It all started when…

I was working on a term paper in academic research at The New School’s Media Studies program in 2007. I graduated as a Master of Art, and as life happened, I stayed the course. In 2012 I founded The Colo(u)rism Project. Finally, I decided to begin scaling my work and launched this website in 2021.

I have 12 years’ worth of stories from a demographic that defies age, gender, ethnic background, and race/caste categories. My own stories of colorism, including being objectified, singled out, or cast(e) out, are many. The worst one came from a fellow South Asian and advocate/activist, who said I wasn’t “brown enoug”’ to talk about colorism. Another came from a close friend, who told me to “try not to make everything about skin color.” This was triggered by a social media discussion, in which I had talked about colorism in religious narratives around the Hindu festival, Diwali. (Some of you might know that Diwali is the celebration of the victory of good over evil and of light [knowledge] over darkness [ignorance]. Go figure! More on this in a future blog.)

Ultimately, though, we need to put in the work—the work that takes us beyond the origin stories, which frankly, in my humble opinion, have ceased to matter outside of academia. I resent these discussions in the mainstream, whether on social media or in media’s own complicity, where feel-good discussions lead to nothing but complacency. “We can’t change history” and “it is what it is” seems to be the overriding sentiment. My question? Do these origin stories help us call out the “superior” castes or races? Do they help me to do something, today, realistically?

This is just the beginning . . . and my approach with those who have come forward as TCP friends in the last 10 years is an iterative one. We are not proposing a one-size-fits-all approach. Of course, several aspects, several people, and several disciplines need to come and work together. And dream about the perfect future by night, and make it happen by day.

To read Jyoti’s bio, details about her professional and academic backgrounds along with other notable mentions, please visit her website jyotigupta.com.