COLOUR BLOCK

Nina Davuluri is raising her voice against colourism with her #SeeMyComplexion campaign, and emphasising that the fashion industry can contribute significantly to end the discrimination, finds Sonali Shah

- Sonali Shah

“It’s the subtle comments we’ve all heard – Don’t go out in the sun, you’ll get too dark. You’d be so beautiful if you were a few shades lighter, or, you have nice features even though you’re dark. It’s these comments that must stop,” Nina Davuluri says. As the first Indian-American to win Miss America (2014), Nina is all too familiar with such commiserations. It took her participating in the pageant and receiving the compliments that followed, to truly love and accept her skin the way it is. Why is only fair skin considered ideal or elite, and how do we break the cycle across industries, are questions Nina aims to address with her #SeeMyComplexion campaign, which launched in June.