Skin-Tone Negativity Syndrome (STNS)

There are people who reacts to others’ skin tone, without any coherent justification, with one or more of the following tendencies:
• Fear
• Unease
• Distrust
• Hatred
• Anger
• Rudeness
• Condescension
• Stereotyping

Now we can argue about the extent to which each of these tendencies may qualify as racist, and perhaps different words should be used to differentiate mild/occasional manifestations from intense/frequent ones, but no one would dispute that such these tendencies, prompted purely by skin tone negativity, ought to be corrected. Anyone at the receiving end of any of these tendencies would understandably feel wronged and aggrieved. Why should anyone have to put up with being perceived and/or treated in an unfavourable manner just because of one’s skin tone, irrespective of one’s real character, abilities, and track record in life?

It is notable that many people who exhibit the Skin Tone Negativity Syndrome (STNS) and seek to defend it publicly, seek to focus debates on the meaning of words – should a particular act be called ‘racist’? should an organisation be classified as ‘institutionally racist’? was an expression merely ‘politically incorrect’? And since they prefer to use their own ‘definitions’ of terms which bear little resemblance to those of their critics, the debates can go on and on without any resolution in sight.

By contrast, if the focus is kept on what STNS does in specific cases, on what tendency is manifesting, and what impact it is having on affected people’s lives, then there is no hiding from public scrutiny. Defenders of STNS can, for example, keep spouting the mantra that the way they like to talk about ethnic minorities is not ‘racist’, but just ‘plain speaking’. But if the insulting and injurious behaviour they would not accept for themselves is discovered to have been perpetrated on others, then the case for intervention is made.

The need for intervention often brings up another question in connection with STNS – namely, what is THE cause of it? However, to understand STNS is to see that it does not have a single definitive cause. Some people become susceptible to xenophobic manipulation because they have suffered through socio-economic marginalisation. But deprivation is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for STNS. Some people inherit the casual prejudices from their parents and neighbours. Some people come from privileged families, and their wealth-based status leads them to succumb to a delusionary ‘superiority’ complex that encourages them to look down on others who are visibly different from them. Some may have had personal experiences that diminish their self-esteem to such a level that hating and intimidating others who could be branded as ‘alien’ might be their way of boosting their fragile ego.

Instead of looking for a one definitive cause, we should trace its manifestations to the different conditions that give rise to them, and formulate preventative and corrective measures as appropriate. These would include civic education to nurture moral awareness; public scrutiny and curtailment of egregious communication that is designed to deceive, incite, or hurt people; exposure and removal of symbolism that serves to normalise, or even glorify, wrongful deeds; child protection that ensures families are not left to abuse or corrupt their young; support for people whose personal circumstances render them vulnerable to the embrace of blind suspicion and arbitrary hate; and mechanisms for reporting incidents to be investigated at all levels of society for early intervention to commence whenever necessary.

STNS is harmful because it generates negative impact on people on the wholly arbitrary basis of their skin tone. We should not let those who revel in its spread deflect us with rhetorical sleight-of-hand. Wherever it is detected, it must counteracted with swift and effective action.