Felt like writing this after reading Purba Ray's post here - "A dark cloud over Nina Davuluri's win"
Nina Davuluri is a house hold name now. More than her Miss America 2014 title it's the twitter which made her victory more special. She is the first Indian to be crowned Miss America. Nina tasted the victory just after September 11th which in the history of America , is a sad day. To that matter it is a sad day for all of us. Few ignorant folks imagined that she is an Arab , a terrorist or a member of Al-Qaeeda and got offended by her victory in the beauty pageant . The hate tweets followed like below.
How ever Nina didn't flinch. She says that she’s grown up with so many stereotypes about her culture that she just knew that it was something that she needed to advocate for. Even if she was slammed by tweeple it didn't effect her much. Few nincompoops can't take her title away. She sure made us all proud but the fact which I felt funny is few Indians raising their voices against the ignorant Americans. The same Indians who always stereotype others by what they wear , what they eat or how they look. We get united when we have to fight the foreigners but in our own country we have many stereotypical images strongly imprinted in our brains.
Every one who hails from North East is a chinki. If you are from Saawth you have to be dusky / black with a flat nose coz Dravidians were believed to be short , stout , dark with flat nose where as Aryans who are descendants of the Northies are supposed to be tall , fair and beautiful. I myself have faced this question in college , office , in the neighborhood and every where. Are you a Punjabi? Are you from North ? The only reason is I am fair/ white. When I say that I am from Andhra Pradesh people stare at me due to two reasons. One is my complexion and the other is my fluent Telugu. I am a Muslim and it is a norm to not understand Telugu and speak a broken language as per few ignorant souls who surround me! I am "used to" these kind of questions. If you are from Saawth you are a Madrasi. If you are from North you are mostly a Punjabi. It doesn't matter if you are from Mumbai , Bhubhaneswar or Goa. They all come under North in the customized maps hanging on the hazy walls of many fellow Indians. Their visions are blurred by their ignorance which is a pain in others asses!
There are many more age old beliefs people have which if I discuss here it may become a sensitive topic. One example I can give here is about Indian marriages. Various places have various cultures. Ultimately every one is getting married to start a new life. I was asked many times by many puzzled Indians that if mother in law is tying kalipoth (an ornament worn as part of the wedding ritual) then how will that marriage hold good ? Seriously other than giving a "I pity you" look I can do nothing when I am asked these questions! In a land of diversities it is a very common scenario to come across a bunch of people who believe that their traditions are sensible and everyone else's are weird! I love exploring and understanding others traditions. Different beliefs and rituals never cease to amuse me and my smile broadens when ever borders vanish during marriages. I enjoy attending a inter religious or an inter-regional wedding but I can never say , "Oh ! You do this like that. Will that hold good?" Gosh! I sound XS- Xtra stupid even when I type it here :)
A country where fair is considered as beautiful and dark is considered beautiful only when it is a mole that shines on the fair skin it is astounding to see the way every one supported Nina Davuluri. Had she not won the Miss America title she would have been pitied by fellow aunties and uncles that a little fair complexion would have helped her. I have a strong feeling that she would have faced such comments in her life. Nina Davuluri smashed all the stereotypes and won the title of Miss America 2014 which anyway will not change the attitude of many towards black / dark complexion and the practice of stereotyping a person by his appearance.
Nandita Das is running a "Dark is beautiful" campaign to imbibe sense in to people. We have to wait and see how much change this campaign will bring!
From centuries the fairness cream ads are ruling the TV where a girl uses the cream , becomes fair in ten days and wins the Miss India title. The above campaign is also protesting against the un-fair ads.
I hope people like Nina Davuluri should act in an ad and show it to people that it's not just the complexion which helps one to win the crown. The other skills do matter. 24 year old Nina Davuluri is from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh and I felt glad to see that she is born on April 20. No I am not stereotyping that all Aprilites are witty and charming ;)
Nina's Bollywood fusion dance -
Have a good day
PS: All images are googled. I don't own them
.png)
Very well written post, Afshan. I have faced this so much throughout my life that I have become almost immune to all the mean snarky comments people say these days. Just because my skin color falls in the dark brown category, people have always called me Madrasi even when I am a Bengali by birth. Some people have even gone to the extent to feeling sorry for me coz I will have trouble getting a good husband because of my color. I am not sure as how much the white is good mentality has changed but it is really encouraging to see great actors like Nandita Das come up for the cause.
ReplyDeleteThis is like a scene every where Swarnali , so chill. Ignoring is tough but eventually it gets easy :) If one can guage U by your complexion and list down your origin traits etc just pity them ! and U can always say F O :)
DeleteGood things come to those who dont stoop down to such level
My bestest wishes to u ! Lets see if the campaign brings any teeny weeny difference
Hail stupidity and ignorance. But, thankfully they are just a section of society. As Nina herself mentioned, for every negative tweet she got, there were many congratulatory tweets. All is well that ends well.
ReplyDeleteya thats the best part . some ignorant blokes cant dethrone her :) !
DeleteThanks for reading Janu
Amen to this.. Its really weird and funny that we consider India to be one of the most multi-cultured countries and the world yet we still dont want to blend. Most people would rather categories and these includes educated also. Loved reading this
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog Akum :)
DeleteYa Educated folks make the majority actually which is sad. I am glad U enjoyed my write up !
Thank u
Add to this, all bengalis are fat, short and only eat fish. The other day, one of my colleagues asked "Bengalis won't know how to cook vegetables, right?" And I had to stop ROTFL ing my head off there and then :D...
ReplyDeleteAn extremely balanced and well written article. One thing that has always amused me is that "Dark skin of Indian women is a bane in India but boon in so called "WHITE" countries as natural tan :D "
Hey Pallavi . Thanks for reading. I LMAO at what u said .. as if cooking veg is rocket science. LOL !
Deleteya people ask all the weird doubts. I faced the music many times . Sigh ! Dont kno why god made few so senseless.. Ya true that , Dark skin is a bane jst here :)
Thanks for visitng my blog. Keep reading
Very well written Afshan! I cannot digest the fact people are this ignorant! The way they judge people with his/her complexion! It exits in my very own college! Racists! Dark is beauty! :D And *yays* for Nina! *proud* :D
ReplyDeleteYa Racism is world wide. First Ghar ko saaf karo baad jag ka socho.. so first we have to think about our country. :)
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog Harshini
Keep reading
The complexion-bias in India is just crazy. Do you think Nina would have won a title if she had been a contestant on Miss India? I doubt it (I even saw some tweets from Indians who said that Nina looks like the "before" girl of Fair & Lovely ads! People, get a life!). Even Lakshmi Menon once said in an interview that cos of her complexion, she couldn't find work in India. But when she became famous in the west, the very same Indians started hailing her as the "first Indian supermodel". You cannot judge a person on the basis of color, but a lot of Indians are never gonna get this basic formula into their seasoned "fair is gold; kaala is kouwwa" brains.
ReplyDeleteKudos to Nina! And good post, Afshan!
Miss India then I am not sure really ! ! Ya I remember that Lakshmi Menon thing. Its funny na that they are valued outside but not here. Truly sad !
DeleteTHANKS sireesha for reading and elaboarately commenting :)
welcome to my blog
We have a bunch of stereotypes! As you said either a madarasi or a Punjabi? India is a country made up of many states.I remember Chetan Bhagat's novel 2 States. very well-written Afshan. USA should accept the fact that the 'minorities' will rule and dominate their country. Hwever harsh it may sound.
ReplyDelete:) Thanks for reading Kalpana. Rule or not Indians do have chances there more thna here - thats what I feel
DeleteA lot of hullabaloo happened over this issue when it wasn't even required. Much ado about nothing. She won a pageant because she deserved to win. End of the story. And here we had so many people dissecting the roots of the contestant based on her skin colour. Sad! I wonder how some of these people can be so resentful.
ReplyDeletePeople have nothing to do :P !
DeleteYa it shocks to see thick skinned people around
Thanks for reading Pooja !
May he who has never sinned cast the first stone - an age old wisdom that still holds true for all of us.
ReplyDeleteAnd people to resort to racial stereotyping because it helps them quickly form assumptions about the person. Even at gatherings we are always curious to find out "where the person is originally from".
Thanks for mentioning my article, Afshan :-)
Ya true that people are always curios and they can go to any extent. Thanks for reading and commenting Purba
Deleteand thanks to u for penning that article which motivated me to organise my thoughts :) (Y)
Totally echo the sentiments here, Afshan. It is astonishing that in a land of diversity people act so surprised about the different customs.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what fairness cream companies have to say about Nina's win. Lol, a girl actually won who is not fair. I hope their market falls with a thud and they go bankrupt. I know that is too much to hope for. Sigh.
Or well like I heard somebody say, these fairness cream companies might just take her for their advertisements for the before shots and use photoshop for the after ones. :(
Delete@Shail : Ya I too m wondering if she would be allowed to act in those ads. want to see one sensible ad but with all madness for fairness arnd its tough :( to see them bankrupt
Delete@Swarnali : THATS HORROR ! i am hoping she doesnt take up such ads
I was happy that Nina Davuluri won the crown more so because she hails from Vijaywada (AP) and amazed at the same time to see the twitter reactions. She brushed off the social media comments by stressing more on diversity. She carried herself with dignity and self respect. That set her apart from others.
ReplyDeleteya that vijayawada fact made me happy too Diana ;) ! Twitter reacns were harsh but loved her attitude.
DeleteThanks for reading my post.. good to see ur comment
Guess, there are dumb people and stereotypes everywhere. The reactions on the twitter were weird and shocking. Glad that Nina didnt pay any attention to these negative comments and focused only on the positives.
ReplyDeleteya there is no dearth of them :) :(
DeleteThanks for reading and acknowledging Shilpa
Good piece, good work. All the best to your efforts at correcting prejudices and stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteStereotyping warps our judgement often enough. Nina's win, Nandita's campaign and lovely posts like this one and Purba's post will perhaps change mindsets. Hopefully.
ReplyDeleteyesyes!! Like the Al Qaeda had a round table conference and their next plan to attack the US involves winning the beauty pageant. Such losers some people are!!
ReplyDeleteexcellent post!
In our culture biases are culturally rooted whereas in the west they are more economics and politically inspired. well written.
ReplyDeleteWhen people start talking against you, that means your are growing! Nina's victory was a tight slap on stereotype society....so proud of her! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a Madrasi, though I hail from Kerala. I'm married to a Punjabi, though he is actually from Garhwal. People never ask or acknowledge each other as Indians. How can the country progress when it is split into pieces by its own residents?
ReplyDeleteThe timing couldn't be better. This should send a good positive message to all growing girls of our country, color doesn't matter!
ReplyDeleteYou will encounter dumbshits everywhere.Am glad these ugly things did not discouraged Nina one ounce.After all Dark is beautiful. will be n always...Nice post afshan
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with everything you've said, Afshan!! When I was working in a major IT company, a girl from Delhi (supposedly, a big city, the capital, et al) asked me where I was from. When I said Kerala, she said, "Oh, that's in Madras, right? And the capital is Kochi, no?" This is the level of ignorance of an IT professional from Delhi. Also, numerous people have asked me why I speak Malayalam, because being a Muslim, I'm 'supposed' to speak Urdu. I lived in a hostel in Bangalore while working, as my hubby completed his PG in Mumbai. The warden had a hard time believing I was married since I didn't have a mangalsutra, sindoor or wedding ring. According to her, people without the same traditions as her simply couldn't exist!! We Indians are the kings of stereotypes and then we go all 'equality' on the Americans.
ReplyDeleteHow true. Life is full of stereotypes and much as we like to be above prejudice and stereotyping, we all somehow land up forming judgements based on stereotype. If someone is like XYZ we say how typical and if he is not, we are amazed "Oh you're not XYZ?"
ReplyDeleteAnother unfortunate stereotype I came across a few days back, that too from a supposedly learned, self-proclaimed modernist. In his opinion, everyone who has spent most of his / her life in one of the Central Indian states has to be backward, wife-beating animal who will kill the daughter-in-law if she gives birth to a daughter.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Blogadda pick, Afshan :)
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for picking up this subject. Loved every bit of details, taunts and anger that you held while writing this. I hope every infected mind gets a chance to read this.
ReplyDeleteneoimaginations.blogspot.in
Interesting. I could relate it partly to what I wrote on this few months back! http://bhaskarsplace.blogspot.in/2013/07/north-india-south-india.html
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail on the head!! Congrats for the BlogAdda pick too!
ReplyDelete