Colorism, or differentiating between people based on the darkness or intensity of their skin color, has been a prevalent force in my life. It's something I've learned to acknowledge and deal with over time, something I've learned to face from not only other people, but myself.

When you grow up surrounded by a culture that places value upon the lightness of one's skin, and associates that lightness with status and beauty, I think, in a way, it permeates your thoughts as well. Colorism became something that I had to fight internally, something that caused me to dislike the way I appeared in a mirror. To this day, I am guilty of choosing filters and angles and locations that make make me appear as light as possible in the pictures that I take of myself. It happens almost instinctively, as though self-deprecation has become a reflex rather than something to avoid. To this day, I see pictures of myself with lighter skin as more beautiful, despite my efforts to think otherwise.

I believe, like any other sort of prejudice, that time is a potent advantage. Over time, I have taught myself (and will continue to do so), that darkness of skin does not equate to beauty. Being darker or lighter should not change anything. A person's beauty is not something so trivial that it should be affected by the intensity of pigmentation.

I love my culture. I love where I came from and love how it's shaped the person that I am today. And because of my love for my Indian heritage, I will work towards ridding myself of remnants of colorism. I will choose to not associate fairness with immediate loveliness.

Skin color should not signify class or status. For years, people with darker skin colors were treated as inferior beings, as unequals, and as a dark skinned person myself, that's frustrating. Because even though we have made leaps and bounds in the fight for social progression, the intricacies of prejudice still remain.