Racism alive in India: Story of Kim Barrington Narisetti, an African-American professional
By Kim Barrington Narisetti (Publisher, Urban Crayon Press)
My 12-year-old daughter gets exasperated easily. Maybe it’s because she’s 12. She gets even more exasperated because she says I seem to have a saying for everything: Patience is a virtue. You can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar.
Never judge a book by its cover. When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. The last two seem to be the most relevant as they apply to racism and racist acts in India. It saddened me to hear about the recent attacks on Ugandan women in Delhi.
As a darkskinned African-American woman who lived in New Delhi for nearly four years, the stories quickly brought back memories of my daily experiences and the assumptions that were made about me and how I was treated. I constantly felt I was on display. I was stared at in restaurants, elevators and even in my car on the street.
Random people would come up to me when I was shopping at Khan Market (usually men) to let me know that they knew someone from Uganda, Nigeria, or the Congo. My response would be: That’s nice. I’m American. The most disturbing incident happened when my husband, Raju, and I were walking back home from a restaurant down the block from our house in New Friends Colony.
A young boy of about 8 was riding on the back of his bike with his father. As they passed us, he hurled a huge rock the size of a fist at me. It landed with a thud on my sunglasses and my head snapped back. If I weren’t wearing huge aviator sunglasses, I likely would have lost my eye. My chivalrous husband chased down the bike, pulled the boy off and gave him and his father a tongue lashing in Hindi and made him apologise.
The boy conceded that he threw the rock because he thought I was African. Therefore, his rock-throwing would certainly have been justified. Daily, I would have my cook pack up in foil any leftover breakfast, whether it were omelettes, idlis, crepes or just bread and butter. I would hand it out to the kids begging for food on the street on the way to my children’s school. When I rolled down the tinted window, the same kids who were begging for something to eat seconds earlier, would then proceed to laugh and point at me.
I easily could have gotten angry and refused to continue to do what I did or cower and have my driver do it instead, but I didn’t. That’s not the kind of person I am. They made assumptions about me and there was really nothing I could do about it. But the racist acts toward me also came at the hands of people who were obviously well educated, well-traveled and should know, well, better.
Kim Barrington Narisetti is publisher of Urban Crayon Press. She also held editing positions at The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet.com; Advertising Age and The Source magazine.)
I didn’t realize how bad racism could be in India. Sure, I knew about the caste system, but no one should ever have to go through anything like that. You’re a hero, Kim.
India’s racism dates back to ancient times when the Aryans invaded them. I read where Indra, the national god, hated black skin so much he was depicted blowing it away from earth and heaven.
Today many Indians downplay the pervasive structural racism there. Some defend their democracy/independence as new and needs more time to evolve.
India is a country stricken with poverty, but it’s also a technological hub with much wealth and power. There is much within the Indian culture that I admire; I do hope it evolves into a model of equality and parity for all its residents.
Oh wow. I didn’t research India’s history all that much besides some of the colonial stuff or the separation of Pakistan.
That’s important to know.
It’s certainly true. I noticed that when I watched 30 Days a long time ago (before I lost respect for Morgan Spurlock for being involved in that inexcusable Princess of North Sudan movie project. SMH.) where this recently laid off worker of the Tata corporation lived in Bangalore for a whole month. The rich and poor parts were so divided. I certianly hope equality can be a thing there, too.