We love TikTok and the many opportunities it provides for young creators. However, racism towards brown people has become normalized and we want to discuss it. How far is too far for a joke? Where is the limit?
In general, most racism towards Indians is very casual and is perpetuated through jokes. The terms/phrases “Baljeet”, “tech support”, “take away their wifi”, “Ravi from Jessie”, and “cow worshipper” are very common and are usually taken lightly. Jokes are made about 9/11 and the Indian “accent”. We remember seeing a very innocent video of an Indian woman and her son just doing a dance together. The comments were filled with racist comments and insults towards the “sindoor” that the woman wore on her hairline.
Recently, a very patriotic Pakistani woman has taken over “Desi TikTok”. Many Desis joke around about her patriotism, but Non-Desis have found these videos and made very racist TikToks, including jokes about 9/11. As mentioned in a previous post, almost all Muslims do not believe in the same beliefs as those who conducted the unfortunate event. This light hearted joke immediately turned into a dark, and racist trend on TikTok.
We recently also came across a company called Namaslay. It is a clothing company that was started by a South Asian girl. This company sexualizes Indian clothing that is very traditional; it is very inappropriate for people to be wearing it without understanding its significance.
Many Indians try to fight back when they do see racist TikToks, however, there is a fair share of TikTok users that say “I’m Indian and this doesn’t offend me”. Maybe it doesn’t offend you personally, but it is important to note that these jokes should not be carried out. By saying this statement mentioned above, it gives Non-Desis the “OK” to continue to make these jokes. Especially since racism is a rising topic now, action needs to be taken. We are the generation that needs to stand up for ourselves. If you notice any Non-Desi often saying things like this, please speak up and educate them!
“I’m a real ass, rich ass Indian from the South”
If you’re an Indian and you’re active on TikTok, you have most definitely heard this audio. It was maybe stuck in your head for weeks (it was for us). This audio was taken away as quickly as it was introduced.
The whole point of this audio was specifically for South Indians to share their culture. We asked our Non-Desi friends a simple question: “What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of India?”. The most common answer was “Bollywood”. Bollywood is very orientated towards North India, and many people don’t know much about South Indian culture. We get asked if we speak Hindi by Non-Desi individuals, because most people don’t know how many different Indian languages there are. When most people think of India, bhangra; Bollywood movies, songs, and dances; Punjab, naan, and the Taj Mahal are the first thoughts they think of. What about bharatanatyam, dosa, silk saris, and the nature of Tamil Nadu?
In fact, many North Indians don’t know much about South Indian culture either. We did a few polls on our blog story and asked North Indians if they knew popular South Indian actors, and vice versa. From the results, North Indians don’t know much about Tollywood, but South Indians know a lot about Bollywood. Not only was this audio created to educate Non-Desis on South Indian culture, but it was made to educate other Indians as well. Below are the results from the polls.
If you couldn’t tell already, South Indians truly are not appreciated as much. Most people are not aware of the vast cultural difference of South India. So, this audio was created for South Indians to show off their clothing, food, weddings, skin tones, and other cultural aspects- hoping that this content would land on the “for you page” and others would see it and learn about it. But immediately, a new audio was created.
“I’m a real ass, rich ass, b**** from the North”
We understand that there was no bad intention behind this audio, but by using this new audio, it takes away the awareness that was brought to South India. The creator behind this audio apologized and didn’t realize how important this audio was to South Indians. Many other popular Indian creators understood that it is important that South Indian culture is brought light to. However, a few creators were very careless and didn’t care about the significance.
During this popular trend, many people’s true colors were shown. This audio created a virtual war, and we learned that the superiority complex still exists within our generation. It was extremely upsetting to see people fighting over whether North Indians or South Indians are better. It hurt us, especially as South Indians, to see North Indians trash on the South and continue to make fun of us.
If you are a North Indian reading this, take time to learn about South India (we’re pretty cool too)! South Indians, make sure you’re sharing your culture with your North Indian and Non-Desi friends! Although this audio is no longer a trend on TikTok, the fight between the North and South still exists. This fight shouldn’t exist. At the end of the day, we are all Indian and we should all be proud of that. No one is better, no one is worse. No one is prettier, no one is uglier. No one is smarter, no one is dumber.
North=South.
Many brown creators make content about relatable things that every Indian American teen goes through. However, sometimes there is a double standard when it comes to what is considered acceptable or not. For example, when the North vs. South battle was happening, there were a few North Indian people that we saw make videos saying “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s just an audio.” However, these same people have made videos previously saying that they do not tolerate racism towards India. They have an internal superiority complex that would lead them to come to this conclusion. We aren’t saying all North Indians are like this. We want to bring attention to the double standard that some brown tik tokers allow.
Another example of a double standard was a trend that used the wind tunnel filter and a classical Indian song. When you open your mouth, this filter makes your face look funky. For reference we linked a tik tok below of what this filter looks like. People were using this filter with an indian classical song and they may have been laughing at the filter but why use that sound? It almost seems as if people are trying to mock Indians with that trend. There were also brown people defending white creators doing this trend saying once again, “It’s not that deep. They’re just having fun. Can’t you take a joke?” By defending other creators and saying it is okay to participate in these trends sets a double standard and normalizes racism towards South Asians even more.
TikTok dances are the most common content on the app. Typically, one person will make a dance with the hopes that it will become a trend and more people will do it. If this dance does become a trend the creator is given dance credit in the caption or the comments of the TikTok. Karthik Veduruparthi is an 18-year old creator (TikTok handle is Karchill) who made a dance that now has over 17.3 million views and 1.8 million likes. However, he did not get the credit he deserves. Every now and then a situation like this happens on TikTok, where a dance becomes popular and the creator does not get recognized. There are two instances that we will be highlighting where this has happened to brown creators. It might sound petty to others, but when you get credit for what you create, it could lead to bigger opportunities. For example, another TikToker who goes by @yodelinghaley made a viral dance to Doja Cat’s song “Say So”. S Because her dance became so popular, she was invited to be in the music video and Doja Cat did her dance. Although bigger influencers like Noah Beck and Blake Gray did Karchill’s dance and credited him, another TikToker known as Willy Wonka did his dance and did not credit Karchill at the time he posted the video. Willy Wonka did Karchill’s dance on July 26 and it now has 86 million views and over 8.3 million likes. He went on commenting on other user’s videos every time that audio was used, implying that he made the dance. Within the next week or two a few people made videos calling out Willy Wonka on not giving dance credit to Karchill. He then left a comment under one girl’s video and said that he did not know that Karchill made that dance and that he gave him credit in a comment. This was on August 16th. It was too late. The whole world now thinks of Willy Wonka instead of Karchill when they hear that song. This situation was one of the few times barely any racist comments like “tech support” or “ Baljeet” were made towards an Indian and instead, Karchill was actually praised.
Check out Karthik’s dance here!
Another instance when this happened was when TanyaGanga made a remix of Teach Me How to Dougie and Wakhra Swag. Jashanna Walia made a dance for this song and it was picked up by other creators, but she didn’t get the recognition for it. Bigger influencers/celebrities like Lilly Singh and Twitch and his wife Allison Holkerboss did the dance. Lilly Singh did credit Jashanna, but Twitch and Allison Holkerboss gave credit to the wrong people. They gave credit to the three girls whose video of that dance went viral. Their video got about 15 million views and 2.7 million likes, unlike Jashanna’s video that got 174k views and 31.7k likes. Once again, it might sound petty, but giving credit where it is deserved can lead to greater opportunities.
Check out Jashanna’s dance here!
With every joke, there’s a limit, right? We have both noticed that these jokes are often taken too far and many people don’t realize how offensive they actually are. Many Desis feel extremely uncomfortable when Non-Desis try to make other cultural jokes, because to be honest, it comes off as very racist. As mentioned earlier, the patriotic Pakistani woman was a silly joke within the Desi Community, but as soon as Non-Desis started joking around about this woman, the joke became very dark, racist, and uncomfortable. It’s one thing if an Indian kid makes a joke about how their mom accidentally slips a word out in an Indian accent while she is yelling at him/her, but it's completely different if a Non-Desi is mocking the so-called accent.
Our generation is trying our best to end the casual racism against Indians, and all these factors are very important. Desis, it is vital that you tell your friends to stop making these jokes, even if it is a hard and awkward conversation. Not only is it important to educate your friends, but it is important that you also stop making these jokes. The only way we can stop the actions of others is educating.
Come back next week to check out our post on South Indian Underrepresentation!
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