Diepiriye Kuku, a Black American PhD student at the Delhi School of Economics, shares with us his first-time experience with racial discrimination in India.
In his first-time experience, he encountered the Delhi public which literally stops and stares. Children and adults alike, love to tease, taunt, poke and peer at him from the corner of their eyes, giving him a harrowing experience. For instance, he once stood gazing at the giraffes at the Lucknow Zoo only to turn back and see 50-odd families gawking at him rather than the exhibit. Parents abruptly withdrew infants that inquisitively wandered towards him. He felt like an exotic African creature-cum-spectacle, stirring fear and awe. Even his attempts to beguile the public through simple greetings or smiles are often not reciprocated. Instead, the look of wonder swells as if this was all part of the act and they were all playing our parts.
Racism is never a personal experience. Racism in India is systematic and independent of the presence of foreigners of any hue. This climate permits and promotes this lawlessness and disdain for dark skin. Most Indian pop icons have light-damn-near-white skin. Several stars even promote skin-bleaching creams that promise to improve one's popularity and career success.
Discrimination in Delhi surpasses the denial of courtesy. He have been denied visas, apartments, entrance to discos, attentiveness, kindness and the benefit of doubt. Furthermore, the lack of neighbourliness exceeds what the ‘locals’ describe as normal for a capital already known for its coldness.
His partner is white and he is black, facts of which the Indian public reminds us daily through stereotyping. Bank associates and Mall shop attendants have denied him attentiveness, while falling over to please his white friend.
"An African has come," a guard announced over the intercom as he showed up in the ATM bank. ATM guards stand and salute his white friend, while one guard actually asked him why he had come to the bank machine, as if he was saying that Kuku was taking over his shift.
It is shocking that people wear liberalism as a sign of modernity, yet revert to ultraconservatism when actually faced with difference. Outside of specific anchors of discourse such as Reservations, there is no consensus that discrimination is a redeemable social ill. This is the real issue with discrimination in India: her own citizens suffer and we are only encouraged to ignore situations that make us all feel powerless. Be it the mute-witnesses seeing racial difference for the first time, kids learning racism from their folks, or the blacks and northeasterners who feel victimised by the public, few operate from a position that believes in change.
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