than race, and I think that the fashion is influenced by perceived status.

[mrentoul]

If it is a fashion statement it is pervasive. Hardly a day goes by here without someone asking about skin colour. Michael, do I look too black? Why do westerners like sitting in the sun?

Yesterday I asked a friend from Sattaheep whether he goes swimming. He lives right by the sea and loves living there, but I should have known better. He doesn't go swimming: to enter the sea would be to risk getting black skin.

Most if not all my friends would use skin whitener. A favourite taunt is that so-and-so looks like a southerner (dark).

[Brian]

This is a phenomenon accross all of asia and the middle east. Funny how all these dark skinned people want to be white, while all the white skinned tourists lay out on the beach trying to become dark.... :cool:

[wolf5370]

Agree with Brian's comment there. Note that we also have ads for tanning salons, fast tan cream and sun tan oil. Is this racist?

The grass is always greener on the other side.

[Rambutan]

I think it's not really only a beauty or fashion thing.

Well, people in the west think brown is beautyfull, but do they think white is ugly???

Here in TL a great deal of people think dark skin is downright ugly! Darkskinned people habe disadvantages in all areas of live especially getting a decent job or friendly and respectfull treatment by fellow Thais. Darkskinned people are looked down upon.

It's not exactly the reverse of the western beauty ideal.

Or are you being looked down upon for being white skinned by other (brownskinned) westerners? Or do you get other disadvantages for that reason?

A lot darkskinned Thais feel somewhat worthless for not having the "right" colour.

Theres a lot of internal racism in TL, much more than in western countrys!

Does anybody feel like shit for being white???

Or are you being treated differently because of that in the west???

I don't think so.

[wolf5370]

Agreed Rambutan, but are the Ads pandering to the 'internal racism' or just the 'beauty thing'?

Adverts, films and programming in the west leads to similar persecution of fat people - in particular fat women - and the handicapped. In this case it is almost certainly the media that cretes the view (plump women were attractive in Vicorian times for example); however, with the white creams etc is it the companies pandering to the wants of the nation, or the nation being led by the media industry?

Colourism (racism?) is rife in Asia in general (not just Thailand) because as said earlier, poor people tend to have darker skin because they spend more time in the open - and have inherrited the darker skin trait from generations of similar ancestors. It is the same world over, we all want to be rich, or failing that to look rich (and powerful?). In the UK for example, their in not likely to be the same skin-colour changes. However, just see what happens on a commuter train when someone gets on with paint splattered coveralls. Watch the reaction of the pin-stripe brigade - them and us all the way. I think the same sentiment exists world over, its just not so easy to see it in the west - I'm richer, thus I'm better - snobbery.

It may be wrong, but how do we change it? One way is to mix the gene pool (as many of us here are doing!) - it makes for healthier off spring, and by blurring the boundaries, removes the barriers. I'm not saying farangs are the Asian saviors - far from it - but people make groups by distinguishing diffences. Human nature and society simply is not old enough, has not eveolved enough, for us to override this yet. We have to keep working at it.

Perhaps banning ads for cosmetics is the way to go - I am just dubious about sensorship. Its a difficult subject however you look at it.

[Brian Allen]

Sitting in a traffic jam in an eight-laned street in Johannesberg, I gradually noticed that the side of the truck a couple of lanes away had a huge beach scene featuring golden-brown white people and  sign-written text extolling the wondrous benifits of Copper Tone or some such gunk.

As it eased ahead of me I saw the back had a picture of pale anemic-looking Africans and a sign that flogged the irresistable attraction of XYZ Skin-Lightening Cream.

That said, I have lived and worked most of the past 40 years -- and have travelled several million miles, in and around Africa, Arabia, the Mid-East and Asia, including more than 6 years in Thailand -- and have yet to meet a native of any of those places who -- especially when a bit anxious -- is not to some extent or other "racist" [being careful to note that hate-filled word's potential for and frequent use as a tyrannically-demonizing weapon!] -- or to visit a country that does not to some extent or other institutionalize "racism."

Example: Malaysia's apartheid Bumi Putra laws;

Example: America's "affirmative action" programs;

Example: The legalized theft inherent in New Zealand's abjectly-fraudulent, apartheid, historically-revisionist and legally-creative pro-early-migrant "treaty" industry;

Example: Half of my family is of Asian ethnicity and when five members of that half and I recently went to visit a tourist attraction my brother-in-law who was to treat us to the visit refused to pay and turned away in disgust from the entrance booth in when told that our entry would cost One Hundred Baht for our party's five foreigners -- and Two Hundred Baht for its one Thailand Resident: Me!

And, as is so astutely observed by the originator of this thread? -- The awful  phenomenon usually called "Racism" begins where it begins.

And that as often as not is an inside job, its roots in adequacy of a man's sense of himself.

And such problems as are encountered are often as not the consequence of the projection of that sense of self upon the world.

[francois]

hi everyone'

AS it had been said, the white colour of a skin is s sign of beauty in Thailand .. this is a fact, but behind this, there so many sides to look at ...

what kind of people does it concern, who can afford to buy all these expensive creams and make-up's ?

at least the middle class, the ones you can see in any big supemarket on a shopping saturday ...

although a lot of girls and lady might be even some boys that dream the same about having a white skin, but this is never considered like a low thing to have a little brownish skin as my wife and I have ...

fashion, tradition, or just business stuff?

and as siaid too, in wetern countries before summer time, it's contest for who is going to get the best product in order to get a "nice sunny-brown coloured skin"

humans are fun, whites want to get black, and blacks want to gat white ...

isn't it foolish?

have a good day in this beautiful sunny country

francois

[keestha]

Maybe I am a little bit besides the point here (sorry dont mean to sidetrack the discussion) but not so long ago there was an article in the Bangkok Post stating that (some of these) skin whitening creams can be highly dangerous. Initially they make the skin lighter indeed, hereby lifting the morale of the girl applying the cream, but months or maybe only weeks later ugly dark spots appear that cannot be removed in any way.