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Color Blindness Still Rare Internationally
Topics: Lifestyle & Culture | Add A CommentBy admin | August 28, 2008
Whatever happened to the United Colors of Benneton?
Yesterday I found myself wondering whether people would be saying so much about Barack Obama’s elitist attitudes if he were white. For the answer to that question, all you have do is look around the world a bit. The racist commercial at left (from FunnyOrDie.com; is it funny, or dye?) is not unique in southeast Asia. It wasn’t very long ago that they changed Darkie brand toothpaste to Darlie, and (as pointed out in this article by Tamara J. Walker), one of the most popular snack brands in Mexico is Bimbo Negrito, traditionally promoted with a blackfaced native girl holding a spear (they’ve since updated to a hip-hop kid with a ‘fro). So, since it seems to be here to stay, here are some charts to help you draw the lines of color in your life. First, the UN Environment Program has conveniently provided a geographical skin tone map, so you can move to an area that best suits your level of prejudice. Once you’re there, fine-tune your skin color preferences with von Luschan’s skin color chart. Don’t worry, wherever you move, they’ll probably still sell your precious Uncle Ben’s and other racist products. Happy coloring!