Nida Yasir took Pakistanis and their colourist tendencies to the cleaners on a special episode of her show Good Morning Pakistan on Thursday.*
With a panel featuring comedian Ali Gul Pir, Miss Universe Pakistan Roma Riaz, fitness instructor Muhammad ‘Maddy’ Ahmed and actor Naina Black, the show began with a discussion on Gul Pir’s latest song ‘ Brown & Black ’.
The song is an unabashed celebration of everything dark and the singer was quick to point out that it was his attempt to take on prejudice in society.
He said he had seen his fair share of bullying in school where children would say it was bad luck if he crossed their path and called him andhera (darkness) or an after-market copy of Indian actor Prabhu Deva.
Gul Pir regretted how the discrimination persisted even after he entered the entertainment industry, with makeup artists insisting on caking up his face whenever he was going to appear alongside fairer skinned co-stars.
Riaz said the discrimination in Pakistan’s entertainment industry was significantly more pronounced than it was elsewhere in the world. She said she had grown up watching foreign media where people of all skin tones and body types were shown, so she never felt out of place in the world. In Pakistan, however, she felt out of place.
Black, who acted in Kabuli Pulao, shared her own experiences with colourism at home and out in the world, saying she was darker and skinnier than her sisters because she played a lot of sports as a kid, which meant she was treated differently at home too.
She said she took on the name Naina Black in the eighth grade as a way to own her dark skin and that it wasn’t just a stage name. Rana Hira, a psychologist who was also on the panel, commended the actor for not letting people affect her self esteem with their criticism.
When Yasir asked how she tackled colourism as a mental health professional, Hira said her clients didn’t come to her complaining of colourism, they instead came to her about depression, social anxiety and issues with their self-esteem. Only upon further examination would colourism rear its ugly head.
She said the issue often starts at home and leads to serious psychological issues later in life. Gul Pir agreed, adding that home is supposed to be a safe space and the world is far more cruel. He said if parents couldn’t provide children with a safe environment at home, they were crushing the child’s spirit even before they faced the horrors of the world.
Maddy took a lighter approach to the subject, telling Yasir how the first thing he’d often have to do when a fan asked for a selfie was ask them to remove the beauty filters on their phone because they lightened his skin.
The fitness instructor also recalled an incident when a mother pointed to him on the street and told her son, “If you play in the sun too long, you’ll end up like him.” He said he didn’t say much then, but he’s confident enough now to take on such remarks, Yasir joked that he could just flash his abs at them and call it a day.
The last part of the show involved three guests. Farzana and her 20-year-old daughter Ayesha were up first, with Farzana worried about the girl not receiving marriage proposals because of her skin colour.
Riaz told the girl she had her whole life ahead of her and Black said she should instead focus on her education. Yasir said women today needed to build themselves up to stand on their own two feet in case they were abandoned by their husbands.
The third guest was Anzilah, a seventh grader who, despite being at the top of her class, felt left out because of her skin tone. She said she was the only dark-skinned girl in her house, which invited harsh comments from her relatives and her mother insisted her complexion would get “cleaner” later in life.
The panelists told her she should be proud of her academic achievements instead of worrying about what people said about her skin. Black went further, telling her that complexion “isn’t clean or dirty”, but hearts can be. The actor told the girl that her heart was so much cleaner than everyone who made her feel bad for who she is.
