It is important that Indians support the Black Lives Matter movement.

I have spent the past two years volunteering at the Crown Court in the UK. A thought that occurred when I began my volunteering role and will plague me for the rest of my life is 'How can one human being mistreat another human being?'.

Every day since I heard about the tragic death of Ahmed Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many more, this question has been on my mind. In addition, I ask myself 'Why is it that someone thinks having white skin is racially superior to dark skin and it excuses them when they commit vile acts?'

As an Indian, I cannot help but focus on the response that Indian people have had regarding the Black Lives Matter movement. From my experience on social media, I have found that some Indian citizens support the movement but a large group of them feel that this is not an issue that affects them or their country. I have seen Indians be more passionate about the tragic death of an elephant than the oppression and discrimination of black people. Here is my problem with this behaviour.

Indian's were oppressed for nearly 200 years by the British Empire. It was a dark era where the Indians were treated as both racially and culturally inferior to the British. In fact, to this day, in Indian history, the worst famine that has ever occurred was under the ruling of the British Empire where almost 2 million people died.

On 15th August 1947, the UK parliament passed the Indian Independence Act that gave us our freedom from the British shackles or so we thought. It's been 73 years since, and while we may not be ruled by the British, our ideologies have been tainted by them. It is an ideology ingrained in the minds of so many Indian's that having white skin means you are beautiful. Having white skin means you are superior. The fairer skin ideology has led to a $450 million fairness cream industry in India.

In any part of India, the supermarket, convenience store, shopping mall, honestly, you will not go very far without seeing an advert for whitening your skin. Almost every hour, you will see a minimum of three to four TV adverts of a celebrity promoting a whitening cream. These types of TV adverts will follow the same concept where it begins with a girl sad about her dark complexion and then you see a very fair-skinned girl come over and tell her all her problems will be solved if she uses this new fairness cream (that's right Fair & Lovely lady, I am talking about you!)

I do not even want to go into how often I have seen dark-skinned women being dissed or laughed at in a movie, for example, Angavai and Sangavai in Sivaji.

One thing that especially irks me is when I see people in the film industry hire fair-skinned actors or foreign actors to play roles wherein the actor gets tanned to look darker. For instance, Samantha Akkineni playing a village girl in Rangasthalam, Bhumi Pednekar in Bala, Ranveer Singh in Gully Boy and the list goes on. Alternatively, you will also see a reverse wherein a dark-skinned girl will be subtly whitened. Now, I understand the whole thing about method acting and people gaining and losing weight for a role etc. But I am not sure changing someone's skin colour can be considered that. Would it be so bad to hire a dark-skinned actress?

In my personal life, I have witnessed Indian people be so subtly racist. My siblings are darker-skinned than I am. So, a lot of the time when my siblings and I met people at events, for some reason these individuals would think it was appropriate to tell my siblings "You guys have nice features but it's a shame you guys do not have any colour (referring to their dark skin) like your sister (me), do not go outside much (as in they will become darker due to the sun)".

The fair skin obsession has tainted the Hindu religion. Castism has created a hierarchy that separates people not just economically but by the skin of their colour. For instance, in south India, Brahmins are white as they were people who worked in the shade while the colour black is associated with lower castes, ones that work in the sun and represent poverty. I have also seen beautiful young dark-skinned girls going in for these 'whitening' treatments because they are worried, they will not be considered desirable.

I want to ask, as people of colour why we are still following this ridiculous standard of beauty. Being brown does not mean you are poor, dirty, or uneducated. No matter how much we try and forget the trauma that Britain caused us, if we do not remove this damaging ideology that fair skin is better, we will never really be free from Britain.

The colour obsessed ideology of Indian people has also affected the black community in India. Black people have been oppressed since 1619 when slavery began, that was 400 years ago!! According to the Association of African Student in India (AASI), about 60,000 Africans are residing in India with 25,000 of them being students. The AASI found that the African student's experience of India has been repeatedly subjected to ridicule insults, racist slurs, and attacks of personal nature. A Nigerian student, Ballery John, said that "We are seen as criminals who peddle drugs and eat humans". In 2016, a Tanzanian girl was stripped and beaten in Bengaluru while in Hyderbad in the same year, three Nigerian students suffered from a racist attack.

So, yes, there is systemic oppression and police brutality of black people in the US which is seen in the recent deaths of Ahmed Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, and Tony McDade as well as thousands of other tragic incidents which aren't recorded, reported or given the outcry they deserve. However, undeniably, it is also a problem in our backyard. No one deserves to be discriminated or be killed because of the colour of their skin.

I understand that these are ideologies have been with us for a very long time and it won't be easy to forget about them. Still, as Indian citizens, we can certainly start showing our support on a fundamental level by boycotting fairness cream products. We need to hold celebrities and brand accountable for endorsing these types of creams. It is very hypocritical to see the brands that make these creams and Indian celebrities on Instagram support Black Lives Matter, while endorsing products that represent the complete opposite message. What kind of message are they trying to send? I mean I am all for people who speak up for the cause, but this level of contradiction is just appalling. They should at least apologise for endorsing such products and never to do it again.

So, this time I ask you Indians, how can we mistreat another human being so severely and insult them because of their skin colour when our ancestors were also racially oppressed at one point because of the same reasons?

I am sure we can support and stand up for the tragic death of the elephant in Kerala and stand in solidarity with the black community as they fight to abolish discrimination and oppression. Racism does not have a place in society. As an ordinary citizen, if you can afford it, make donations. If you cannot afford it then you can sign petitions on the change.org website which is free. You can also attend peaceful protests by joining hands to help our black friends in their plight for equality and justice just as we work hard to make sure the Indian ideology changes.