“Our true nationality is mankind”. No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion. People learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can also be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
The racist attitude to judge people on their caste, creed and colour is still witnessed these days. It is indeed shameful to see racist incidents are present in society.
Why do we fail to understand or remember that there is a lot more beyond the skin colour? The only thing that matters is talent, skill, positive thinking, the attitude of the person.
With social media dominating the world, people get to express their own opinion. But at times, netizens come up with comments which are deemed contrary to the spirit of human values.
We have come across people shaming or trolling every second person for their posts on social media. Be it right or wrong reason, some people still find a reason to troll them. From body shaming to talking about their skin colour, it has been a never-ending story.
Amid coronavirus fears that is spreading fast across the globe, people in India have started hurling abuses and hatred messages on people from the Northeast just because of their looks. The reason is just bizarre. The coronavirus was originated in China and they look like ‘Chinese’.
People hailing from the northeastern states do not only have COVID-19 to worry about but racial remarks too.
In a recent incident, a Manipuri girl from Delhi’s Vijay Nagar area was spat on by a man and after which, he shouted at “Corona” before escaping on his white scooty.
The spread of coronavirus has certainly opened a pandora’s box. A wave of bigotry has engulfed some Indians who believe people hailing from the northeast have something to do with the coronavirus, just because they have Mongoloid features.
The Delhi police registered a case against an anonymous person for his shocking act against the woman. An FIR has also been registered under IPC Section 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) at Mukherjee Nagar police station.
The Chinese community members are also a target of locals who are calling them names. Replying to such infamous racist remarks, a Chinese man in Kolkata wore a t-shit which read: “No I am not Corona Virus. I was born in Kolkata, never been to China.”
Last week, Northeastern students released a video clip where they share their terrible experience of being at the receiving end of racism and abuses just because of their looks.
The students who reside in a small village called Chunni Kalan in Punjab have now gone viral on social media. In the video clip, a girl explains how earlier, people would call them names like “Nepali, Chinki, Chinese” and now the people didn’t hesitate to call them “coronavirus”.
Another boy in the video clip explains patiently that just because they look a little different than the rest of the nation that does not mean they are from China. He went on to add saying that they have nothing to do with the virus infection or our neighbouring country.
Here’s the video:
The girl in the video explains how certain people from the Northeast have been told to vacate their rented houses due to the blatant racism that people are subjecting them to. She also tries to educate everyone by adding that India is a multi-cultural nation with all sorts of people.
They went on to request their viewers to have a better understanding of the Indian map and educate themselves about the states in the Northeast. The viral video received responses from people who have either supported them or shared a similar ordeal in the comments section.
It is really shameful that during this crisis, people have all the time to be racist towards others which is truly unacceptable by any means. Instead of passing infamous remarks on others, people should educate themselves that coronavirus did not come from the Northeastern part of India.