I really wish Perrie would do collabs 😭 Her voice is SO versatile and I feel like she’d sound amazing with literally everyone.
Dream collabs for me: Adele, The Weeknd, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, Ariana Grande, Zara Larsson.
I saw a very interesting video a few days ago about how racism affects everyone, and it made me think a lot about the Indian diaspora abroad.
One thing I’ve noticed, especially living in Canada, is that whenever someone says something racist about Indians...our immediate response is rarely “that’s racist” instead, we distance ourselves from other Indians.
“oh those are North Indians” “oh those are South Indians” “oh they’re Punjabis” “oh they’re Bangladeshis/Pakistanis, not us”
even online, people will post edits of darker-skinned or average-looking Indians and then immediately counter it with Bollywood actors/models saying “Indians actually look like this” why are we so desperate to separate ourselves from our own people?
i live near yonge-dundas in toronto, and there’s often Punjabi groups dancing and celebrating there. i’ve literally heard other indian friends say things like “they’re punjabis, we’re not like that” at the same time, i also know some Punjabis who genuinely believe punjabis are superior to the rest of Indians. and this is the bigger issue...indians are so divided among ourselves that we make racism easier.
back in 2020, racism against east asians exploded. racists called everyone “chinese” regardless of whether they were japanese, korean, thai, vietnamese, etc. but east asians largely stood together publicly against the racism. they presented a united front because they understood racists don’t care about the differences. but Indians? we constantly try to prove we’re the “better” kind of Indian.
the harsh truth is that many of the issues people criticize India for ARE real..... lack of education in many areas, misogyny, violence against women, poor civic sense, etc. instead of acknowledging the problems and trying to improve them, we keep deflecting:
“that’s not us. “that’s another state” “that’s another religion” “that’s another country”
at some point we have to realize that constantly distancing ourselves from each other won’t stop racism. Racists do not care whether you are punjabi, tamil, malayali, gujarati, bengali, or sikkimese. to them, we are all just Indian. and before people misunderstand me... i am NOT supporting racism or victim blaming indians for racism. racism is always wrong. my point is that Indians themselves are deeply divided, and that division weakens us even more when racism happens.maybe the first step is dropping the superiority complexes and actually learning to stand together.
my friend is 7 months pregnant and her husband is out of town, so I’ve been staying with her. yesterday around 8 pm, we stepped out to get ice cream because she had a craving. It was just me, her, and her little son. he was crying and only wanted his mom, so she was carrying him while we were walking to the parking lot. out of nowhere... this man (looked like he was in his 40s) came up, grabbed her ass and ran away.
she screamed so loudly, but he disappeared within seconds. it all happened so fast that we didn’t even get a chance to react properly or process what just happened.
i feel so angry and helpless. she’s pregnant, already physically vulnerable, carrying a child..and this still happened. what kind of person does that?
what’s making it worse is her reaction. she said she’s “used to it” and that there’s no point in doing anything. she told me she’s been groped before and she's used to it, so why bother now.
i can’t accept that. i’ve experienced similar things too and stayed silent, but I don’t want this to just be “normal” anymore.
how do you deal with this anger? And more importantly, how do you support someone who has normalized this kind of behavior and doesn’t want to take action?