White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color

by Ruby Hamad

Mishra argues that pre-colonization India showed no visible prejudice based on skin color, citing the “dark-skinned heroes” of the Rig Veda as evidence. Even after the Muslim Mughal conquest and empire, the status of the lighter-skinned ruling classes was based on their preexisting Arab and Persian ethnicity rather than their skin color: having been persistently ruled by fairer-skinned foreigners for hundreds of years, Indians came to associate lighter skin with status, wealth, and privilege. It was not, however, until European colonization that discrimination according to skin color became discernible, rife, and institutionalized. European colonialism consolidated this by—in contrast to their Mughal predecessors—claiming “themselves to be a ‘superior’ and ‘intelligent’ race; consequently, they were born to rule the ‘inferior’ and ‘black colored’ Indians who were more akin to crude animals than humans.” According to Mishra, Indians became excluded from restaurants and schools, and jobs were distributed to lighter-skinned locals first, essentially founding a segregation system based on Western ideals of beauty and intelligence. The foundations for this system were laid down as far back as the mid 1600s, when the British East India Company founded its Fort St. George settlement. They gave it the name White Town, distinguishing it from the nearby Indian settlement that was named, yes, you guessed it, Black Town. And so the binary was born.