Last month, Pax Jones, a Black student at the University of Texas, created a photo series aimed at fighting back against global colorism and the media that perpetuates it. Titled “Unfair and Lovely,” it featured her classmates, South Asian sisters Mirusha and Yanusha Yogarajah. Now the series has inspired the #UnfairAndLovely hashtag campaign, which features people of color—primarily South Asians—flexing their melanin.
Jones told The Huffington Post that the campaign—which takes its name from a skin whitening cream called Fair & Lovely—is for all people of color who have been marginalized for having dark skin. “#UnfairAndLovely is meant to be an inclusive space. It is for the dark-skinned queer, trans, genderqueer, non-binary, poor, fat, differently abled people of color,” Jones said.
She hopes the campaign will bring together dark-skinned women of color from around the world. And this week it has joined forces with the #ReclaimTheBindi campaign, which aims to educate people about cultural appropriation with regards to wearing bindi.
Here, some must-see #UnfairAndLovely posts.
#unfairandlovely cause my people are gorgeous, & fully deserve to get rid of colonial hangovers & scars of prejudice. For good.
— C.Weerawardhana (@fremancourt) February 29, 2016
I’m #brown or bust. Love ur skin, ur hair, all of it. #brownandunbothered #unfairandlovely #stayunfair pic.twitter.com/UTqNbyw4mO
— Sangeetha (@fallenvirgo) February 29, 2016
#unfairandlovely: lankans, bangladeshis, s. indians who never fit hegemonic n.indian + colonized concepts of beauty pic.twitter.com/8KkYf008wL
— Ushka (Thanu) (@ty_ushka) March 9, 2016
when people pick on girls w/darker skin but fail to realize our glo provides light for this society #UNFAIRANDLOVELY pic.twitter.com/5U6qgUwu56
— Tina Elaine (@sipstina) February 28, 2016
Fair and Lovely is a scourge on Earth. #UnfairAndLovely (also let’s talk intersectionality while we’re here) pic.twitter.com/N5J60h6zG9
— Creatrix Tiara (@creatrixtiara) February 28, 2016
S/O to all the aunties who said if i was fairer id be prettier. #unfairandlovely pic.twitter.com/wFoiIRxRoz
— Dilpreet Kaur Gill (@DilpreetGill5) February 27, 2016