We believe that as we get older, we have a self birth opinion about the persons we are attracted to. You think you have control over the persons you treat better than others? We have been brain washed into thinking that “white is right.” I see the government workers in Trinidad and Tobago give better service to persons who possess the ‘elite skin tone’. In the hospitals, at the banks, even at KFC. Nobody questions this as “colonial thinking” and the masses just accept unequal treatment because we have been somehow conditioned to think that this is the norm of Trinbago.
The media fuels our thoughts daily about what we should choose. You may not be aware but every time you plug into social media the hegemonic ideals will forever underlie what you decide to feed yourself. Think about the pictures you click ‘like’ under, and which people you compliment. Think about who you criticise and what thinks you would never reblog because it doesn’t fit into the mould of what a model imperialised citizen would share. Think about who you would give your attention to and you cannot help it until you develop an awareness of your biases. When Marx says that we need to develop a class consciousness, I think we now need to develop a technological consciousness because my mind is poisoned and you cannot help but wonder now if your preferences were shaped by the ex-colonial masters.The West, yes the West, has been poisoning our thoughts and now you can understand why you may have to wait longer at San Fernando general hospital to see a doctor because you are dark-skinned like the lamen man.
You think you can control what you feed your mind but the media has its subliminal messages that continue to corrupt your opinions. Your opinions will never be pure till you unplug yourself from this drug.
The parents of those kids stated in interviews they did not teach their children racism. Where did they adopt this thinking? Technology and the media become platforms to perpetuate institutional misconceptions. We continue to be passive supporters of Western attitudes. You decide who you judge, but you judge people based on what you have been taught. I can ask you your preference and we will argue back and forth about whether you have independently taken up that view or whether your mind has already been moulded to serve the needs of those who intend to remain in power.According to the cultural critic, Friedrich Nietzsche, ” We know no fact independent of interpretation; there is no vision of reality untainted by prejudice and perspective.”
Therefore the next time you make a decision and the next time you form an opinion of someone, the next time you decide to like a picture on facebook, retweet a post on twitter or write a paragraph long comment to someone who is stating an opinion that does not reflect mainstream thinking, ask yourself, Is this MY opinion? Based on the scholarly writings of postmodernist theorist Michel Foucault, the archeology of knowledge needs to be deconstructed in order to challenge existing paradigms and until that is achieved…Honey, you don’t have a choice.
Alisha Gobinsingh.
References
A River South. (2008, April 13th). White doll, black doll. Which one is the nice doll? (video file) Retrieved from http:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG7U1QsUd1g
Rajaee, F (2000) GLOBALIZATION ON TRIAL: The Human Condition and the Information Civilization. IDRC/Kumarian Press. Retrieved from: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-9417-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
The 'Third World' In Global Development 
You have just hit the nail on its HEAD!!!! Don’t get me started on individuals of the darkest hue talking about they don’t want a spouse or mate who also has a dark skin tone because they don’t want to have black babies!!
You are absolutely correct when you point out that while we believe we are making our own decisions they are actually properly influenced by western values and culture. How can one watch someone looking JUST like them and be disgusted by the probability of the outcome of their inbreeding? Utter HOGWASH is what that is. Preferences aside, colourism is a very real thing in the Caribbean and it stems from the days of slavery when the blacks were field slaves but the mullatto children birthed by black mothers and white fathers were the house slaves who eventually emerged as the ‘middle class’ of society. Lighter complexion is now automatically an association to white forefathers and that somehow makes them better than others.
NO! Black people please wake up from this slumber. Until we become self aware and conscious of external forces we will forever be entrapped in this slavery concept of colourism and racism. Neglecting to self-educate and become aware is to relinquish whatever free choice we believe ourselves to have.
White is right? NO. Black don’t crack. Therefore do not allow our identity, heritage, culture and knowledge to be cracked by western pressures.
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That video tugged at my heartstrings. It made me realized how strong the media can influence an innocent child who probably do not understand what the word ‘racism’ means but the media brainwashed these children in such a way that their thinking is, like you said, “white is right.” Many times I have seen where people of ‘colour’ are treated unfairly and not given higher positions at jobs. The media continues to feed prejudice and racism into our minds. When will this brain washing stop? Will we ever recover from it and if so, how?
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Although I am aware of the heavy influence that the West still has upon us since colonial times, that video was still so shocking to witness. While I do believe it to be a type of brainwash via various forms of media to non- white ethnic groups, I also believe that both parents and the educational systems in the Caribbean are not doing enough to fully educate its youth on their heritage which would no doubt instil some form of pride in them from young and change their perceptions of what is right or as the question in the video asked, “which is the pretty one?” What do you think?
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