Let's talk racism

In the midst of the high-profile wedding season an unkind, xenophobic and outright sexist cut by The Cut (a New York Magazine offshoot) struck a discordant note and brought the focus sharply back to racism and stereotypes Indians face. The Mariah Smith piece – Is Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas' Love for Real? – sparked global outrage when it called actor, singer, film producer, philanthropist and winner of Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra a "global scam artist", and accused her of trapping American singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer Nick Jonas into a "fraudulent relationship," to help boost her own career.

Despite the withdrawal of the piece and a public apology by the publication and the writer, the 'ugh' aftertaste of what was clearly an out-of-line piece refuses to fade away. "Why should it?" asks Mumbai-based counsellor Dr Keerti Sachdeva, who feels changed circumstances and 'woke' sensibilities ensure people don't get away with such behaviour. "We heard of sporadic racist attacks across the US and in Australia in 2010. But examples like Chopra's and that of actor Shilpa Shetty in 2007 show how even individuals from higher social echelons are not spared."

It can be recalled that in the fifth season of British reality TV show Big Brother (2007), Shetty was subject to intense racist bullying by British fellow contestants like Danielle Lloyd, late Jade Goody, and Jo O'Meara that saw her have a meltdown. This not only sparked international outrage, but also led to a tizzy in both the British and Indian parliaments. Several brands distanced themselves from the show and this eventually led to the suspension of its next season.

A social psychology doctorate, Sachdeva, explains the rationale behind the hate and racism. "Despite plundering what was one of the richest lands for centuries to create their own surplus economies, the West finds it inexplicable that within a period of seven decades, India, which they mocked for her poverty and backwardness, is not only running neck-to-neck with them but seems all set to leave many of them far behind. Indians form some of the richest and most successful diasporas and occupy important positions in NASA, the Silicon Valley and even the UK's National Health Service."

She also wonders, "Why do the same racist people who resent the secure, well-off current generation of Indians not realise that they are benefitting from decades of frugal lifestyles and hard-earned savings of their parents. Even today, most Indians push their children harder and kids are driven because the penury and hardship were not so long ago to have been forgotten."

According to her, the racist India-phobic mindset harks back to the early 1930s. She reminisces a February 23, 1931, address by the British PM Winston Churchill to the Council of the West Essex Unionist Association where he commented about the Mahatma: "It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, an Inner Temple lawyer, now become a seditious fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still organising and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor." She points out how despite the tide changing, such ideas of white supremacism abide.

But isn't Smith a woman of colour herself? "Are you saying that makes what she did kosher?" admonishes Sachdeva. "This deserves the same condemnation that women who act as agents of patriarchy do. They have socialised discrimination and bigotry as a norm. Unless called out, like Smith, they seem to think being from the same gender/racial category makes their words and actions above board."

She also feels the wedding largesse assaulting our social media walls this week given the lavish extravagance of weddings and the undiminished appetite for particulars like the venue (Umaid Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur) the menu,

Priyanka's outfit (a Ralph Lauren gown with a 75-foot train), Nick's outfit (a Bakhikya kurta for the rituals and a double-breasted Ralph Lauren tuxedo at the wedding), the jewelry, make-up and hair also contribute to creating oodles of attention. "This kind of attention can't come without some snark over the celebs' familiarity with the marketing potential of their wedding. Some of it is envy and some just scorn for the wealthy trying to rub in their privilege given the extreme inequitable distribution of wealth."

But only that which can, sells

One of India's well-known voices on brand management, Nischal Puri of Horizon Consulting, wonders why this should be held against the couple. "If a celeb couple want to leverage this to make their wedding a big-branded event, who are we to judge?" The IIM and JNU alumnus, Puri, who has a background in anthropology and business administration, points out how brands jumping onto the bandwagon know what they are doing. "They see this association as a win-win for both the celeb couple and themselves. Look how Kotak or Manyavar created entire campaigns around Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli's wedding too. It is like an extension of the brand equity of the duo, which collectively becomes bigger than their two individual brands together. "

The Blue Box Cafe bridal shower for Chopra at Tiffany where Jonas chose a ginormous engagement ring, the items Chopra documented from the Amazon-sponsored registry to People magazine a month ago, Jonas' endorsement of scooters (for his groomsmen) or even a vodka brand, had raised quite a few eyebrows about monetising a personal life event. "Let's not single out Nickyanka. Have you seen what Kardashians did with something like a baby shower? With over 30 million followers (Chopra) and over 15 million followers (Jonas) respectively, brands are practically falling all over themselves to partner with them," says Puri, who also underlines how not all of it involves making money alone.

"Some of it is pure goodwill! Amazon, for example, did not pay Chopra, but donated a lakh US dollars to the UNICEF (Chopra is their national ambassador promoting child rights) instead. So a good cause finds funding, this helps the needy and gives both Priyanka and India a good name. What's not to like here?"

And yet, that's not how The Cut saw it. "Priyanka's indulgences and what she views as necessities speak volumes of her personality and what she'll do, or think she needs to do, for her career..." As if that wasn't vicious enough it went on to allege that the celebrity couple had a high profile wedding just to make money.

A barrage of criticism from across the world ensured the piece was withdrawn by the magazine, whose apology now shows up when you look for it. Soon after, Smith too apologised to the newly-weds via Twitter.

And Indians who are racists?

Dr Sachdeva feels some of the reticence to take on the racism head-on might have roots elsewhere. "While our outrage against racism when Indians are victims is more than robust, we are often blind as a people to brazen racism, casteism, classism, sexism and other forms of discrimination and authorisations that Indians perpetrate."

The intense racism that several nationals from the African continent face is a case in point. "I still remember how a young Congolese man MT Oliva was lynched off Vasant Kunj in May 2016, when he protested the use of racist slurs by some local youth. If this can happen in the national capital, what hope does any black person have elsewhere? Indian behaviour towards white people is markedly different. We not only try to be friendly, but even act deferentially when they are around," she says underlining how the stranglehold of caste also leads to the worst such human rights excesses by Indians against their own.

Even a cursory look at the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures confirms what Sachdeva is saying. Statistics show there has been a sharp rise in violence against Dalits over the last half-decade. Year after year India has witnessed a six to an eight-fold upsurge in crimes committed against Dalits if this seen against data for the five preceding years. What is worse is that the largest head of such violence includes murder, assault and rape respectively among 1,93,000 crimes against Dalits registered in these five years. Sachdeva underlines: "And remember this does not reflect the manifold more unregistered complaints."

So why do Indians, who create such a ruckus over racism elsewhere, invisibilise what they see around themselves so easily?

Associate Professor at Centre for Study of Social Exclusion & Inclusive Policies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Dr Shaileshkumar Darokar feels this is linked to the deeply ingrained feeling of tyrannical dominance – dehumanising subservience, two ends of a spectrum, Indians are raised to know. "Everybody talks loftily about being equal, but the only way we actually practice this is by being closer to one end of the spectrum. Convenient inconsistencies and exceptions are devised to create and recreate newer and newer concentric circles of exclusion," he says and adds, "Every time an Indian is the victim of a racist attack internationally, we need to question our silence on the more severe and larger number of attacks Indians carry out on their own." Word!

Retaliate With Grace

Incidentally, both Chopra and Shetty have tried to distance themselves from what happened in their own way. Shetty who won Big Brother 11 years ago and went from no-films-in-the-kitty to instant stardom recanted: “Things happen, people make mistakes and we all learn from them. But I can say one thing for sure. Jade didn’t mean to be racist. She isn’t a racist. I really don’t want to leave England putting anyone in trouble. This country has given me so much. I just want to thank all of Great Britain for giving me this fantastic opportunity to make my country proud,” she told McCalls magazine soon after she won. A complete U-turn from what she had told British police officers before. 

Chopra too does not seem too keen to speak about The Cut’s article. “It’s not even in my stratosphere. I’m in a happy place at this moment. These kinds of random things can’t disturb it,”’ she told media persons at her Delhi reception when specifically and pointedly asked to react to Smith’s piece. Her mother Madhu Chopra too has called it, “an unfortunate way to negatively milk what is a very happy phase for my daughter and our family. They [The Cut] can say/do what they want. It does not concern/affect us.”