The odd allure of whiter skin

Creams Offering Lighter Skin May Also Bring Health Risks - NYTimes.com

It was only in the last couple of years, I think, that I read somewhere about the popularity of skin lightening creams in India.

The article above talks about the popularity of the creams amongst Hispanic and black folk in America, and how they are often causing serious skin problems:

... it is not as if dark-skinned women are imagining a bias, said Dr. Glenn, who is president of the American Sociological Association. “Sociological studies have shown among African-Americans and also Latinos, there’s a clear connection between skin color and socioeconomic status. It’s not some fantasy. There is prejudice against dark-skinned people, especially women in the so-called marriage market.”..

Users are not necessarily immigrants, said Dr. Eliot F. Battle Jr., who has a dermatology practice in Washington, where he treats side effects from lightening creams “not only containing corticosteroids, but mercury,” a poison that can damage the nervous system.

I guess that, in a somewhat bizarre twist, Obama's election might give encouragement to black Americans to aim high, but do nothing to help decrease prejudice against the darker skinned amongst them.