Replying to @916GFX Someone said “Black people are some of the most racist towards Indians” on my anti-Blackness video. Let me show you why this fundamentally misunderstands how racism operates as a system.
RACISM ≠ PREJUDICE. Racism requires systemic power. What we’re dealing with is a transnational apparatus of anti-Blackness that spans continents, industries, and cultures.
THE RECEIPTS:
🔸 $15 billion global skin-lightening industry (growing 4.73% annually)
🔸 40% usage rate across Asia
🔸 50%+ of India’s skincare market = lightening formulations
This isn’t “preference.” This is documented cultural programming rooted in colonial hierarchies that position lightness as proximity to power and darkness as deviation from human worth.
PEER-REVIEWED EVIDENCE shows South Asian Americans continue using these products despite known health risks. Academic studies from Mumbai to multinational markets confirm colorism creates “toxic environments for anyone outside the ideal category.”
BOLLYWOOD’S SYSTEMATIC PROGRAMMING: Decades of blackface, stereotyped accents, Afro wigs for comedy. Dark skin = criminal/comic relief. Light skin = romantic lead/divine character. This isn’t coincidence—it’s curriculum.
THE CONTRADICTION: We worship dark-skinned Krishna while systematically excluding dark-skinned humans. We appropriate Black aesthetics while rejecting Black humanity. Cultural theft + systematic erasure.
CORPORATE ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Even Unilever was forced to drop “Fair” from product names after global pressure exposed colonial beauty standards.
Can a Black person be prejudiced toward an Indian person? Absolutely. But that’s INTERPERSONAL. When South Asian communities create hiring practices, beauty standards, social gatekeeping that systematically devalue Blackness across continents—that’s STRUCTURAL.
Your proximity to whiteness isn’t neutral—it’s conditional power. When you use that power to silence Black pain through “both sides” arguments, you’re not defending truth. You’re protecting fragility.
Anti-South Asian discrimination exists AND that doesn’t negate our responsibility to examine our participation in anti-Black oppression.
I’m not here to make anyone comfortable. I’m here to interrupt the systems we inherited and chose to uphold.
SAVE this if you need language for these conversations. SHARE with someone who needs to understand the difference between interpersonal prejudice and structural racism. COMMENT your thoughts—but come with the same energy you’d bring to a graduate seminar.
This is what accountability looks like. This is what decolonizing our communities requires.
#DecolonizeYourMind #AntiBlackness #StructuralRacism #SouthAsianAccountability #ConsciousnessWork