Normalized racism against Indian people
by: Riley Duignan
Racism against Indian and Asian people in the U.S and Western society is extremely prominent; it is an ongoing issue that continues to show its prominence as racism against Indian and Indian-Americans has increased by 115% between 2023 and 2025. In addition, the AAPI equity alliance quotes “The increased scrutiny against the South Asian population seeking employment in America, specifically those of Indian nationality applying for the H-1B visa program, has led to increased political hostility and racism against Indian people in the United States, experts told Newsweek. The uptick in discrimination and bigotry can be tracked across social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X, often attached to the H-1B work-based visa. And overall, mockery of Indian people seems to be more prominent and integrated into American humor intensively. Why is this, and what have we seen that contributes to this?
Though it’s difficult to pinpoint when mockery of Indian populations began to increase in the U.S. and in Western countries, it’s been seen mostly as long as you’ve likely been alive, to say the least. Mockery of Indian people is most common as mocking the Indian English accent in “humorous” circumstances, a prejudice so normalized that it began to be seen portrayed by Western media as a way to poke fun at Indian people.
For example, in the movie “The Party (1968)”, British actor Peter Sellers painted his face brown and used an extremely exaggerated Indian accent to portray the character, Hrundi V. Bakshi, an Indian actor inside the movie. In Correlation, at the 2004 Oscar Awards actor Jim Carrey used an extremely exaggerated Indian accent to reference Hrundi V. Bakshi, the character played by Peter Sellers. He quotes the line “Birdie Num num, Birdie num num, birdie num num” from character Hrundi V Bakshi when he meets a bird and feeds it food from the bowl labeled “Birdy Num Nums”. Almost the whole scene, Sellers repeats, “Birdie Num Nom” additionally saying, “She’s having the birdie num noms”. He says a very limited range of words in his sentences and also portrays Bakshi as a timid, childlike man, alluding to childlike intelligence and personality, but of a grown man. It’s a direct mockery of the English proficiency of Indian populations by relating them to a child who only knows a limited vocabulary. Keep in mind, Sellers still speaks in a heavy “Indian accent” during this encounter. Right after Jim Carrey references this line, he began to also mock a Chinese accent in reference to Cato Fong, PBS describes Cato Fong as “the Chinese manservant (played by Burt Kwouk) of Inspector Clouseau (played by Peter Sellers) in Edwards’ “A Shot in the Dark” (1964)”. (Wang Yuen, Nancy, 24 Aug 2024). To depict Cato Fong, Jim Carrey squinted his eyes and stuck out his lower jaw, beginning to speak in a heavy Chinese accent. It may not seem like a big deal, but people, especially celebrities who are being watched by millions of people only help to normalize consistent mockery of Asian populations using dated stereotypes, especially among white populations.
Brown face and yellow face is not a new concept, it was heavily used to mock Asian populations throughout the 1860s-1960s. But America is not new to this, as blackface was used to mock black people and people of African descent, often seen in media and art throughout the 1840s-1890s. White people would paint their faces jet black to mock the skin color of black Americans, as well as mocking AAVE (African American Vernacular English), and overall stereotyping accents and culture of African Americans and immigrants of African descent within the United States. brown face and yellow face are extremely similar to this, only the mockery of asian populations. Brown face was when white people would paint their skin a dirty brown (not similar or allusive to an actual brown or tanned skin tone) to mock the darker skin tone of South and Southeast Asians. Heavy accents would be used, and mockery of South and Southeast cultures would be dramatized and mocked. Usually, brownface was used to mock Indians, Sri Lankans, Filipinos, Thai people, etc. And yellow face was the racist depiction of East Asian populations, China, Japan, and Korea. White people would paint their faces yellow, mock languages, culture, and use stereotypical accents targeting East Asians. The depiction of East Asians’ skin color as “yellow” began in the early 19th century from “Yellow peril”, a fear among white people of East Asian complexion and culture in the 19th century.
Especially online, anti-Indian rhetoric has increased on different social media platforms. On TikTok, many travel creators posted videos that showed street bustles and street food in numerous cities in India. After this, a lot of xenophobia and racism against Indian people began to become more vocal online, as people started to describe the vendors and food as “dirty” or “unhygienic”. But these comments aren’t just on these videos; they’re on videos showing delicious Indian cuisine or someone’s “photo dump” from India. Even if someone mentions India, racist comments seem to flood in. Some creators have even taken it upon themselves to mock the videos and the vendors themselves, mimicking the average video of a food vendor preparing the food. The videos all have the same premise, making the food preparation look as unhygienic and gross as possible. People use mud in bowls to mock the way the food looks, as well as straight up sticking their feet in the food while pretending to prepare it, as well as portraying themselves as chaotic, manic, and careless as possible. Many comments on these videos are similar, including things like, “Cleaner than Indian food 100%”, “Cleaning is a crime in India”, “Clean Indian street food is almost non-existent”. Rhetoric about Indian food all around the world, whether made in a restaurant or in a home, seems to stir up a large amount of xenophobia and embedded stereotyping due to the bad image given to street food, vendors, and people in general.
It is never okay to stereotype or discriminate against a group of people because of their ethnic background or nationality. It’s important to break down this anti-Indian sentiment that is spreading largely in Western countries. Microaggressions can seem so small, but they are so big and impactful in reality. Understanding what isn’t and is a microaggression and calling out the bad behavior of others is how we can stop such prominent anti-Indian and Anti-Asian sentiments.
sources:
https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-the-yellow-peril-revisited-134115
https://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/aave.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47218511#:~:text=They%20would%20do%20insulting%20impressions,blackface%20scandals%20in%20recent%20years.
Old Hollywood can still affect how Asian Americans are perceived
https://share.google/Pbwo7aXgaeqCf4YB1
https://academic.oup.com/illinois-scholarship-online/book/30247/chapter-abstract/257222134?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://www.history.com/articles/yellowface-whitewashing-in-film-america
https://www.history.com/articles/blackface-history-racism-origins
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8x6NmGe/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8x6U8tx/
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/hate-against-indians-in-us-rose-115-in-just-two-years-as-immigration-debates-intensified/articleshow/128473629.cms
Hate Messages Against Indian Immigrants Surge on US Social Media