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'INDIA IS THE MOST RACIST COUNTRY I HAVE BEEN TO' - AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN'S POV

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'India Is The Most Racist Country I Have Been To' - An African-American's POV

  • By Homegrown Staff
In February of 2016, a Tanzanian student in Bangalore was pulled out of her car, assaulted and stripped by an angry mob after a 35-year-old pedestrian was knocked down by a Sudanese student in another car. This horrific incident added fuel to the ‘India is racist’ debate, with light being shone on various other indicators of our racial intolerance as a country. Terms such as ‘colonial hangover’ and ‘xenophobia’ flew across social media, and the hypocrisy of our intolerance was pointed out, since Indians travelling abroad often complain about white-world countries discriminating against them for being ‘brown’.

Now, we have yet another painful indicator of our own violent shortcomings with the horrific mob attack of several Nigerian students in Greater Noida, around 40kms from Delhi. At least four of them had been admitted to the hospital at the time of writing this article. In the days leading up to the attack, locals in the enclave where these young men lived had become convinced that a young Indian boy’s suspected drug overdose was linked to them somehow. In fact, they were even accused of cannibalism a few days before it all went down like this. The victims’ injuries range from swollen chests to broken ankles.







Opening up another layer of this subject, our obsession with light skin was tossed around in this debate, with names of beauty products such as ‘Fair & Lovely’ coming up. Dark-skinned opinion leaders and celebrities have spent years fighting against discrimination on the basis of colour in India, with movements such as the ‘Dark in Beautiful’ awareness campaign joining the dialogue.

In a map released by the Washington Post in 2013, based on the World Value Survey which measured the social attitudes of people in various countries, India was ranked among the top four most racist countries, along with Bangladesh, Jordan and Hong Kong. Another map showed India as one of the least hospitable places for foreigners to visit, which is ironic considered our culture of treating guests as Gods.

Even within the nation, Indian citizens from the Northeast have spoken out about social persecution they face from a majority of the country’s population. In 2014, a 20-year-old named Nido Tania from Arunachal Pradesh studying in Delhi was attacked in South Delhi market, beaten to death by shopkeepers using rods and sticks. The violence was caused after the men allegedly shouted racial slurs at Nido, making fun of his hair and appearance, which angered him and started a brawl that cost the young student his life. This is one of many incidents in India’s history that spurred a fervent outrage over discrimination against Indians from the Northeast, within their own country.

To a recent Quora question that asked ‘Which is the most racist country you visited as a tourist?’, an American answered ‘India’. His explanation for the same is one that reflects the intolerant atmosphere in our country, whose ugliness rears its head every now and then. And it’s more relevant now than ever before.

Here is Dave Adali’s answer on Quora:



I am an African-American in the IT field and I have thus far had the good fortune to live and travel extensively throughout Western and parts of Eastern Europe and many countries in Asia. I have lived or traveled in the UK and most of the EU countries as well as Taiwan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and several other Asian countries including India.Of all the countries I have been to, India ranks way up there among the most ‘racist’, IMHO. Indians aren’t so much ‘racist’ as they are intolerant. Indians discriminate against fellow citizens to a degree that I have NEVER encountered in ANY other country.

Without a doubt, Indians are the the most color obsessed people I have ever encountered anywhere in the world. No doubt because of all that saturation advertisements for ‘Fair and Lovely’, ‘Fair and Handsome’ and all manners of skin-whitening creams, lotions, soaps etc. Even if you are 100% Indian, your fellow Indians might still discriminate against you on the basis of the color of your skin, which region of India you come from, what language you speak, your religion, your caste etc, etc. If you are of obvious African ancestry, including African-American, you can find life really, really tough in India if you are going to be in India for a while. Indians can be such unabashed, in your face racists.

In the interest of fairness, I should point out that oftentimes, lighter-skinned Indians despise darker-skinned Indians every bit as much as much as they despise us people of African ancestry. Apart from that, there is also considerable antipathy between North Indians and South Indians.

Indians outside of India endlessly complain about the intolerance and racism they have to put up with in places like Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, the Middle East and even Africa. These very same Indians conveniently choose to ignore the fact that Indians themselves can be such pathological bigots against their fellow Indians, other Asians and especially people of African ancestry.

In Amritsar, one of my best friends was Gyan, a Nepali whom I initially mistook for a Chinese. Indians disdainfully call him “Chinki” or “Bahadur”, which Gyan hated. As a matter of fact, Indian citizens from India’s North-Eastern states, who often have Chinese facial features are routinely referred to, usually disparagingly as ‘Chinkis’.

I have a very good friend ‘Terrence’, also an African-American in the IT field. His wife ‘Rekha’ is the the assertive and independent-minded daughter of Gujarati Jains who arrived in the US when ‘Rekha’ was 7 years old. She and her husband met in graduate school and have been married more than ten years now. They have got 3 kids, all of them with dark complexion and curly hair, physical traits which her relatives back in Gujarat hated. When ‘Rekha’ took her kids to Gujarat for the first time, her Gujarati relatives took to calling them, usually disparagingly, ‘Africans’ and ‘Blackies’. ‘Rekha’ finally had enough, especially since the older kids were now old enough to understand what was being said about them. So ‘Rekha’ gave the offending relatives the following ultimatum,’ ‘Treat my kids right, or get out of my life - and stay out of my life!’

India is a great country to visit briefly, because the country itself is endlessly fascinating. An American journalist once described India as “a land of jarring incongruities”. That is what makes India such a worthwhile tourist destination.Some African-Americans have sought my advice about going to Indian for hands-on IT training. My stock advice to them is. be prepared to deal with unabashed in-your-bigotry because Indians hate dark-skinned people, including fellow-Indians. You can expect to have things even worse if you are somebody of African ancestry. As for housing, be prepared to live long term in a hotel. Available housing can be hard to get even if you are an Indian. Because Indian landlords routinely discriminate even against fellow Indians who happen to be from the ‘wrong’ part of India, speak the ‘wrong’ language, belong to the ‘wrong’ religion or caste etc. As somebody of African ancestry, you face a double whammy in a culture that hates dark skin.

If you are Caucasian or White, you should be alright, since the people automatically show respect for white-skinned people. Heck, I have seen Indians discriminating against fellow Indians in favor of White foreigners. This is NOT an anti-Indian rant, just my experiences and observations. My apologies in advance for any toes I might step upon.

This is a Post Script to my answer:
When I originally posted my answer, I was bracing myself to get ‘flamed’ and abused by a lot of very angry Indians. Such has not been the case, however, which I find very gratifying. We should be able to voice dissenting opinions without resorting to abuse and name-calling. Some of the Indians here expressed the hope or belief that the caste system and Indians’ obsession with fair skin will soon go away. As a realist, I have to face the fact that these types of things do not disappear overnight. India’s caste system is here to stay for the foreseeable future, and a lot of the blame for that IMHO lies with Indian politicians and their ‘Vote Banks’. These ‘Vote Banks’ are so rampant, and they appeal to constituents along communal, religious or caste etc, etc (often artificial) lines. So instead of uniting people and communities, these politicians simply drive communities even further apart with all sorts of politically convenient wedge issues. And these ‘Vote Banks’ aren’t going away anytime soon. Obviously, Winston Churchill was a racist who is on record for saying, “I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion”. Churchill hated the Indian politicians of his time with an even greater passion. To quote Churchill verbatim, Indian politicians are “charlatans, rascals, ruffians and scalawags of every stripe you can think of”. Furthermore, so claims Churchill, every election cycle these politicians would make their constituents “every promise under the sun” to get their votes. Once the elections are over however, all these promises will be conveniently forgotten until the next elections. Looks to me these old-time Indian politicians are still very much around - or are they?




http://homegrown.co.in/article/5188...hy-he-thinks-india-is-the-most-racist-country
 
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Any Indian who says this ain't true is a liar. Sadly, most of everything in this article is very true. However, I don't think the Indian on the street understands race or racism. They are oblivious to an individual's feelings and play along with what they think is acceptable in society. This is a true wake up call for which and antidote will be really hard to find. India evolves slowly but does evolve. As Indian parents, it's our duty to educate our kids between individual and societal bias.

I may also add the firang/white/gora is also a victim of the Indian racism but yes the degree of which, if it should be even measured is far less.

I leave it to our Pakistani neighbors now to have a field day as they ignore their own similar problems.
 
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Racism is a problem in general for all of South Asia, part of it is self-hatred, you only have to look at the various threads which end up in mudslinging contests of who is really a Dalit or who is darker skinned or who comes from a that was deemed more "dominant"/"Aryan"/"martial" and and all other sorts of nonsense. Sad state of affairs.
 
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So much truth to this statement. The question I have for Indian is, how is caste vs skin color factor into how one is treated. Would a lighter skin lower caste get treated better than dark skin Brahmin? Also, the paragraph below is most interesting.

"If you are Caucasian or White, you should be alright, since the people automatically show respect for white-skinned people. Heck, I have seen Indians discriminating against fellow Indians in favor of White foreigners."
 
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Come on man this part of the same general problem, we both live in the U.K. And you know most non-Asian people can't tell the difference between any of us we are all curry munching p*kis to them.

Thats because they are ignorant

You can tell the difference between Pakistanis, Indian's/Bengalis from a mile off
 
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Thats because they are ignorant

You can tell the difference between Pakistanis, Indian's/Bengalis from a mile off

You and I can because we are from that culture and we were raised in those environments so we can see the subtle and not-so-subtle differences. I'm sure East Asians could also tell the difference between their own nationalities, but it would be much more difficult for me and you, and that's not out of ignorance.

The obsession with fair-skin is embarrassing, and it's not limited to Indians. In the end it's all subjective, the average Pakistani in Britain is nowhere near as fair skinned as a Romani Gypsy or Ashkenazi Jew, yet those two groups faced extreme prejudice partly due to their "swarthy" appearance.
 
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Hmmm, Indians still remained as the "Number 1 most racist country" in the world while my hometown Hong Kong has been making pretty good improvements lately (use to be ranked "2" after India):enjoy:
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https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/116644/the-most-racist-countries-in-the-world/
 
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Yes India is.. What new in this...
They rape foreigner girls is most common...
 
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You my man.. are a brave Indian. It takes balls to face the truth. Everything this african-american said is true.

It is true to some extent because of biases and prejudices one has about others. But I did find that if you are rich and successful, I don't see much problem in finding housing or being accepted even if your dark skinned Indian.

In case of Africans coming to India for studies I found they themselves don't like Indians and are unabashed about it. Since we are openly discussing about our biases I will let you on my biases about African students. Some of them resort to selling drugs and get involved in other crimes. Some of them come as students but stay back illegally. Lot of cyber crimes and cheating gullible people with all sorts of promotional offers are being investigated by police and in most cases Nigerians were found involved in cahoots with other Indian criminal elements in the society.

Just yesterday night, I found this African guy totally drunk, standing in the middle of the street unable to keep balance and waving to the cars to let him cross the street. He even kicked my car while crossing the road because my head lights blinded him momentarily. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated by others and he sure is lucky I didn't kick his ***. I know this was an exception and most other interactions were pleasant and friendly in nature but we don't know when our biases kick in and it is for our African brothers to keep their reputation intact when they visit other countries.
 
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Unfortunately , I have to agree with the article and the gentleman who said so ...it is a matter of shame

Unfortunately with the hyper nationalism that's seems to be going on among most Indians these days this is going to get worse, PDF itself shows a microcosm of Indian society atm among the posters, Vast majority trying to blame the victims rather than the perpetrators or diverting the subject matter to the Pakistani's, Chinese or the West which isn't actually covering up the situation
 
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Nothing surprises me when it comes to India and Indians.

Prior to the influx of EE. A large majority working in my Uncle's factory were Indians. Racism between them was a common problem. Still to this day, the most notable incident of racism occured between a Punjabi/Guji Hindu who had taken offence when a low caste Indian enquired about her son as a prospective match for her daughter. A fight subsequently broke out on the factory floor and they were both called to the office. My uncle doesn't understand Hindi so asked the floor manager who's an Indian to come and translate.

After calming her down, she concurred with the version told by the victim where she even admitted to pulling her hair, scratching her face and biting. The victim then proceeds to ask my uncle to forgive her and that it was all her fault as she shouldn't have enquired. My uncle reluctantly agreed and after some words told her to hug the victim and apologise.

Her reply:

"Are you mad? How dare this *insert her caste* black skinned b*tch ask for my son!Look at her..."

The hatred etched on her face was something to behold...

There are always exceptions to the rule, but on the whole, Indians, from what I've found are bunch of degenerate and insecure scumbags who suffer from a massive inferiority complex. They're dark as coal, too, but the sheer audacity to poke fun and mock Africans as well their fellow Indians for their skin colour amazes me.

The worst part in incidents like this is that, Pakistanis, get dragged with these neanderthals when those on the receiving end of the abuse lash out and label it as 'South Asian' problem. What makes it even more annoying is the fact that Pakistanis have squat all in common with the Indians, too.
 
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