The amount of racism against Indians is ruining my mental health

Obviously Indian, if that wasn’t clear.

All of a sudden, the algorithm on all social media platforms is pushing hatred against Indians on my feed. I literally cannot escape it. I come on Reddit, and even here, under unrelated topics (not even remotely focused on Indians), there are horrible comments about Indians.

The vast majority of comments I see are slurs and direct racial stereotypes. Of course, posted by obvious racists. These are the easiest to ignore, because they’re direct, dumb and meant to be offensive. What gets to me is the surprising amount of people who claim to be “progressives”, commenting on Indians and their caste system, racism, xenophobia, etc.

So apparently we are back to reducing an entire race down to stereotypes, while we pretend to defend other races from being stereotyped. Is there racism in India? Yes. Absolutely. But is there racism only in India? Definitely not. So why are Indians suddenly being classified as universally racist, while we all recognize that there are some white people who are racist and some who are not? It’s mind boggling. And involves serious mental gymnastics.

Throughout my time in America, I have met racist Indians, racist white people and racist folks of other ethnic descent. I have also met amazing Indians, great white folks and people of other ethnic lineage. I would never assume that just because an individual belongs to a certain culture or a race, that it dictates supremacy, racist ideals and the like.

And as far as the caste system goes, the West really needs new history textbooks. It was a significant issue in India. But it was abolished a century ago. Caste discrimination in India is a punishable offense. There are reservations in education, government jobs, etc for people at a disadvantage in society. Most modern Indians grow up without caste playing a significant role in their life. I am certain that this isn’t the case in rural areas (small villages), but those areas do not represent all of India (1.43 BILLION people). It’s really disheartening to see people defend their racism under false concern for an issue they are not even well versed in.

Also, for the people calling India the “rape capital of the world”, US has a significant higher amount of rape cases than India. That’s not to say India is any “better” in this regard. I will never ever defend my country when it comes to its high rape count. But it’s crazy how people in the West point fingers at us, while having almost four times higher numbers.

It has become almost impossible for me to go online and have a good time. Everything has to somehow circle back to Indians, and how horrible they are. I don’t see this narrative being pushed about any other group, even when there’s historical evidence of oppression.

At what point do we realize that racism isn’t specific to a singular culture? It’s universal unfortunately. Racists exist in all parts of the world, in all cultures. All cultures across the world have some sort of historical oppression of their own. But no. Instead of acknowledging that, let’s just all band together against one group of people (colonized for centuries ironically by the same group now calling them “supremacist”) and pretend as if India is the only country full of racists.