#UnfairAndLovely Campaign Aims to Combat the Use of Bleaching Creams

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Pax Jones, a 21-year-old Black student at the University of Texas in Austin created a photo series and inspired the hashtag #unfairandlovely to challenge colorism and the bleaching creams being used to perpetuate it.

Sabrina R Perkins Apr, 01, 2016

Colorism is nothing new. Although it may not get as much attention as other social injustices, manufactures of bleaching creams are being called out for preying on darker skin around the globe. Pax Jones, a Black student at UT at Austin is challenging this global problem with a photo series where she featured South Asian classmates, sisters Mirusha and Yanusha Yogarajah.

“Our goal was to combat colorism and the under-representation of people of color in the media,” she said in an interview with BBC. “We were trying to challenge the way colorism permeates our lives.”

The series inspired the hashtag #unfairandlovely and this campaign asks for dark-skinned men and women to share their photos on social media in protest of the need to want fair skin.

Mirusha Yogarajah told BBC of the treatment and consequences for being dark-skinned. “Most of us are advised not to go out in the sun because we’ll get darker,” she says. “It’s as if darkness is undesirable. In college, I was abused by a South Asian person who had lighter skin. And someone once threw a bleach balloon at me.”

Watch the video to hear more about the campaign and find out how you can participate!

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