Note to Lori Drew: be glad you didn't pull you little Megan Meier trick in India -- you might have actually been punished.

When I was in China I was disgusted by the numerous skin lightener products marketed to Chinese women by western brands like Ponds and Neutrogena. The fashion/beauty/cosmetics industry is only encouraging this kind of mindset.

On another note, my Indian friend just told me she couldn't have married this boy from her church because he was too dark. Too dark for what?

Wow, just wow! That is an unbelievably sad story.

I don't think we can just blame the fashion designers though, we are ALL responsible. From the clothes we buy to the magazines we purchase.

Okay, India. Thank auntie Great Britain for the tremendous psychological damage it's done to you.

And on another note: two years seems a little light for causing the death of your wife through self-immolation.

So, why did he marry her in the first place? I know most marriages are arranged in India, but surely she was just as "black" as when they first met? Couldn't he have refused her on those grounds rather than drive her to suicide? Man, this is a messed up world in which we live. And I'm sorry, but I do kind of want a kitty now.

Holy crap! And I thought the 'paper bag test' was ridiculous color-judgment between black folks.

Glad he got jailtime.

I'm guessing this was an arranged marriage and that they didn't know each other beforehand? Just trying to get the full story.

It is more than her skin tone, not matter what the court said, he picked at her sore spot until her drove her over the edge.

It's also pretty obvious that Aishwarya Rai is such a big deal as a potential crossover because she is light with brown hair and green eyes. Not typical of Indian features though not totally rare either.

Oh fuck...this reminds me of all those reports of "honour" killings I have read about in the past. Pissed off now.

"Pouring kerosine over her head and setting herself on fire" Holy shit
The guy deserved way more than two years for taunting and belittling his wife.

Two years? That's all? Wow, that is seriously f*cked up.

@NefariousNewt: I was just thinking that. Two years is not enough time. She lit herself on fire. This Euro-centric beauty standard shoved down our throat's needs to stop.

@ragdoll: Too dark to ensure light children, perhaps.

What an asshole...unfortunately, this is just one example of a much larger problem.

Dodai, you are my hero for calling out all the folks who 'don't see the problem' when it comes to the invisibility of people of color. For the people who don't think racism is still a problem, this shows that globally dark skin and African features are still the least-desired. Even to a point where people would rather die than be called Black. Very, very sad.

This is beyond tragic. And that picture is freaking me out.

It's amazing to me that people would do themselves in in what must be an incredibly painful way. I wonder if part of the appeal is that it leaves less stigma on the family, because they can write it off as her dying as a result of a kitchen accident?

My aunt (a psychiatrist) is working on a paper on suicide by self-immolation. I knew it was fairly common in India and some other countries, but I had no idea how common it was until she started telling me some of the stats.

Maybe I should move to India.

I get called "Too Pale" here in the good ol' US.

It's always great to go onto your favorite website and read a story at the top of the page that brings forth one of the many reasons blacks grow up feeling inferior. Add that to the fact that everything termed "black" has some evil connotation, and it's a wonder why there's more white Americans treated for depression than black/brown Americans. ::sigh::

Skin colour is also a mark of "class" in India (as well as in many other countries). It just irks me to think about it.

@ragdoll: Another contributing factor: You'd be hard-pressed to find a Bollywood actress who isn't light skinned. The racism within that culture is just awful.

Also, two years for emotional battery is probably more than he'd get here.

@Macloserboy (Who Is Finally On Facebook For You Bitches):

It's not just England. The Aryans settled in Northern India (way back in the day) and had lighter skin, and began the culture where the northern Indians with pale skin were "better" than the southern Indians with dark skin.

Sidenote: many of the "darker" skinned groups in southern India were matriarchal, leading them to come into conflict with "lighter" Indians. It's a vicious cycle, dudes.

Okay, between this and the commentators warning, I am done, this makes all that "STAR" talk seem so trivial. Racism and self hate, are alive and well.

@Macloserboy (Who Is Finally On Facebook For You Bitches): umm, how is this the fault of the brits, exactly? this is an asia-wide thing-- skin lightening.

I don't know if its quite fair to accuse fashion designers not using black models as being responsible for this case (while I do agree that there should defiantely be a much larger minority presence in fashion). The whole light skinned=good dark skinned=bad in this case I believe stems more from the idea that if you were dark it meant you spent time out laboring in the fields, whereas if you were lighter skinned it meant you were of a higher class and could stay indoors. So it's my understanding that in this case it is not so much an issue of race as class distinction. This doesn't make it any less horrible or depressing, but I don't think it is based on western race issues.

@Atsumi: oh ha ha ha, that's so funny. (not)

I interned for a men's magazine one time, and the staff was mostly white. When I worked on a new project I didn't know who the person I was working under. So I asked and someone else said the black girl. I had to ask if it was the light skinned black woman or the dark skinned black girl. And everyone around me freaked out.

Even in a situation where it was describing someone by their skin tone white people freak out and act like they don't see color.

Moral of the story: stop thinking you're going to be seen as racist when you're actually looking at people and seeing how their skin might be a different color like someone's hair might be a different color.

@Hamsterpants: Perhaps he only married her for her dowry?

Don't you think you're making a big of a stretch here, Dodai?

I think we can be pretty sure that if she was driven to kill herself in such a horrible way, her husband was abusing her in many other ways besides calling her "black." Having a more realistic, multicultural approach to beauty is not going to solve the problem of abusive husbands in a culture where women are devalued. Even if she was fair-skinned, if he was an abuser, he'd still have found ways to torment her.

I'm going to cry. This is atrotious. Granted, we can't 100% blame the West and Western fashion for this one: paler skin has been sought after in India and other Asian and non-Asian countries way before continuous European contact, but we've seen the influence the West can and DOES have all over, so let's indeed be aware of that when putting together fashion pictorals, etc.

@cannotedit: You answered it yourself. More white americans are treated for depression. More black brown americans have depression that is not treated.

I love how Neutrogena and Ponds markets skin lighteners in India while we have bronzers and tanning lotions shoved at us.

@ragdoll: I had an acquaintance in law school who was a light-skinned Indian. She was very proud of the fact that she was sometimes mistaken for being Thai, and everyone in her family openly talked about how much prettier she was than her darker sister. She also brought up regularly that her family was from a "high" caste, known for jewelery making or something, which made her better than other Indians. The whole light vs. dark/caste system mentality is something I can't get my head around...even though I know it's alive and well in other cultures as well, just not in such overt ways.

@AmericanSplendor: Absolutely. I do think the British Empire is responsible for almost everything that's wrong in the world today, but we didn't invent the caste system in India.

I can't imagine the point he must have driven her to, so that she would set herself on fire. Stupid class and caste systems ruining people's lives for generations to come.

@Atsumi: Appropriate? Not quite.

@ragdoll: Ponds and Neutrogena also manufacture self-tanners and women in the US eat that shit for breakfast.

Which is not to say that this is not fucked. I just think it's one thing that "black" is used as an insult, and another thing that one can acquire either lightening lotions or darkening creams from the beauty market.

@CashMoneyHoney: but they didn't freak out when they identified your boss as the "black girl" instead of by a name? Especially considering that there was more than one? um...OK explain pls

@shiningstar:I agree. Even within the black community, people with dark skin are considered not to be as attractive as people with light skin.

I live in a predominantly black neighborhood and the first time I went to the local drug store I was blown away at how many skin lightening and skin bleaching product they had. I honestly had no idea this was a problem until I saw that stuff and did a little research on the products. This is SO deperessing and I agree 100% that not having models of other ethnicities is a huge problem in the fashion industry, and many other industries.

@sybaritic: Did you know that some men marry...get the dowry then plot the murder of their wives to later marry again and collect another dowry? Perhaps we was counting on her suicide.

India is in trouble because they are essentially breeding themselves out. What I mean by this is that the desire for male babies is making them produce/make/give birth to more boys than girls. I read that it has gotten so bad that in some villages men are sharing wives.

No no - you're supposed to kill HIM. Then rake in millions on the book and Lifetime movie.

@cannotedit: But isn't it good that we're talking about it? It's a horribly sad and scary story, and the pic makes me cringe in all kinds of ways, but isn't spreading awareness of horrible things like this a good thing? Isn't seeing that these issues are worldwide, and need worldwide attention, and have worldwide consequences, important?

It's certainly not happy, but it's good to know about and discuss.

@ragdoll: Go to any Asian-owned beauty shop for "ethnic" women and you'll find numerous "skin brightening," "whitening," and "beautifying" bleach products from co's like Ambi.

And as for the color issue -- man, it's global. Remember Ricki Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca?" Line goes ... "her lips are devil red, her skin is the color mocha ..." was no mocha-colored honey to be seen in the vid.

Just read a book by Shobbha De (she's like the Indian Jackie Collins) about a Bollywood starlet who was darker than mainstream (dusky, they called her) and the model on the cover was as pale as all heck.

@BeckySharper: Yes, the guy is a prick and would have called her fat or ugly..etc. But sadly, he understood that calling her "black" was an insult. In their society and in both of their minds.

@BeckySharper:

You'd be surprised how having a person with skin like yours and hair like yours can change the way people think about themselves. I'm basically a mutt: reddish skin w/ unruly spiraly and wavy hair. I'm the kind of person that's put in ads and whatnot - because I'm not "too ethnic."

To the marketing/advertising industry, there IS such a thing as too black, hair too kinky, etc.

Trust me - I'm at my desk at an ad agency as we speak.

@sybaritic: Could be. I used to work with a lot of Indian people (IT) and some of the stories I heard were just unbelievable. It was like, what century do you folks live in again?

Agh, this is horrible. This breaks my heart. God, this is so horrible. All around the world, all throughout history, people--women in particular--have been systematically taught to hate their skin tone.

I am a very fair redhead. I have always wanted darker skin. Ultra-ultra white skin is not an ideal, guys. It isn't an advantage--I literally cannot get a tan. I turn red and crispy in amounts of sunlight that would barely make you blink. I have an assortment of high-SPF lotions, floppy hats and parasols--not for my vanity, but to keep from being in pain caused by sunlight exposure.

There NEEDS to be more diversity in high fashion. It won't solve the world's problems, but it will grant more exposure to the fact that all shades and variations are beautiful.

@shorty63136: Sorry if this is naive, but what is "the paper bag test"?

@bowleserised: and china, thailand and buttload of other places weren't colonized but they have the same light-skin fetish. it's basically b/c if you had to work in the fields, you were darker, ergo, wealthier peeps had "lighter" skin. same thing with long pinky nails on some east asian men.

It seems to me that apart from the (very valid) discussion of perceptions of "good" versus "bad" skin color, what the husband did was mental and emotional abuse, straight out. So I think he deserves his jail time.

@CashMoneyHoney: Are you black or white? (I just wanted to