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The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, June 2011 a press conference, and sometimes launch a nation-wide public health campaign informing people of the dangers of the skin-bleaching products. Because these state-sponsored messages come largely from public health entities within the government or NGOs, their focus tends to be on the physical dangers of using such products. The most dangerous ingredients found in many skin-lightening products are hydroquinone, cortico-steroids, and mercury. Despite strict regulation of these chemicals in many Western nations, they are still found in many products sold throughout the world (Mire, 2005). In fact, a recent study of skin-lightening products in the U.S. revealed that several contained mercury and others contained illegally high doses of hydroquinone, despite tight regulations from the Food and Drug Administration (Gabler & Roe, 2010). The most dangerous side effects of mercury, hydroquinone, and topical steroid usage include, but are not limited to, damage to the adrenal glands, kidney failure, liver failure, and skin cancer. For these reasons, several governments have launched public service announcements and public health campaigns to educate the public on the risks of using these products. The Jamaican government recently launched its widely publicized, “Don’t Kill the Skin” campaign. This public health campaign was designed to both raise awareness about the dangers of bleaching and outlaw the sale of many skinwhitening products. In an interview about the campaign, Dr. Clive Andersen, a Jamaican dermatologist commented on the widespread practice of skin-bleaching in Jamaica. "It is very worrying because a lot of persons know that they are doing severe damage to the skin and persist in it. Some of this damage is reversible; a lot of it is not reversible. We need to realize that when we use these products, we are doing our skin immeasurable harm. There is no advantage to lightening our skin colour and at the same time damaging our skin. Beautiful skin really is healthy skin, whatever the colour" (“Campaign to Rid,” 2007). This quotation exemplifies a common theme in public health campaigns: all women have the potential to be beautiful regardless of skin color. As the dermatologist above states, “beautiful skin really is healthy skin.” This quotation highlights a shortcoming of the public health discourse - its focus on attitudes, as opposed to discrimination. Moreover, women are often the target of these campaigns because officials describe the problems as many women’s 151 The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, June 2011 “misconceptions” about beauty. Women are under the false impression, they argue, that only light skin is beautiful and they go to “dangerous lengths” to achieve that look. But are women really under a “false impression?” In fact, beauty is still defined in Jamaica, and elsewhere, in relation to white and European aesthetics, including light skin and Anglo facial features, thus the elevation of the “browning” (Charles, 2003). The public health discourse constructs women as “getting it wrong” by mistakenly believing that lighter skin is viewed as more beautiful and higher status. In fact, women have read their social cues exactly right, the skin-bleaching creams may be risky, but the pay offs are potentially high if lighter skin attracts a higher status husband or a betterpaying job. Public health officials have not acknowledged the social and political reality of the benefits of light skin, so their message about “misconceptions” only makes women appear vain and pathological, instead of savvy, if risk-taking. For example, the Ghana Health Service asks, why do women bleach? “It is centred on vanity” they argue (“Skin-Bleaching,” 2005). Purchasing racial capital is an option more available than ever before, and the growing middle class in the Global South is poised to seize the opportunity (Pierre, 2008). With increasing purchasing power and disposable income, the rapidly growing middle class in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, India, and China is increasingly looking to compete for jobs with professionals from the United States, Europe, and Japan. The ascendance of the new global middle class has made white aesthetics increasingly desirable in a competitive global job market (Glenn, 2008). Perhaps public health campaigns avoid talking about the larger social context of colorism because it seems like an intractable problem, difficult to fix through public policy. Or, government officials of African countries and other black and brown nations may not want to publicly admit that cultural aesthetics of the body still mimic European or white norms, generations after the colonial experience. The public health discourse then, has the effect of maintaining silence around the structural benefits of light skin, and pathologizing women for taking “unnecessary risks” with their health, and sometimes, the health of their children. Although women bear the brunt of the health costs associated with bleaching (although some men bleach, too), women have been constructed as villains in this national discourse, at fault for succumbing to vain beliefs about beauty and risking their health to attain these standards. A psychology professor from Uganda draws on the public health discourse in a similar fashion. When asked to comment