Fair & Lovely advertisement in India hints at colourism: Darren Sammy

Racism has been prevalent in many sports, cricket being no exception. Over the last few days, the issue has been discussed worldwide, especially after the demise of African-American man George Floyd, who was killed by the police in USA’s Minneapolis. The occurring gave rise to an outrage around the world. A hashtag ‘BlackLivesMatter’ also did the rounds for some time.

Even the cricketers have spoken up on the matter and urged people to raise their voice against it. Jofra Archer had to face racial slurs during a Test match in New Zealand. Even Darren Sammy, the veteran West Indies all-rounder, has been pretty vocal on the matter. Recently, he took a sly dig at an Indian advertisement for Fair & Lovely.

Darren Sammy hits out

Sammy didn’t mince any words in saying that it discriminates people on the base of colour. “Your ad, Fair & Lovely clear says lovely people are the fairer people. That’s what it stands for, it hints at colourism,” Sammy was quoted as saying by Outlook in an interview.

Recently, Uniliver, the makers of Fair & Lovely, said that they would be removing the word ‘fair’ from their product. The step was taken after the netizens on the social media platforms lashed out at them.

Sunny Jain, president of Unilever’s beauty and personal care division, said that they won’t be using the word ‘fair’. “We recognize that the use of the words ‘fair,’ ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right, and we want to address this,” Jain said.

Earlier, Sammy also came up with an allegation that he was addressed as ‘kalu’ when he was with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Back then, he used to think of it’s meaning as ‘stallion’, but later he got to know about the actual meaning, seeing a stand-up comedian.

Later the player in question said that the word was used ‘from a place of love’ and not to offend him by any means. Apart from the SRH, Sammy also played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 2015 edition of the T20 league. He last played for the Caribbean back in September 2017.