My personal experience in this is somewhat different. My parents did
not force me to be academically excellent, they are extremely glad that
I took up designing because I liked it and I was goodat it. My parents
at least are willing to understand that times havechanged, and they've
evolved their views accordingly. So I don't thinkthere are any
grievances on stereotypes on the personal front.
A theoretical space without racism.
If such a world existed, I guess I would enjoy thefreedom of
approaching people from other countries like they'rejust another
human being, and not get anxious over the possibilityof the million
terrible things they must think about Asians. I won'thave to wonder if
that person is going to judge me based on stereotypesthat Indian
smell of curry, or if they think Indians have toomuch body hair, or that
we eat funny spicy food, or the fact that I'm theirto steal their jobs.
It would be nice to not put my brain through all theseworst case
scenarios before saying a simple hello to anotherhuman being.
Tell.
I think the kind of representation that we see inforeign media have
tainted my view of my own community. Right now, whenI talk to my
friends, or my family, I often say that I don't likeIndia, I'm not proud of
India as a country, there's too many terrible thingshappening, that I'm
planning on moving somewhere abroad soon. And whilethis is pretty
average thinking for Indian young-adults, and I havea theory as to why.
The level of dominance western media has over is astounding,and I'm
not blaming them at all, I love the content. But thekind of
representation we get in these western content oftenmakes me
ashamed to be an Indian. Top tier movies like slumdogmillionaire are
still many american's only visualizations of India.This kind of
representation not just presents a community in atainted light to
foreigners, but also affects the minds of the peoplein the community
itself. I watched so much of such content, I startedpicturing my country
and my countrymen the same way.
I know I rambled a lot, but my point is; I don't believeactive racism is
the only problem at hand. The deeper ones are therandom two liner
jokes passed in Hollywood movies, based on some Asianstereotypes,
because soon, our brain starts accepting them as normal.This is the
reason when my canadian friend makes a joke aboutmy accent, I laugh
along instead of correcting her(i know this is conflictedreaction, she's a
friend, she doesn't intend to be mean or anything,but making her
aware should have been the better approach ratherthan just laughing
along).
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