Check out my latest piece in Daily Life where I reflect on the desi craze for skin whiteners.

I’m proud to have made it into a mainstream news site with the phrase ‘desi’ unedited. For those who don’t know, desi has come to refer to anyone from the subcontinent. Basically desi is brown.

My use of “desi” has puzzled many non-desis, and slowly I’m trying to make the word part of the Aussie lexicon. So next time you see a whole heap of indeterminate Sri Lankan/Pakistani/Indian/Bengali people, you can be like “There were loads of desis there.”

Here is the full story below. Also worth checking out is Nandita Das’ website where she talks about the pain of remembering her skin referred to negatively in every conversation.
Continue reading “The dark side of fairness” →