Why it matters….

In light of the recent harrowing events, I couldn’t help but think of how this issue is still so prevalent in our own community and culture. Despite coming from a Muslim background, where Islam has taught us time and time again, both in the Qur’an and our Hadith, that all humans are equal. Irrespective of your gender and the colour of your skin. 

Despite these teachings, we still as people have serious issues when it comes to race. I have thought long and hard, and wrote and re wrote this piece so many times, as 1) I don’t want to say the wrong thing 2) say something that will be completely taken out of context and picked apart and 3) don’t want to distract from the issue we are looking at today, however, I realised, to not speak up about this, is even worse. This comes from a personal fight, as a British Pakistani woman born and raised in London, I come from parents who like many in our culture, had an arranged marriage. 

I recall my mother telling me during the meeting, she was told by her soon to be in laws, that she was too dark skinned, and not as “beautiful” as my father who is very light skinned and has green eyes. I hear this self-deprecation from her so often, and it angers me to my core, as not only does she have a face that could put Naomi Campbell to shame, but the fact that she inherently believes that true beauty is for the fair skinned, and this kills me. 

Those who say “Asians aren’t racist, we can’t be racist” well, hate to break it to you, you are so damn wrong. 

The issue of colourism is so present in our society, that it’s disgusting. It’s the adverts for skin lightening creams, bleaches, its not putting those who are darker skinned in media, publications or films, its saying things like “oh we are from the North” or “we are better than….” It’s Vital Signs singing “Sanwali saloni si” and trying to move us away from our provincial racism in Pakistan, it’s your aunty telling you “don’t go in the sun, you’ll go ugly”. I know you know what I am talking about. 

In order to really understand the complexity of these issues, we have to take it all the way back to the 17th century when the British Empire began to administer colonies across the globe, in particular Africa, South Asia and the Caribbean. 

The inferiority complex in conjunction with the “white saviour” complex had a huge impact on the colonised for centuries. No one put it more aptly than Edward Said in his ground-breaking book “Orientalism” where he developed the idea of “Orientalism” to define the West’s patronising and often times demeaning representations of the “East”. 

This idea of “the Other” and feeling inferior to the rulers has been propagated time and time again, be it in Napoleon’s writings, or Matisse’s paintings the “Orient collection” or Kiplings writings on India, this exaggeration and distortion of the subjugated people as exotic and uncivilised “savages” left a huge impact on subjugated society’s psyche. 

Where the colonised began to see themselves through the disparaging lens of the rulers this is where the issue of colourisation truly begins, and it has been scarring our people for centuries. We see it all the time, it’s being told your nose is too big, or being praised the more “European” or “white” you look. 

I can’t stop thinking about the issues we have in our own society and culture, as a British Pakistani born and raised in London, the micro issues I have to face on a daily basis becomes mentally exhausting, on top of that, add the fact that you are a woman and Muslim, the list keeps toppling over the already filled glass. 

The perpetual gnawing feeling you have in your gut of always feeling like the Other is even more prevalent today. Riz Ahmed in his new album The Long Goodbye summed it up perfectly, the songs “Where you From “ Can I live” summed up what it really feels like living in a post Brexit Britain, where rising Islamophobia and racism leaves you feeling choked every day. 

As a country we have not progressed at all, be it the disaster that was the Windrush scandal, or having elected a prime minister who openly likened Muslim women to letter boxes (still can’t believe I worked for Boris Johnson… not my finest moment in life) and don’t even get me started on how we are treating BAME key workers during this Covid pandemic. 

It’s the little big things like being asked “but where are you really from?” and being told “wow you don’t look Pakistani” or “I didn’t realise you were Muslim, I thought you were…..” or “you’re the right kind of brown” or being called a coconut by your own people, or being told you act too white, literally the list goes on and on. The issues we have in our own community are so loaded with this historical racism, it’s disappointing. 

We do it all the time, we are so judgemental towards one another, be it lording your caste over others, where you are from in Pakistan, how “fair skinned” you are, being told you are not “Pakistani” enough or not “British” enough, it’s being told you are too Western or you are too backward or “paindu”, it’s glorifying our people who are light skinned and equating beauty to how white you look, I mean, as if it’s not enough that we face issues from the West but we have to war with ourselves too? 

It’s important that we have so many brave artists who are speaking out about this, be it Riz Ahmed, Hasan Minaj, Nikesh Shukla, Jameela Jamil and so many others, but we as a generation need to do more as well. 

It’s not enough saying you are “woke” and posting up hashtags, we need to look inside ourselves first, and take away that innate judgement and labelling that we do in our own society. We need to be kinder to each other, more empathetic to one another, be more outspoken when you feel offended, to call these offensive comments out, be it your friends, work or your family. 

It’s about being mindful before speaking, and listening to each other’s plight and being patient even if you don’t relate or understand. It’s about demanding for better representation, be it in media, finance, or politics. It’s about educating your peers in a manner that feels right to you. Recently I cant stop listening to The Break Up  by Riz Ahmed, as his goosebump, tear inducing chilling words resonate not just me with, but all of us. I’ve listened to it so many times, that I can write the words from memory, and it truly captures how I think we all feel.