Why should black be vilified? Kerala CS sparks debate on skin colour

Kerala Chief Secretary Ms Sarada Muraleedharan has sparked a discussion on discrimination she faces due to her skin colour. In a Facebook post, the Chief Secretary said, "Heard an interesting comment 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," she said in her post on Wednesday March 25.
"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 sub text of being woman), as if that were something to be desperately ashamed of," she said. "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."
A 1990 batch IAS officer, Muraleedharan took over the post of Kerala chief secretary from her husband Dr V Venu in September 2024.However, she later deleted it after being “flustered by the flurry of responses”. Later, she once again reposted the same post, saying that several of her well-wishers told her that there were things that needed discussion. After being re-shared, her post garnered more than 1,000 reactions, comments and hundreds of re-shares. Though she did not name who made that particular comment, Muraleedharan said she wanted to call out this particular instance as she was hurt by it.
Sharing a memory from her child She said that having felt like a lesser person, she realised that there was a need to compensate for this somehow. But her point of view completely changed, thanks to her children, who "glorified in their black heritage".hood, Muraleedharan recalled how, as a four-year-old, she asked her mother whether she could put her back in the womb and give birth to her again as "all white and pretty". "Till my children. Who glorified their black heritage. Who kept finding beauty where I notice none. Who though that black was awesome. Who helped me see. That black is beautiful. That black is gorgeousness. That I dig black," Muraleedharan wrote in her Facebook post.