#stopxenophobia

I was having a conversation with my whole family my uncles, aunties, cousins, my mom, and my sisters and we were all talking about how much we like India. Growing up, we watched Indian movies, listened to Indian music, and dreamed of visiting one day. The food is amazing too.

My family likes India so much that my mom even gave my older sister an Indian name: Niharika.

So I'm genuinely confused about where all this hate comes from.

I always see comments like "Indians are ugly," and I honestly don't understand it. Indians are some of the most beautiful people I've ever seen, with beautiful features, cultures, traditions, languages, clothing, and history.

Some of my relatives actually live in Kolkata, and a couple of others study in India. Whenever they visit us or call us, they've never described India the way people online do. Yet people constantly bring up things like poverty or bad smells as if those problems only exist there. Every country has poor areas. The USA, the UK, France, (especially France) and many others do too.

Yet when it comes to India, people often act as if one negative image represents the entire country and over a billion people.

What confuses me even more is how many trends people enjoy today have influences from Indian culture. The clean-girl aesthetic, yoga, slicked-back buns, chunky gold jewelry, scarves, boho fashion, and so many other things draw inspiration from different cultures around the world, including Indian culture. (And of course many of these styles like Chunky Gold jewelry, scarves, boho fashion are also inspired by cultures from West and Central Africa such as Mali, Congo, Cabo Verde, Angola, and many others ik.)

So where does all this hostility come from?

That's just my opinion, though. It's not really my business because I'm not Asian, and definitely not Indian. I'm just curious and honestly a little lost. From the outside looking in, it feels strange to see so much negativity directed at a country whose culture has influenced and inspired so many people around the world including me and my family.

I'm genuinely curious and trying to understand.

I wasn't suppose to blog until Friday but the recent happenings have brought me to this point. If you are up to date with current affairs you will know that xenophobic attacks have broken out yet again in South Africa and not only that but a University Of Cape Town student was raped and murdered at a post office a few days ago. This is not the first rape/murder case happening in SA. Infact, according to the South African Police Service 2017/2018 Crime Statistics, 40,035 rape cases were reported and according to another rape statistic finding from 2018, believe it or not, over 40% of all the rapes in South Africa are committed against children. Now, of the 124 526 total rape cases reported in the last few years, children were the victims of a sickening 41% of these cases.

In the same time period, 2 600 children were also murdered. That amounts to 5% of the total murder numbers across the country. This also means that at least 46 children are raped every day and at least two children are murdered every single day in South Africa.

I'm sorry to bore you with those facts but that's just a fraction of the level of utterly heartbreaking situations going on in this world and if you're reading this you should be heart broken too.

I grew up in South Africa, so that's basically my second home. My step mom and siblings are South African so for me I have nothing but love for South Africans. My heart is absolutely broken by what's been going there, its so painful to watch, read and even talk about it. There's so much bloodshed, I am writing this with tears pouring down my face.

The very first time I experienced or found out about xenophobia was in 2008. The principal of my school had called for a fire drill and all the classes were emptied and we headed out to the top field (it was as big as a rugby field). Next thing she asked those of us who were African foreign nationals to make a line and go to her office. I, for one was really scared and when we got to her office she explained to us what was happening and that for our safety we would be allowed to take a few days off from school until the crazy attacks had passed. My father came to pick me up and he assured me that I wouldn't get hurt. He explained in detail what Xenophobia was and I remember a wave of sadness coming over me as we drove home.

Let me make this very clear, this level of behaviour is beyond disgusting. Who the hell do you think you are taking someone else's life or destroying what helps them put food on the table for their family? I absolutely hate this. For a long time, some xenophobic South Africans have said that foreign people came into the country to steal their jobs and take their women...what a load of bullshit! What's stopping you as a South African national from opening up a simple shop that sells groceries or second hand clothes or fix electronics (that's the kind of businesses most foreign nationals run) as a South African you even have an easy advantage to get a loan from a bank, rent out a shop and do something with your fucking life! But no, they'd rather kill and burn down shops belong to foreign people. Disgusting.