Often in America, discrimination towards South Asians is dismissed, overlooked, and treated as a simple joke. It hides in conversations through casual insults, stereotypes, and offensive names. Platforms in the media display mockery and allow for racism to happen, reinforcing harmful attitudes without consequence. The lack of accountability is causing racism towards South Asians to be more normalized by the day.
Ayra Ansari, a reporter from The Standard, a school newspaper, talks about her experience of microaggressions: “I have witnessed students mimic an Indian teacher’s accent and ask one of their brown friends to fix their laptops for them. While these comments may be intended jokingly, they reflect a deeper issue of racial insensitivity towards South Asians.” Even small comments can reflect hurtful stereotypes and make it more difficult to address racism in everyday situations.
“At least six in 10 South Asian partners have suffered microaggressions at work, three in 10 have suffered racial slurs, over a third felt ethnicity affected work allocation decisions, and nearly half saw ethnicity as slowing down their promotion to partner,” expresses Monidipa Fouzder, in her article, about microaggressions towards South Asians in the workplace. These statistics show how deeply embedded racial bias is, even in professional environments in our country.
Social media seems to be the largest factor in normalizing racism. Swati Hembrom, a sophomore at Paint Branch, speaks about her experience of seeing racism online as a South Asian: “Seeing all the stereotypes on the internet is so discouraging. I’ve seen videos about races you wouldn’t date, and people always jump to say South Asians, and they treat it as a joke.” Comments like these are often brushed off as harmless, which shows how our society has accepted this online.
Representation in TV shows and movies also plays a huge role in the view of South Asians. For years, characters were portrayed with exaggerated accents, jokes about how food smells, and being seen as “nerdy.” In her article, Western Media’s Marginalization of South Asians, Maya Lakhani writes, “As a South Asian, watching these portrayals only ever made me feel incapable and disregarded, and slowly all the goals I had when I was a kid felt more pathetic than possible.” These portrayals are damaging, especially to children who grow up seeing themselves misrepresented and mocked.
As America continues to brush aside the racism that South Asians face, whether it’s through harmful stereotypes, microaggressions, or quiet mockery in the media, it sends the message that this behavior is acceptable. South Asians shouldn’t be silenced and misrepresented, but rather, individuals who perpetrate racist acts should be held accountable for their actions.
