Kerala Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan’s open letter on the discrimination she faces due to her skin colour and gender has sparked widespread discussion. In a Facebook post from March 25, she recounted a remark comparing her tenure as chief secretary to that of her predecessor and husband, V Venu, stating: “Heard an interesting comment yesterday on my stewardship as chief secretary – that it is as black as my husband’s was white.”

Muraleedharan, who took over as Chief Secretary on August 31, 2024, chose to call out the comment, highlighting the underlying prejudice: “It was about being labelled black (with that quiet subtext of being a woman), as if that were something to be desperately ashamed of.”

In her post, she reflected on the deep-seated bias against darker skin tones and shared a childhood anecdote—how, as a four-year-old, she once asked her mother to give birth to her again so she could be fair-skinned. She admitted to having internalised society’s preference for fairness, feeling inadequate because of it. However, she credited her children with helping her unlearn those biases, as they took pride in their skin tone and saw beauty where she once saw none.

Here’s the full text of her Facebook post:

“Heard an interesting comment yesterday on my stewardship as chief secretary – that it is as black as my husband’s was white.

Hmmm.

I need to own my blackness.

👆🏽This is a post I made today morning, and then deleted because I was flustered by the flurry of responses. I am reposting it because certain well-wishers said that there were things there that needed to be discussed. I agree. So here goes, once again.

Why did I want to call this particular one out? I was hurt, yes. But then these last seven months have been a relentless parade of comparisons with my predecessor, and I have become quite inured. It was about being labelled black (with that quiet subtext of being a woman), as if that were something to be desperately ashamed of. Black is as black does. Not just black the colour, but black the ne’er do good, black the malaise, the cold despotism, the heart of darkness.

But why should black be vilified? Black is the all-pervasive truth of the universe. Black is that which can absorb anything, the most powerful pulse of energy known to humankind. It is the colour that works on everyone, the dress code for office, the lustre of evening wear, the essence of kajol, the promise of rain.

As a four-year-old, I apparently asked my mother whether she could put me back in her womb and bring me out again, all white and pretty. I have lived for over 50 years buried under that narrative of not being a colour that was good enough. And buying into that narrative. Of not seeing beauty or value in black. Of being fascinated by fair skin. And fair minds, and all that was fair and good and wholesome. And of feeling that I was a lesser person for not being that - which had to be compensated somehow.

Till my children. Who gloried in their black heritage. Who kept finding beauty where I noticed none. Who thought that black was awesome. Who helped me see.

That black is beautiful.

That black is gorgeousness.

That I dig black.”