She Must Be Black, no? (Part 2)

Ages ago, my maternal aunt had almost keeled over when I had announced my intention of marrying a Malayalee, and the only words she could utter were, “She must be black, no?”

Now so many years later, the in-house ignoramus cum clown of the Aam Aadmi Party, Kumar Vishwas has been heard saying that “earlier men were comfortable with nurses because they came only from Kerala. They were dark so the men were happy to call them ‘sister’ and no more. Many of these girls wouldn’t even put up their profile photos. Now there are north Indian nurses, absolutely glamorous.”

According to this man, dark women can only be sisters, and not wives or girlfriends, and that only North Indian women are “glamorous”. Even if I allow for the fact that this man was a roadside clown in his earlier avatar, it does not condone such blatant racist and sexist jibes. His website adds insult to injury by proclaiming that this seemingly semi-literate man is “overall, an iconic blend of a Performing Poet, an Author, a Social Communicator and a Motivator.” The website also tells us that he is a youth icon, and, hold your breath, a professor! He is supposed to possess an MA and a PhD, and I for one would definitely like to know from where he obtained these degrees.

Sadly, he is not the only ignoramus in the AAP. Many of us watched in horror the antics of the other man- Somnath Bharti- Delhi’s law minister-calling Ugandan women prostitutes and drug peddlers. This man is supposedly a lawyer, and I am sure the courts where he practised law must be delighted that he is not seen there anymore.

Since Kumar Vishwas and Somnath Bharti have knowingly stooped to the gutters and pointed fingers at other people’s skin colour, looks and motives, may I ask them to look in the mirror themselves? And once they are at it, they could also take a peek inside their minds- however miniscule those might be- to figure out what makes them so sexist, racist and sickening.

Pic credit: The Dark Is Beautiful campaign

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