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Being African in India: 'We are seen as demons'
Al Jazeera ^ | 27 June 2016 | Aletta Andre

Posted on 06/28/2016 3:11:37 AM PDT by Cronos

After a year in India, Zaharaddeen Muhammed, 27, knows enough Hindi to understand what bander means. Monkey.

But it isn't even the daily derogatory comments that make him doubt his decision to swap his university in Nigeria for a two-year master's degree programme in chemistry at Noida International University. Nor is it the questions about personal hygiene, the unsolicited touching of his hair or the endless staring. It is his failure to interact with Indian people on a deeper level.

"People often look at me as if I am different, and hard to be trusted," the tall, softly spoken student explains. "I try to be friendly. I speak Hindi and always laugh. But when I offer biscuits to the neighbours' children, they don't accept."

While he speaks with his Indian classmates at the university, a 75-acre campus accommodating students from more than 20 countries, and some of them also showed up for an international cultural event he helped to organise, none of these encounters lead to friendships.

"I have never been at an Indian person's home, as a friend. No one has visited me," Zaharaddeen says.

.."My landlord is an extremely good person," Zaharaddeen says. Although he has had some bad experiences with Indian people, many of them are good, he stresses. And he doesn't want to generalise.

"That would be a huge mistake. Because it is Indians often generalising about all people from Africa that makes us feel unsafe."

..This was seconded by Ibrahim Djiji Adam, a 25-year-old business student from Libya.

"We are often seen as demons, drug dealers or prostitutes," Ibrahim said.

(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: africa; brazil; brics; china; ibrahimdjijiadam; india; libya; nigeria; racism; religionofpieces; russia; southafrica; zaharaddeenmuhammed
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Racism isn't only in the US....
1 posted on 06/28/2016 3:11:37 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

People of Indian descent have also been the victims of violence and even large-scale ethnic cleansing in Kenya and Uganda.


2 posted on 06/28/2016 3:17:13 AM PDT by untenured
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To: Cronos
Yes. It's everywhere. But the US is the only nation that will pay out money and seek forgiveness. We even elected a halfwit as president to prove this...and the country will suffer for years, due to this naive foolishness.
3 posted on 06/28/2016 3:21:22 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob
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To: Cronos

With a name like muhammed, he probably is a demon.


4 posted on 06/28/2016 3:25:57 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (If Trump loses, America dies)
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To: Cowboy Bob

Australia and Canada do the same and arguably parts of South America are pushed to do the same (Bolivia and Ecuador come to mind)


5 posted on 06/28/2016 3:30:28 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos

I seem to recall there has been much terrorist violence in India. Much of the “discrimination” seen likely has more to do with religion than color, especially when your name is Zaharaddeen Muhammed.


6 posted on 06/28/2016 3:39:57 AM PDT by rlmorel (Orwell described Liberals when he wrote of those who "repudiate morality while laying claim to it.")
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To: Cronos

> Racism isn’t only in the US....
It isn’t racism. He’s a muzzie, thus, a demon. It’s self defense and instinct.


7 posted on 06/28/2016 3:39:57 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (The reason for Gun Control has always been Government's Fear of Rebellion.)
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To: Cronos

In India, it is not called racism, it is the caste system . It is very much entrenched in Indian society.

Blacks in the US never experience true racism as displayed by Indian culture.


8 posted on 06/28/2016 3:44:12 AM PDT by wrench
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To: rlmorel

India is one of the most screwed up hellholes on earth.


9 posted on 06/28/2016 3:45:47 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Cowboy Bob

“Yes. It’s everywhere. But the US is the only nation that will pay out money and seek forgiveness. We even elected a halfwit as president to prove this...and the country will suffer for years, due to this naive foolishness.”

What you say is true enough. But you can see now that electing that half-black half-wit has accrued no benefit at all to this country as far as expiating any historical racism is concerned. Even after going through the deep grief and turmoil of elevating such a total fool solely because of his racial identity, we’re told that racism is “in our DNA” and that our entire societal construct is imbued with “white privilege”. The racial scam artists will never, ever, be satisfied.


10 posted on 06/28/2016 3:47:31 AM PDT by DrPretorius
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To: Cronos

Could be worse. He could be in the US. I hear that’s the most racist place on Earth.


11 posted on 06/28/2016 3:47:47 AM PDT by SunTzuWu
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To: untenured

That’s right; they lost everything (forced out with just the shirts on their backs). I was surprised it was included in “The Last King of Scotland”...


12 posted on 06/28/2016 3:51:01 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Cronos

Al Jazeera playing the color card… how quaint. Zaharaddeen Muhammed is lucky he’s the lone muslim in a sea of others. When any of the others are alone in a sea of muslims, they tend to get more hurt than just their feelings.


13 posted on 06/28/2016 3:51:41 AM PDT by niteowl77
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To: Cronos

#BlackLivesMatter

It’s because he’s a muzzie. They cannot be trusted anywhere.


14 posted on 06/28/2016 4:27:22 AM PDT by boycott (--s)
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To: Cronos

Oh, poor poor baby. I too lived in India (4 years). I got stared at constantly, probably more so than this guy, because my skin color doesn’t blend into the population as well. Kids would tell each other that I must be from Antarctica. Indians stare at everybody who doesn’t look Indian, because foreigners are so rare.

I will also say that, while my skin color did get me invited to plenty of peoples’ homes (lighter skin is seen as “higher caste”), it was my attitude that won people over. I saw blacks in India as well, mostly in Delhi where the embassies are. When they went out “on the economy”, they didn’t interact with other people, and tended to act very insular. They tended to wear poorly-fitted and unfashionable clothing. They mostly spoke their own language, and I didn’t see any of them make much effort to change their ways at all. Given all that, it’s no wonder blacks get stared at over there.

I wonder if this guy attends a mosque there, and how they treat him there?


15 posted on 06/28/2016 4:39:20 AM PDT by Little Pig
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To: Cronos

A very prejudiced people. Not only to other races but amongst themselves by class and geography.


16 posted on 06/28/2016 4:50:10 AM PDT by Snowybear
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To: Cronos

Perhaps the Indians think of how you(pl) treat your own in Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Chicago, Nigeria...


17 posted on 06/28/2016 5:54:28 AM PDT by null and void (Has there ever been a death associated with the Clintons that *wasn't* beneficial to them?)
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To: kearnyirish2

I worked with an ethnic Indian from Uganda. He left with the clothes on his back and the key to his house.

Could be worse, he could have ignored Idi Amin’s “suggestion” that he leave...


18 posted on 06/28/2016 5:59:05 AM PDT by null and void (Has there ever been a death associated with the Clintons that *wasn't* beneficial to them?)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
...Zaharaddeen Muhammed...
IOW, this is just some more consent-manufacturing talking-point false-equivalence nonsense from the left.


19 posted on 06/28/2016 6:17:41 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: Cronos

My mother’s sister married a Black US soldier after WWII where they lived in Austria. My mother told me he was call the schartza teufel (Black Devil) by the locals.


20 posted on 06/28/2016 7:49:03 AM PDT by Harpotoo
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