Ayesha Hazarika: Spare us the hashtags and hot takes — only taking action can stop this endless loop of racism

Actor Laurence Fox famously shutdown a woman as she talked about racism
BBC
Ayesha Hazarika3 June 2020
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I’m sick of writing this piece. I’m tired of making the same argument about racism over and over again. But we are stuck in this loop of a black person getting killed or humiliated, followed by a mass outpouring of shock and sorrow, followed by indifference, amnesia and attack.

The death of George Floyd triggered protest, fury and heartbreak but it wasn’t the only incident. Just days earlier in Central Park, New York, a white woman was filmed calling the police and trying to frame an “African American man”, lying that he was being physically aggressive with her. He could have ended up being another death at the hands of the police.

The fact that these events were filmed and are incontrovertible is so important, because had they not been filmed, there would now be a bunch of people disputing whether they had actually happened.

Because if you are a person of colour, not only are you more likely to be subjected to racial abuse these days, you are also more likely to be publicly discredited, labelled a “snowflake”, and accused of having invited the abuse, or even worse, inventing it.

“Picture, or it didn’t happen,” is the inane clapback from ignorant trolls, along with the highly fashionable trope — “stop banging on about it… yawn.”

When a woman of colour talked about racism on Question Time recently, she was famously shut down by actor Laurence Fox who told her she was “boring”.

He went on to be fêted and is now the poster boy for the whole “racism is boring” movement.

The thing is though, it is. For so many, it’s creeping, cyclical, inescapable, inevitable and will blight not only their life, but that of their children and grandchildren. And it’s boring because nothing ever changes. The world wakes up every decade when a black man is murdered by the state. But then we sleepwalk back into business as usual.

I am sick of celebrities and big brands showing what they think are Mandela-like levels of empathy by taking a selfie, or by jumping on the latest social media hashtag — 24 hours of no Insta was their Robben Island — but then never using their power to hire or promote a critical mass of black people.

Until we as a society get the link between the killing of a black man on the street and the fact that all our powerful, influential workplaces which shape society are white — including politics, business, law, finance, academia, the arts, creative industries and, of course, the media — nothing wil change. How hard can it be?

I’m sick of the bogus diversity industry which talks a good game but never delivers results because the executives in power refuse to be forced to change via quotas or positive action.

I don’t mean to be ungrateful, but spare us your hot tears and hot takes. Do something about it. And I’m ever so sorry if you found this boring.

Sari was unravelling with my dignity

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, the star of Mindy Kaling’s Netflix show Never Have I Ever, says her favourite costume on set was a sari as it was “awesome to have an outfit that is so important to Tamil cultures in our mainstream media”.

Saris are beautiful but can be difficult to wear, as I discovered at my brother’s wedding in India.

I thought I looked an absolute vision as people were staring at me.

Turns out it was unravelling, as was my dignity.

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