A few of our amazing and loyal readers have pointed out that the cover image (shown below) on our annual print magazine displays Nayani Thiyagarajah, Director/Writer of the ‘Shadeism’ documentary, in a lighter tone than her natural skin tone. This was also a serious concern expressed by both Nayani and the rest of her production team to our staff. We wanted to ensure that we publicly addressed this, as the Shadeism movement is one that we fully stand behind and support, and in no way do we want such a great initiative to be negatively impacted.

While Nayani was not intentionally made to appear lighter, the photo shoot was conducted in a white room with lots of natural light for artistic flair, which unfortunately resulted in her appearing lighter than her natural tone. During our editing process, we should have adjusted the colouring of the image to be more reflective of her true skin tone. Unfortunately, this was missed during the publishing process. For this, we are sorry. We messed up.

We have edited the digital version of the cover image to better reflect Nayani’s natural skin tone, which you can see below. This is the version we will be using going forward. As always, we are committed to spreading the message that individuals should not be discriminated based on the colour or shade of their skin. Below, you’ll find the many articles we’ve published over the years discussing this issue, which is quite prevalent in the South Asian community. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@tamilculture.ca if you would like to provide further feedback. And again, we’re very sorry, to both the Shadeism team and to all of our readers, about this oversight on our part.

Here are some of the articles that we’ve published over the years to bring awareness to the issue of Shadeism in the community:

It’s Time For South Asians To Stop Obsessing Over Lighter Skin

Shadeism: Digging Deeper

Why Skin Colour Should Have No Bearing On Beauty

Growing Up Dark-Skinned In A Colour-Conscious India