TV presenter Ephony Okwara says as she recalls comments from bosses and colleagues throughout her career;

"They always told me that my skin color is too dark for TV work, and they ask me to wear more cosmetics."

Okwara early in her career received comments such as: "Her looks and the color of her skin will not make her progress in her work, because they are not what society wants."

Now she has become a shining name that frequents homes in Kenya, after becoming a brilliant news anchor for "Citizen" TV, meaning the citizen.

Discrimination against black skin

"Even among Africans, there is a stigma against people with very black skin, and there are different levels of discrimination," Okwara says - in a report by the German news agency DPA.

This distinction is common in various parts of Africa and Asia, and helps nourish a multi-billion dollar industry that specializes in skin-lightening products, which have been sold for decades and sometimes contain harmful substances.

However, thanks to the "Black Lives Matter" campaign of an anti-racism movement, which started in the United States in 2013;

Then this trend started to change little by little.

Bleaching products are harmful

Rashmi Sarkar (an Indian dermatologist) points out that some of these products contain agents to remove discoloration and whitening that can cause rashes, and that many of them have a temporary effect.

Which forces users to continue to buy them throughout their lives, until they get the desired effect, but these warnings do not discourage customers from purchasing these products.

As skin-lightening products thrive, many say they need to be examined as well as the racist assumptions behind them (German)

Difficulty getting a husband

Indian girl Vaidhi Sriram recalls that as a child she used to feel black, especially when teachers praised what other girls looked like with fair skin.

Later, during family gatherings, relatives told her that her skin color was too dark to be able to have a good husband, and they advised her not to wear pink clothes, because it would make her skin appear blacker, and from here Sriram and her sisters, who were young, used creams on Their faces, hoping that they would become light, say, "Sometimes our skin looks white like ghosts."

Manufacture of skin-lightening products

The market value of skin-lightening products reached $ 4.4 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to reach $ 8.7 billion in 2027, due to the increasing interest of people in their looks and their looks, and to the fact that potential customers have money to spend on these products.

Gradually, however, the industry was forced to change, after movements such as Black Lives Matter objected to these idealistic styles of beauty.

"After the anti-racism protests, some of the manufacturers started thinking about changing their skin-lightening products or giving them other names," says Rubaley Swain of a market research firm.

The same goes for cosmetics giant Unilever, whose "blonde and beloved" product has sold tremendously in India for years.

The company was launching an advertisement until recently, showing girls who use lightening creams enjoying a happier and more successful life.

The company "Unilever" faced many criticisms because of its (German) skin lightening products.

Criticism of the word "blond"

The word "blond" has since been criticized, prompting the company to rename the product to "glowing and lovable".

A company spokesperson comments on this development, saying, "We realized that the use of the words blond, white and light suggests a single ideal of beauty, which we think is wrong." He adds that his company recently decided to completely remove these words from the flyers on their packaging as well as from marketing ads.

Other companies have taken additional steps. For example, Johnson & Johnson announced recently that it will stop selling two of its products.

"Healthy skin is beautiful skin," the company said in a statement, which means it apologizes for associating beauty with white skin.

Many critics called on Unilever to stop production of the skin-lightening cream completely, saying it "promotes sentiments against blacks, especially women."

Women start the change

But change must also come from within the community;

For example, we find that the announcer Okwara has never used skin-lightening products, and says that discrimination based on people's skin color is the root of the problem, and this issue must be addressed.

"In the event that people are not interested in skin color, the manufacture of skin-lightening products will not exist," she adds.

Sriram also stopped using these products, and even wore pink clothes, not listening to the advice of her relatives, because she liked the pink color.