Racism through the eyes of a south asian teen

Diary of a south Asian girl living in a racist world

Racism. Defined as prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority.

Take it from a young, south Asian girl: it is so much more than that. It involves so many elements, some internalized, some social, some economic, some environmental and finally some consisting of purely plain ignorance.

I have been surrounded by white people all my life, they make up the majority of my school, the majority of my area, the majority of our political party's. Hence why I have learnt to comprehend their attitudes, in most cases being encouraged to adopt their racial-bias' causing internalized racism and self-hatred at the universe for not making my white. This story evidently contains many elements. Let's start at the beginning.

The 20th of December 2005, the day I was born as a brown girl in this predominantly white world. Disadvantaged from birth because I belonged to an ethnic minority, this being used against me my entire life, a subdued form of manipulation, making me resent my culture due to society's negative perception of it. This is the sad reality of our world, the hidden, supressed start to life for so many, countless innocent children already being exposed to the cruelties of our world, the cruelties created by others, the harsh brutality of being a non-white human. Ignorance towards this sad fact being exponential, in the nicest way possible, snap out of it guys, this is our world, instead of pretending it's not and making excuses to invalidate the experiences of countless individuals let's accept it and work towards fixing it. Dear reader, if you think this is bad wait till you continue reading, just a quick reminder, this is the beginning of the story, we are far from the end.

As you may be able to infer, from this point onwards things didn't get better, if anything they declined. Throughout mu childhood I was oblivious to the negative racial attitudes I and so many other people of colour experienced. These are known as micro-aggressions, defined as actions or incidents regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority. An example being in reception at age four being taught to use the peach coloured crayon as skin colour, this being the closest shade to white rather than having a selection of colours to include all children belonging to ethnic minorities, a false image of ourselves being ingrained into our mind from a young age, a direct causation of society's perceptions. I was four, how was I to know that I was being subliminally taught to reject my skin tone whilst portraying myself in my artwork, viewing myself as white, something that in some instances I still subconsciously do. This is beyond damaging for all people of colour as individuals because it encourages acceptance on white perception beginning with viewing ourselves in this way.

Some will argue that instead the education system was encouraging equality, everyone using a peach tone. They are correct in stating everyone used a peach tone, so in literal terms we were equal, but why picture equality through exclusion of minorities, why not normalise the correct range of skin colours and let students choose which one they want to reflect them. Surely this will teach more about self-love and acceptance of their traits when they have an option. Who knows some children belonging to ethnic minorities may want to use the peach crayon, and that is okay, I will not stop them from enforcing their choice, but I can assure you I would want to picture myself how I truly am. Not how society wants me to be. I will never achieve that because I can never be white.

Another example being how I entered a shop on the high street, opening the door for a lady who was exiting and conducting a conversation with the shop keeper in my British accent, something I developed as a British citizen. I then proceeded to walk to the book section as I browsed for new reads.