Our client is urgently looking for a fun, energetic, adventurous, charismatic, male or female personality/aspiring host that loves cooking and all things food…well and good. But the ideal qualifications is what left Kenyans fuming.
''First on the list of requirements was that the candidate had to be light skin- African and mixed race.'
A talent management agency was unfortunate enough to find itself on the wrong books with Kenyans on the internet. They had released an extremely discriminating job advert for one of their clients who was in need of an anchor.
'First on the list of requirements was that the candidate had to be light skin- African and mixed race. In a country that has been grappling with the surge of skin lightening products it is now clear for all to see the king of discrimination dark skins undergo when looking for certain opportunities.
Unfortunately, there were also people who supported the light skin casting call by Invogue Management which specializes in talent management with models.
A smpling of the to the casting call has drawn mixed reactions in kenya, with some justifying the trend for a widening market while others have condemed the color bias
'Don’t hate people… has it occurred to you that the target audience goes wider than just for black Africans Every adverts has a target market & audience. That’s why a coke will often look different than a Safaricom ad for instance… Next time ask why rather than hating! It always wise to approach a situation that you don’t understand or feels unfair to you. The WHY is always better than the HATING. We learn every day.'
Well, even though the owner of the post, Nina, got support from a section of the people, radio personality Ciru Muriuki fiercely rebuked her.
'So the implication herein, according to Nina’s deeply condescending rebuttal, is that dark skin is only suitable for an African audience. Any audience wider than that would be horrified at the sight of any skin tone darker than the lightest caramel. Got it.'
credit: kenyaliv
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