There is a contradiction lying in plain sight. Black has become the most desired colour in design, in fashion, in technology and ofcourse in lifestyle. Vehicles are chosen in black for elegance. Outfits are chosen in black for sophistication. Phones are released in matte black editions and are marketed as premium. Black is described as powerful, bold, timeless and refined. But the truth is this: Black is celebrated until it breathes.
A generation that romanticises the colour black in everything it owns struggles to accept blackness in a human being. Skin tones are corrected, filtered, lightened and edited. Tan lines are erased. Complexions are altered. An entire industry profits from insecurity about pigment. Treatments promise brightness and fairness as if natural pigment were an error. The contradiction is very evident. Black is aesthetic when it is paint, but becomes undesirable when it is a person.
This is not about health or protection from damage. Protecting skin from harm is reasonable. What is questionable is the obsession with erasing colour. What is disturbing is the discomfort with darker tones that are completely natural in regions exposed to strong sunlight for generations. Melanin is not a flaw. It is biology. It is adaptation. It is protection. Yet it is treated like a mistake.
The bias toward lighter skin existed long before contemporary standards of beauty. It is tied to colonial influence, to caste hierarchies, to social privilege and to economic aspiration. Fairness was equated with status. Darkness was associated with labour. These ideas did not vanish. They evolved. Today they exist through marketing campaigns and subtle compliments. Someone is praised for being fair as if it were an achievement. Someone is described as dark as if it were unfortunate.
Phrases like “கருப்பா இருந்தாலும் கலையா இருக்க”- translates to, "though you are black, you look artistic" are offered as compliments, But they actually frame blackness as a flaw that must be excused before beauty can be acknowledged. Why must admiration arrive with a disclaimer. Why is artistry granted despite colour instead of simply recognised.
The contradiction becomes more painful when society claims to admire black as a colour of power, but fails to show that same respect to people with black skin. A black car shows taste. A black outfit shows confidence. A black wall shows depth. But a black person is still asked to lighten, to correct, to fit in. What does this tell about perceptions. It shows that the issue is not colour but bias.
You may say preference is personal. You may argue that beauty standards are harmless choices. But preference does not exist without influence. It is shaped by what is normalised. When every advertisement glorifies fairness and every matrimonial demand mentions complexion, preference becomes internalised bias.
It does not emerge suddenly in adulthood. It begins in childhood. When children grow up hearing that Fair is beauty and black is ugly, They do not analyse it. They do not debate it. It gets into their understanding before they are old enough to question where it came from.
There is something disturbing about celebrating a colour while rejecting the people who embody it. It exposes a form of racism that hides behind aesthetics. It is comfortable praising black when it does not challenge bias. It is comfortable buying black objects while avoiding black faces.
If black truly represents power and elegance, then that recognition must extend beyond objects. If society continues to worship the colour while rejecting the skin, then the claim of admiration loses credibility.
The question is simple. Do people actually love black, or do they only love it when it does not look back at them.
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