October 14, 2014
Source: Shutterstock
Yet behold, from a “Desi” website, this essay about hugely popular online matchmaking services for Hindus:
This complexion-consciousness is reflected on Shaadi.com. The fifth question you”re required to fill in is about your complexion. You”re either “very fair,” “fair,” “wheatish,” “wheatish medium,” “wheatish brown” or “dark.” Neither Richard nor others interviewed could exactly pinpoint what “wheatish” means.
Never mind your favorite baseball team: these profiles also ask for your caste, subcaste, “mother tongue,” and breathtakingly granular astrological details. (For the “Horoscope Match needed” option, many clients answer “Must.”)
Oh, and then there’s blood type. Against all scientific evidence, many South Asians believe that marrying within the same blood type causes birth defects; “[T]here are still people who believe that everyone comes from one of seven “family lines” and should not marry someone from the same line.”
Then there’s the little matter of thalassemia. Indian singles with that rare blood condition have their very own dating site, which assures prospective brides and grooms that “it is not a contagious disease as believed by many.”
But it sure must be a racist one, since thalassemia tends to particularly pick on these unfortunate brown”I mean, “wheatish””folks.
Or should that be… “Aryan“?
Anyhow, Christian Rudder isn”t done sifting his data:
“One interesting thing about OkCupid’s interface,” he adds, “is that we allow people to select more than one race, so you can actually look at people who”ve combined “white” with another racial description. Adding “whiteness” always helps your rating! In fact it goes a long way towards undoing any bias against you.”
But I thought white people were universally hated. Now I”m more confused than ever. I must be a girl after all.
Go Red Sox!
