Woman Takes on Amazon Over Fairness Creams

In 2020, Hindustan Unilever (HUL) changed the name of its ‘Fair & Lovely’ skin-lightening creams to ‘Glow & Lovely’ in India, saying they wanted to include more people in their idea of beauty. This happened after the #BlackLivesMatter movement upset people about skin-whitening products and the famous people who promoted them.

Many online petitions, like ‘Ban Fair & Lovely’ and ‘Discontinue Fair & Lovely,’ got more than 18,000 signatures. People wanted Unilever to stop making products that were connected to “internalized racism.” Another petition, ‘Amazon India: STOP the sale of all fairness products,‘ also got attention and has around 20,000 signatures.

Santa Sylvia, a 33-year-old teacher in Bengaluru, started this petition. She is part of Nguvu Change, a group working for social change. Sylvia believes that Unilever’s name change was just for show and doesn’t really fix the problems these products cause.

Sylvia’s petition is aimed at Amazon, India’s biggest online store, which sells over 4,000 fairness creams. She thinks that if Amazon stops selling these products, other companies like Flipkart might follow. Sylvia’s decision was partly because of her own experiences and because she has seen people facing discrimination because of their skin color.

Sylvia thinks that Amazon, being such a big platform, should stand up for fairness and not just cater to people who want fair skin. She also says that these products often make false promises and could be bad for your skin because they contain mercury.

While some may think Sylvia’s petition won’t really change things, she believes it’s an important step to stop discrimination based on skin color. She’s doing this for herself and others facing the same issues, hoping to make a real difference.

–Re-reported from the article originally published in Boom FactCheck