By ROMANA SHAIKH
August 23, 2017
“It is imperative to address the prejudice and discrimination among communities of color, especially among South Asians, the Black and Hispanic community because, let’s face it, it’s a serious problem that many encounter.”
“Your house probably smells like curry shit”
“Don’t your people kill you if you take that off?”
“Why do your people hate America?”
“You need to apologize for 9/11 because your people bombed us”
“Arabs, Indians all of ya are the same”
“Ye kaalon ka ilaaqa hai tabi acha nahi hai” (“This is a black neighborhood, that’s why it’s not safe”)
“Yes I have a friend, he’s black but he’s one of the nice blacks.”
“Spanish and black neighborhoods are so dangerous. You need to get out. Move to where white people live or where the Chinese live”
“All of them get jealous because the Muslim kids always get the best grades”
Have you heard of any of these statements before? Do they anger you? Do they remind you of someone?
“This is a black neighborhood, that’s why it’s not safe”
All of these are actual statements pulled out of conversations I’ve heard so many times. And no it’s not coming from white people but people of color.
It is imperative to address the prejudice and discrimination among communities of color, especially among South Asians, the Black and Hispanic community because, let’s face it, it’s a serious problem that many encounter.
My first racist encounter wasn’t from a white person, but from a Latina. In fact, I didn’t really encounter white people until I got to college. That was because I grew up in the Bronx. For me, conforming to American culture meant hip hop and Reggae or foods such as Platanos or Fried Chicken. I wanted to be named Kimberly or Tatiana and have my last name be Mendez or Perez not Shaikh or any other “Muslim” name.
I remember being the target to really embarrassing mockery of my last name by a boy named Melquan and I wished for so long that I didn’t have such a long name like Romana Shaikh Siddiqi.
Growing up in a predominantly black and Hispanic community, I saw prejudice and tension between the different communities of color. The South Asian community was prejudiced towards the Black and Hispanic community and, likewise, they had a lot of prejudices towards us.
For so long we were competing, miscommunicating and seeing each other as different and alien. When 9/11 happened, I experienced discrimination in school and in my local neighborhood. I realized from a very young age that I wasn’t welcome, I didn’t belong and I became a threat to the other students.
This is problematic because all three communities are oppressed but they fail to see each other’s oppression. Instead there is a feeling of “othering”.
In my neighborhood, we were seen as foreigners because our parents had thick accents and wore their traditional clothing. So many times I heard the words “terrorist” or “curry” yelled at me as I was walking back home. The only time we were really recognized was when we got good grades in school and received an honor roll. But even then there was a lack of communication.
The staff didn’t bother to pay any attention to pronounce our names correctly, didn’t take a lot of the bullying seriously either and we just fell into the model minority myth.
This is problematic because all three communities are oppressed but they fail to see each other’s oppression. Instead there is a feeling of “othering”.
I’ve noticed South Asians trying to find more ways to reach the top, to not be associated with the “ghettos” and go live in nicer areas. South Asian elders are known to villainies black men, saying they are uneducated criminals. They only have sympathy for those who are educated, have nicer jobs (white collar).
We only seem to see someone as human if they are doing well in society, or if they are being as white and acceptable as their situation allows them to be.
We have a lack of knowledge on the racial oppression Black and African Americans have faced for centuries now. We tend to blame them for living in poor conditions and fail to understand that it’s all part of a systematic oppression.
As people of color, we need to create a bridge between the different communities. We need to stop seeing each other as a threat. We need to be more aware of the systematic oppression around us.
Most importantly we need to empathize. We only see our oppression and not the oppression of others, or we think that we have suffered more when compared with others.
For groups of people that are constantly marginalized, oppressed, looked down upon, pre-judged, villainized, we need to stand together to uproot the source of this racist oppression that still, sadly, exists in America.
