Shaniera Akram recently took to Twitter to share a message of self-love and acceptance.
The celebrity started her post by sharing that even white girls like her tried harmful and toxic remedies to get a beautiful tan look, something that speaks about desi society’s love of fairness creams and ‘gora complex’.
Basically, Shaniera wanted to encourage brown girls to embrace their beauty and learn to love themselves despite societal pressure and stigmas. She says that people should be comfortable no matter what skin color they belong to.
To further drive home her point, Mrs. Akram said that half of the women in this world envy brown girls and their skin. It is considered a sign of good health and beauty in her part of the world.
Here’s the full post:
Shaneira Akram faces backlash, but does she really deserve it?
Since this is the internet, a couple of desi peeps were of the view that Shaniera’s comments do not make sense, and called her out for her ‘white privilege’.
Here’s why I think Shaniera does not deserve the ire she has attracted with her recent post. As a dark-skinned desi girl, I understand what place Shaniera is coming from. Growing up in a desi society as a dark-skinned girl can be a very traumatizing and challenging experience. And as she states in her post, she too had to contend with the pressures that a liberal society places on girls while growing up, where dark is consider exotic instead of the other way round.
At a very young age, even when youngsters don’t think about concepts like color, we’re forced to research foods that make your skin fairer. Girls get compared to their already fair sister/cousin/friend and what not. Imagine all the times we were told to use Fair n Lovely, and to look at yourself in the mirror and wonder if you will ever be ‘beautiful’.
I totally agree with your view. However growing up in Australia as an Australian born Pakistani, I got the most racist taunts at school about the colour of my skin. That I didn’t wash myself so my skin was brown. It was so bad that I would fake illnesses just to avoid
— Tom 🇦🇺 (@Bakshish8) February 19, 2020
The attacks, however, come from a preconceived bias; The whole idea that ‘my struggles are real, yours aren’t’ is to miss the whole point behind Shaniera’s well-intentioned post.
Before we get into why this is wrong, let’s take a look at the backlash she has gotten thus far:
https://twitter.com/rimal_b/status/1230159459458174982
https://twitter.com/han3yy/status/1230406343137341445
Really appreciate your thoughts but this is what actually spread by the whites long way ago by not sitting, eating with the browns. Till Centuries they treat them like slaves. History is brutal.
— Ghulam Mustafa (@GMustafaPK) February 19, 2020
Given the widespread furore over Shaneira’s post, we shouldn’t confuse her comments with reverse racism.
In my very brown and very humble opinion, she shared her struggles, not to compare or equate them with ours, but to tell brown girls she wanted their skin color as a young lady. In no circumstance is it okay for anyone to assume that her aunts were not the white equivalent of desi phupos. Who is to say nobody called her ugly?
A white girl from downtown Jersey is often labeled as a slut, and a white girl from LA is mostly judged as a snobby brat. If that was not enough, most black families look down upon black men who marry white girls. Who is to say a white girl’s struggles do not deserve equal importance?
Let’s be real, we have all been made to feel ugly at some point in our lives. Not once did Sheniera Akram say her struggles were the same. She merely explained why we brown girls should love our brown selves. Surely we can agree there’s no harm in that.
We should avoid acting like a judgmental soul and try to understand where bhabi jee is coming from.
