15 Highly Atrocious Racist Things I Have Heard in Different Parts of the World

As war wages in Ukraine and white people are being snuffed out, it’s the dark-skinned who have been silently killed for centuries.

Slow death is poison. I was born in the developing nation of India. No, I am not from Syria, Afghanistan, or Turkey even. It is not the economic situation of my land that determines how I would be treated at the hand of white people, it is my skin color.

And for that matter, a brownish Italian has less of an advantage than a fair, light-eyed Middle-Eastern. I have lived in the USA and now live in Germany. I have lived in Texas, Indiana, and then Rochester, New York, before we decided to move to Germany.

Why are we fleeing our country India, even though no one is threatening us?

Simple answer. Our country is overpopulated. It does not have infrastructure sufficient to suit the growing population. Traffic is bursting at its seams. The air in the metro is unbreathable. Most of the people are Hindus, and whether one likes to admit it or not, other non-stream religions suffer.

We were born in a Christian household. Most North Indians thought we were forward and immoral just because we wore western dresses. Here are some statements I grew up hearing and some responses I held back to maintain the peace.

“You can wear this and go out working at nights as this is accepted in your culture. I can’t,” I heard my friends say.

“So you have a boyfriend and are going to ask your parents if you could marry him? That’s a no-no. My parents have to search for a groom for me and I need to sit for a series of matchmaking sessions before that is done,” said another.

And when the neighbors got to know that my parents were separated, the aunties sweetly coaxed, “I know, this is normal among Christians. But if you feel alone ever, come to me, son. I am a mother to you. “

I was actually a daughter, not a son, but patriarchal society had generalized the word ‘beta’ literally meaning son to be used by both genders because neither the girl child nor her desires were important here.

How I wished that all of the above was normal among Christians in India, but my parents were Indianised. I too had to go through a series of matchmaking sessions with several weirdos before I hopped onto jeevansathi.com to find one sane person.

I did not want my children to grow in such a hypocritical, nauseating, closed-minded nation. And so, we have been fleeing our country for the past 10 years. We do not feel like even visiting the place because the aura as your feet hit the ground there stifles you.

To each their own opinion

Now, there will be several rich Europeans who will not agree with me because they have the money to carry on a lifestyle they cannot in the west.

There will be a cluster of devout, middle-classed Indians who would literally throw their shoes at my face on reading this because I am a traitor.

And more critique is awaited from Indians who live and work in English-speaking countries only to earn a stronger currency to invest in their home country because that is where they belong.

We did not belong to any of these categories. All the money in the world could not change the streets you have to walk on, the people you have to meet daily and the judging remarks your kids would be subjected to. In addition, my son was born with asthma, and I did not have the heart to stifle him both physically and emotionally.

Thus, we started on a journey to move away from our homeland, a land where we actually never felt at home. My husband bagged a contract with his company in the USA, where we had hoped to settle down for good. The first hurdle I faced was getting my credentials accepted here.

I was a trained journalist and an opera singer, but none of the degrees were from any developed nation. Even if that was the case, America does not consider education from other nations sufficient. They just tell you point blank to do it all over again and pay 4 fold for the training. With two small kids, I did not have the time or the money to go back to school. So I struggled to find some work in the singing or the writing genre. Here’s what I heard in the process.

1. “The voice is great. I mean, it’s mind-blowing. But the accent. Can’t you put on an American one? We cannot have you talking on stage with an Ind… uh, with a different accent. We will accept you in the ensemble so you have no lines.”

2. “Wow! How can a person from India sing Opera? And you speak perfect English! How can you sing in Italian? Can you do Bollywood?”

3. “Yes the voice is great! It really is, but this is an all-white production. We’ll paint your face white and make you wear a blond wig. Then you’re good to go.”

4. “We are looking specifically for native English speakers for this job. How can a person having English as a second language edit copy in an English-speaking world? That would just be demeaning other native Americans.”

5. “Wow Shireen! Your reading of the Bible in the church was so cute. The way you roll your Rs, and eat your Ts. It’s all just purrrfekt! Way to go. I love listening to your cute accent.”

Thanks. Did you hear the word of God?

6. “Woah! Who was that exotic cantor? I expected crooning with a major Indian accent and a Bollywood raga coming out of that mouth but was petrified when I heard her singing Latin.”

7. “So sad to hear your story. I know American policies for settling down here are unfair. But you know, my husband and I got chucked out of our IT jobs because they outsourced the project to some folks in Bangalore paying them 1/3 our pay?”

If your country wants to save money and chuck out your own people, that’s not our problem. There is no shortage of skilled workers in the USA. There is a shortage of cheap labor. Americans are overpaid and foreigners are willing to lick ass just gift their families a rewarding life.

8. “ Singing opera and writing English belongs to America’s and Europe. Try your hand at IT or Indian food. We don’t look at people’s talents before we hire them, we look at their faces.

This was by far the best, truthful advice someone had given me.

9. Because Indian upbringing is different and our children do not respond to the American timeout, they are bound to be tagged slow and with some kind of delay in school.

My son’s speech therapist wrote in his early intervention report,

“ Aaron speaks English and Hindu at home. He speaks English with an Indian accent. He perhaps misses his home country and is not able to adjust in this new environment.”

My son speaks no Hindi. Because of the delay in speaking the doctors told us to stick to English and not confuse him. He doesn’t even understand it now. And he came to the USA when he was three months old. Again, an example of how people think with their eyes.

10. Lastly, my American ‘friend’ shared with me that the only reason she will not date a nice first-generation Indian is that she fears he will stink due to eating too much garlic and frightfully disgusting yellow stuff that leaves permanent marks on everything. She was also concerned that most Indians have more hair than required, another reason to get stinky!

Currently, the entire world seems to be going bonkers drinking golden milk with turmeric — the disgusting stuff. Her conversation told me that if she did not consider an Indian born and raised in America any different than one raised in India, my children would be seen with the same outlook.

Next stop — Germany, Europe

We got tired of the slow immigration system in the USA and decided to try to flee to another developed country in Europe, where English was not the first language and perhaps would be valued more.

Educated Europeans consider Indians having English as almost native. Others who have had no exposure think we are poor people privileged to be in such a clean country.

When I landed in Germany, I was all alone. I started a voluntary service to learn the language and met the most racist people on earth. They would lock the toilet and rejoice at seeing me struggle. They won’t open it before I completed certain tasks. They would eat food and take it home too, but either throw it before I got my hands on it or tell me it’s not my type.

I wanted to go back to the USA and give up what I had started, but corona had shut down flights and I was caged in here without my husband or the kids. So, I swallowed their nastiness with a pinch of salt and learned to stand up for my rights in their language.

When I did this, I quickly learned that a foreigner speaking German was better accepted and not made a fool of.

Still, there were people who looked at every brown-skinned person with cynical eyes as they thought all of them were refugees living at their taxes.

As Indians, we did not qualify for asylum. We were not surviving on tax-payer money. In fact, it was more expensive for me to live here as I had to pay the medical insurance of both my kids out of my pocket since my husband worked in the USA and earned more money.

Here are some phrases I heard as I was working as a student nurse here:

In the old age homes where they would think every dusky person is a refugee from the middle east:

1. “Are you Muslim? You surely don’t eat pork?”

2. “Your husband has no problems with you washing naked men? Where is your veil?”

While working in the hospitals where foreigners are a more common sight. In fact, 90 percent of the doctors here are from Syria. If it was not for them, Healthcare would shut down in Germany.

3. “Ah, from India, poor country. You are so privileged to work here in beautiful Germany”.

They were privileged to have foreigners come here and nurse them in a pandemic.

At the doctor's office with my mother, who did not speak the language well.

I had to visit her doctor for some stitches and he sees her every week for acupuncture. She excitedly greeted him, thinking he will recognize and greet her with the same warmth. He refused to recognize her without her German husband. Had I not been injured at work and he not liable to treat me as part of the rules, he would keep me waiting longer with a bleeding wound.

Later, he heard me speaking German and got to know I was from America. He started showing off his English while I continued to talk to him in German!

At the grocery store with my mom, standing in line with a dozen others with masks on, in corona times.

The people in front and back had no 1.5-meter distance. We were sticking to each other and keeping ours. Still, the woman in front of us scowled and said,

4. “Please keep distance.” — like we were untouchables.”

Before I could point out saying she herself maintained less than the required distance with the Germans in front, my mother intervened, apologized, and moved further back.

At the sauna, where the locals were certainly not expecting Indian women to flaunt their naked bodies like the others, one said,

5. “This is a place for others to relax, not hear conversations in a strange language. Be quiet, please.”

Only mom and I were talking and sitting in an empty sauna, there was no other person in the room we were disturbing and the door was closed. The man had only briefly walked in and exclaimed with an expression that implied louder than words about his disgust on spotting such women in a place they were least expected.

I wanted to retaliate and mention that nobody was there in this closed room before he peeked in for a brief moment. But such ridiculous behavior catches me unawares even before I can wrap my head around what is being said. Words fail to come out of my mouth.

There is no point crying over spilled milk

We have noticed the partial behavior of Germans many times. Most times, they treat us like shit until they see my stepdad and completely change their attitude when they see a German enter the scene. It is impossible to remember or jot down the number of times we have felt differentiated because of our looks.

If we kept a count of these events, we may not be able to live anywhere or face our own selves in the mirror. The bottom line is — white skin is revered in most parts of the world, and dark skin is associated with uncivilized behavior, unruly mannerisms, impoverished lifestyles, and a tendency to live on other people’s hard-earned money.

No, we are not refugees, but we have vacated countries in 15 days flat due to visa issues. No one likes to uproot and start all over again. No one likes to buy and settle a new home, only to break it down again.

People who have fled with children from their countries, leaving their immediate old parents behind with a promise to never enter their nation again, have not done it willingly. To leave your own nation, language, and culture is not easy, and no one except anyone who has gone through the same pain can understand the reasons.

No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark. Warsan Shire

If you feel for me, please use my referral link to subscribe to this wonderful platform and use the power of the ‘pen’ to your benefit. https://shireensinclair.medium.com/membership

I will graciously receive a portion of your subscription fee. Thanks!