Colourism: Discrimination based on skin color, also known as colorism or shadeism, is a form of prejudice or discriminationin which people are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color.
It is not a myth that being brown/fair woman in Africa awards privileges, to be of a lighter complexion will award you with pretty girl privilege, you automatically have someone willing to give you something whether or not you earned it because of your skin colour. In Nigeria, it is a shame to bleach which I think in any African country it is. You can't do it out in the open because you would be laughed at and mocked. I know a lot of people who started bleaching when we were in secondary school because of their obsession with being light skinned. The need to be light skinned/brown/fair in order to attain bigger opportunities and feel loved, being light skinned and unconscious would prevent you from seeing just how much your skin tone is a privilege. We had a lot of students who came to my school dark skinned and graduated with 4/5 times lighter than their actual shades and of course, the bleaching wasn't professionally done neither was it well financially funded, it was done with creams like FunbactA, Carotone, Carowhite, and White Express Lotion, creams that had a very high amount of hydroquinone which exposes these children to cancer and other long term diseases. Parents also encourage their darkskinned children to bleach and would supply them a good amount of these creams and soaps to lighten them up. I understand the need to want your children to be favoured, privileged and accepted in society but at what cost? The problem with Nigeria on the colourism and bleaching issue now is that the masses would rather insult the victims of colourism rather than what prompted the need for bleaching in the first place. I don't see the need for shaming the people who bleach their skin not continuously humiliating them, I would prefer we educate them on why they shouldn't. Let's face it, the reason for bleaching in the first place is as a result of conditioning, society's low expectations and perception of darksinned individuals. I see Nigerians on social media mocking and trying to insult Ghanaians for the colour of their skin which is appalling, making colourist jokes isn't funny, it's 2018 and it's shameful if you still think colourist jokes are entertaining .