Anti-blackness in the south Asian community is becoming a topic of popular discussion. Social media pages are seeing numerous posts ranging on topics including our problematic obsession with fairer skin. Some Pakistani celebrities have taken to their social media accounts to state the fact that they have never endorsed whitening products.
What’s going on?
On May 25th 2020, George Floyd, a 46 year old African American was manhandled by 4 policemen. He was accused of using a counterfeit note and was being arrested for it. A video of a white police officer kneeling on his neck for almost 9 minutes led to his death. The filmed footage quickly became viral; it has since led to protests across America. Police brutality based on racial profiling within the US has long been rampant and it fits into larger trends of institutional racism within America and across the world.
These protests have taken the world by storm across social media and have led to protests within the UK, France and many other countries. Racism is a long-standing issue and has continued to impact African American communities across the world – it can be found within the history of the 13th amendment in the US, redlining and other day-to-day discrimination that African-Americans may undergo in their daily life.