Dark-Skinned Asians Should Support Black Lives Matter
We need to acknowledge — and respect — our relationship to Blackness
When I reached out on Twitter to engage my fellow dark-skinned South Asians in a conversation about racism, I thought I’d find commonality. What I didn’t think I’d find was that I wasn’t the only one who had been called the N-word, or Barack Obama.
People called the police when they saw Sam entering his girlfriend’s house in a predominantly White and conservative West London neighborhood. Journalism student Sarada was pinned to the floor by two officers when she reached for her camera bag while shooting a school project in Paris. Manuela would have her bag checked or be followed by a security guard in shops at least once a week. Thuli and I were no stranger to identity checks and searches in airports and train stations. Hopefully, none of us has died of police brutality. Though we do look dark, we don’t all identify as Black.
I consider race a social phenomenon rather than a biological one. However, one should not forget how our bodies are made political. Color gradations say a lot about our world and who we are. Whether it’s the exoticization of Black penises on Pornhub, the othering of dark-skinned models as tropical aliens on fashion catwalks, or the fear of any gathering of people of…
