Skin-shade prejudice can have a lasting impact both on people’s self-confidence and on who they in turn find attractive. Understanding how it works is key to resisting it.
Cosmetics companies have agreed to remove racially offensive language from their skin products - but history, in Kenya and South Africa, shows they’ve done the same before.
A Black Lives Matter protest in Kingston, Jamaica on June 6.
Jamaica Gleaner via YouTube
Colourism - or discrimination based on the skin tone - manifests in different ways across the world. In the main it means that light skin is seen as desirable and dark skin as undesirable.
In many parts of Africa skin lightening is a popular practise despite the health risks associated with it.
Shutterstock
Unregulated over-the-counter skin lighteners can have detrimental effects on the men and women who use them. So why are governments in Africa not taking steps to ban these products?