Regarding this Chinese racist advert?

[Peyia]

Am I being unreasonable, or better still - over sensitive?

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/29/chinese-detergent-firm-says-media-over-reacting-to-racist-ad

For those that don't want to click the link it's basically a detergent ad where a black man is 'white' washed.

Every single time I have responded to race threads I have always said (because I have felt) that as a society we have become united. That I do not feel inferior, at a disadvantage. How wrong was I?

The worst insult is the apology? Well there isn't one.

For all of you that have previously mentioned white privelidge, I understood what you were saying but at times felt it was misplaced on some threads. But no, now I 'get' it. I'm upset but mainly angry.

Please tell me this is wrong and I am not being over sensitive!!

"Isn't it a bit ironic that skin lightening creams are considered attractive in countries with naturally darker skin and fake tan is where it is at in countries with naturally paler skin?"

The tanning thing is to do with social aspiration. Before travel was popular, in countries with naturally paler skin, being paler was the thing, as if you were tanned it meant you probably worked in the fields all day, but if you had pale skin it was a demonstration of your wealth as you had time to swan around protecting your skin from the sun, rather than having to be out in it.

It was only when regular international travel became possible and something that rich people did, that other pale skinned people started to aspire to have a tan, because now the having a tan was demonstrating that you were rich enough to swan about catching a tan, possibly somewhere exotic.

The Italian ad is just as bad!! It's just insulting and really poor taste.

twowrongs I never said they were racist. I said I can't find a word for people who dislike dark people within their own race, because that's what they do.

notagiraffe you're right. This is how the big super brands are using and manipulating consumers around the world. Fair people are told they need to tan and they sell them tanning products. Dark skinned people on the other side of the world are told they need to be white to be accepted so they sell them bleach creams.

Humans are so stupid.

Yes to all the posters mentioning lighting AND darkening. What a warped society we live in.

Thankfully I've never wanted to bleach my skin, mainly because I am comfortable in my own skin but for the obvious reason that I don't want to put a harmful chemical such as bleach on my skin. I also don't agree with tanning machines, unclear whether the tanning creams are harmful.

OP I respect your idealism but frankly, I would settle for some plain old democracy for the enslaved people of the PRC before I started to tackle their views and actions on race. These people are facing far bigger problems than a racist laundry detergent advert.

Buttock it's a racket isn't it?

And they make money hand over fist.

I do think the tanning and bleaching creams are more anti women than anti race though. Like you say, it's darker/lighter skin within the same race which is being targeted. Essentially it's the beauty industry favourite of making every woman (as it's rarely or not as often men) hate their appearance so that they can sell "miracle" fixes for £££.

Depressing really.

I work with many different nationalities side by side, kids mostly so they are fairly uncensored. A lot of the Chinese and Japanese think other races are unclean (and they tend to dislike one another too), the Russians have an issue with the Chinese etc etc. Obviously it's not every child/young adult but it's enough to see that there are deep seated prejudices in all many cultures.

Of course it's racist. There is often a lot of racism in non-white cultures, as well as white ones, as anyone who has lived in various non-white parts of the world will know. And unlike here, it may well not be seen as anything to be ashamed of or to keep quiet about. Let alone illegal.

And as someone else has said, anywhere where this sort of thing is ingrained, they are not going to care what Westerners think.

This connection between cleanliness and whiteness has a long history. Pears soap is just one example:

www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=499:racist-advert-for-pears-soap&Itemid=260

It may be unclear whether or not tanning creams are harmful Peyia but tanning machines kill. My mum got skin cancer from using sun beds and it very nearly killed her. It's interesting we never discuss this as a form of entrenched racism against skin colour. I've never heard anyone in UK describe black or brown skin with such revulsion and hatred as they do snow white skin that doesn't tan easily. I just take it for granted that in summer I have to wear maxi dresses because my legs would revolt others and I don't have the self confidence to stand up to that. It's a form of entrenched hatred of skin colour. Not sure I'd call it racism, but they have something in common in how they suppress people and make them ashamed of who they are. I have often looked at dark skinned Afro Caribbean women on the beach or at the pool and thought 'well of course if I had their colouring i could get away with what they wear, because they can be large and still look sexy and fine in revealing clothes, because their skin looks so healthy. Plump white legs in skimpy shorts or bikinis are absolutely the lowest of the low.

Dear me. It's shocking isn't it?

And shocking that so many cultures haven't moved on. Gives me very little hope for the world!

What an extremely racist and deeply offensive advert. It amazes me that things like this are still seen as acceptable in different parts of the world.

Hirosleaftunnel why can't the two be tackled?

I respect your idealism for democracy. It's a human right, just as it is my human right not to be subjected to racism and for people to think it is 'normal'.

It's so easy to presume that everyone in the world is basically "like us", by which I mean educated, open minded, enlightened and supportive of equal rights for all.

When you see threads like this there seems little point in trying to argue for rights of migrants, or the oppressed. Most of the world isn't "like us". Most people are living in countries where others are viewed as different, dirty and not worthy of human rights.

It's like trying to hold back the tide....

I think unfortunately that advertising standards in much of the world are not as stringent as they are here. On the whole we don't always see adverts from around the world and there are probably a huge number which fall short in many of the ways. It is good that we can express what we feel about it and maybe the message will start to get through to these countries, but I think we have to realise it will take time. Racism exists across the world.

On the subject of the lightening creams, I live in an area where there are a large number of ethnic beauty shops and they are on prominent display in the window along with relaxing products for hair. Personally as an artist I feel that all people and things have their own inherent beauty and no ideal is better than another. I find the differences in people incredibly beautiful, what a boring place the world would be if we were all the same!

It is, of course, very racist. But then that's no big surprise - being shocked there is racism in Asia is a bit like being shocked women have no rights in Saudi. It's well known and there's not a massive amount we can do about it.

Japan's low birth rate is literally creating the possibility that Japanese people will die out, because as a society they won't tolerate immigrants - even white ones are seen as novelties, and black skin is a total no-no.

EquinoxBloom I hear you!

I'm just realising how naive I've been in thinking those type of people are now in the minority.

Kenduskeag women didn't have rights in the West not so long ago.

I'm really saddened that people think that's how it is and therefore should be accepted.

Well let's not forget that sadly even a fair percentage of the U.K., despite our press standards and despite what they see on our tv, STILL manage to be racist, misogynist pricks

I live in the Middle East so this ad doesn't suprise me (saddens me ) where you get huge billboards advertising skin bleach and where 90% of adverts either feature Caucasians or light skinned Arabs.
It's really opened my eyes up to how damaging western advertisement has been to the world.
So no I wouldn't blame the Chinese advertisement firms I would look closer to home to huge multi-corporations and their adverts selling the western dream.

It's not the concept of the ad that's shocking IMO - when I read the op I thought maybe they were actually being sensitive. If it was done in the right way (dark skinned person has an accident, falls into machine, the whitening powder is so strong he comes out white, they're all shocked etc) I think it could be quite funny.

But the way it's done is horrendous - it just screams that a light skinned woman is purposely whitening the dirty black man and they're all thrilled when he's 'fixed'. Stomach churning.

It's true that light skin in Asia is desireable as it's associated with not doing menial work, and also that beauty companies deliberately market products aimed at 'fixing' non existent problems, be they skin tone, cellulite, blah blah blah.

However, skin lightening has racist overtones in a way skin darkening doesn't. European colonisers and slave owners literally ranked the people they invaded and/or enslaved on grounds of skin colour, with lighter-skinned and more 'European-featured' people considered not just more attractive but more intelligent and worthy of better treatment. This created divisions within the populations of former colonies that still exist today as well as an internalised self-hatred that doesn't exist in the same way for white people. For example, fair skin, wide eyes and a high bridged nose are openly acknowledged to improve your job prospects in Korea, hence the plastic surgery boom and the huge pressure on everyone to undergo these procedures.

As a PP mentioned, ads also overwhelmingly use white people or Asians with plastic surgery and a large dollop of Photoshop-based whitewashing - especially the luxury brands. This presents 'whiteness' as an impossible ideal. Although you can draw parallels with photoshopped models in European countries as there's no doubt they present an unahievable physical ideal too, the effect is different as it doesn't include the history above and we're not being told our basic ethnic and racial makeup excludes us from ever being beautiful.

notagiraffe

I've never heard anyone in UK describe black or brown skin with such revulsion and hatred as they do snow white skin that doesn't tan easily. I just take it for granted that in summer I have to wear maxi dresses because my legs would revolt others and I don't have the self confidence to stand up to that. It's a form of entrenched hatred of skin colour. Not sure I'd call it racism, but they have something in common in how they suppress people and make them ashamed of who they are. I have often looked at dark skinned Afro Caribbean women on the beach or at the pool and thought 'well of course if I had their colouring i could get away with what they wear, because they can be large and still look sexy and fine in revealing clothes, because their skin looks so healthy. Plump white legs in skimpy shorts or bikinis are absolutely the lowest of the low.'

i think you're overstating it giraffe. To compare white legs showing at the beach to the racism experienced by ethnic minorities (and to white people to a lesser extent) is quite insulting I think.

I don't think she was comparing the two leelu. It was about how beauty companies tell everyone they look like shit.

Why is skin lightening considered racist but fake tan/sun tan cream not?

its your fault for finding it racist

Ha! Yes, and they will never apologise because, even though they may realise they've pissed off the western world, they will now need to "save face" and blame everyone else.

Still, you have to hand it to them, it's hardly underhand casual racism. It's blatant racism, showing their absolute disregard for any race that is not Asian.

In my experience ( and that of DH) of living in Asia the higherarchy goes something like this
Asians
Whites
Inidans
Blacks
Dogs...and any other animal.

In fact, DH went so far as to say that some Asians don't even consider any other race at all. Everyone else is dirty. As PP said.

Disclaimer... I love living in Asia and have Asian friends who love getting a tan and hate any form of racism, just as I do.