It’s sad how we don’t want to be called racist and how callously we use the word for others, even though there lies an evident mindset that we as a nation harbour a feeling of division deep in our hearts — not only amongst ourselves on regional lines but even at a global level.
It’s obviously offensive for Pakistanis to be called “brown” or to be more precise, “Pakis”. Nothing could be more offensive to us.
But I could never measure it, in the true sense of the word, until the time I called an American friend of mine “Gora sahib”. Strangely, I didn’t realise that I was doing the same thing —discriminating him because of the colour of his skin that he did not opt for.
Fortunately, he made me realise my mistake. We often assert that as a nation we are, at an international level, frequently the target of a backlash and labelled in a derogatory manner.
However, we fail to accept the fact that at the end of the day we do the same, even if it is an unconscious gesture.
We fail to accept our faults and hardly pay any heed to our public and private behaviour in general. For us what matters is our pride — which must not get hurt. But when it comes to belittling others, we feel little or no remorse.
I believe such behaviour stems from insecurities, which lead to fear.
Eventually, that fear turns into hatred and we, as human beings, stand divided.
We need to pause, reflect and then admit our fault. I feel the world, especially today, could do with even the slightest bit of tolerance.
So, let’s start from here — in Pakistan. After all, we will only be treated the way we treat others.
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.
“Gora Sahib” is not a racist term; Sardonic may be, but definitely not racist. Yes we are racists in many ways, without even realizing that, but the example given in the blog-article is just plain baloney. Sorry, but baloney is the only polite word I could think of for comparing “Paki” with “Gora Sahib”.
Totally disagreed with what you have written.
Agreed with the concept you had in mind.
being called brown… is not racist… its borderline I guess… like yellow for asians… or whatever… “Paki” is a know racist term… like n*****… and that is not the same as calling someone a GORA…
I don’t think Pakistani’s living in Pakistan are offended by the word Paki or Brown. Even if so, calling names is perhaps the nicest of racism related issues – random security checks, mysterious detentions and “Af-Pak” categorizations are more troubling – at least to the real person who lives outside the ET blog world.
The term “Gora” roots back to its origins from the colonial times when Britishers ruled the Indian subcontinent. This is probably where it has been carried forward from and why we still used it. Usually, terms such as “black”, “white” or “brown” are not discriminatory as they are used to identify people with their innate skin colors. I think the concept you’re trying to convey is of “racism” but your explanation of it is not quite justified. Our society holds various biases among it one of which includes the bias against individuals of darker skin tone. And not just this, but there are several others which need to be addressed and put into a discourse.
Gora is not racist, even if it were it is assumed that Gora is superior.
Our racism is very innocent. We may call Indians something but we give them equal respect (consider them equal).
When Goras discriminate us, they consider us not to be human.
To deem a term “gora” being a racist term is as nonsensical as was the incident when Harbhajan was charged on the basis of racism because he called Andrew Symonds a “monkey”.
Racism is basically with what intention you are calling one. The Gora rang here is not considered as something inferior rather its the other way round.
” such behaviour stems from insecurities, which lead to fear ” this sums it up pretty well.
The comment of ‘One More Paki.’ was excellent and underscores the point.
whenever u say something to other u receive the same answer.do you know who say first.
Disagree with your choice of supporting arguments. There are tonnes of ways of proving what you were trying to say. For eg. if a native of makran coast comes to karachi, everything from his skin tone to his tone would be nit-picked. We might not be racist in the literal sense of the word since we don’t have that ethnocentric concept nor do we believe all others are inferior. Hell we’ve got that complex for ourselves. But we discriminate. Immensely. Thus, you can trace this back to the same point about our prejudices.
There are racist comments against foreigners all over the world,particularly in xenophobic Europe. Some of it is caused by the behaviour of Muslim immigrants. In France the locals have a number of bad names for Arabs which cannot be repeated in polite company. The spectacle of rioting unemployed Arab youth in Paris, mostly from North Africa, has caused a backlash there against them. They are often denied entry in clubs and restaurants which is illegal. In Germany, the word “Turk” is itself considered derogatory and there is a lot of hatred against this group which initially went to do work that Germans wouldn’t do. As for Afghanis, I have heard very nasty comments against them in North America where they are often called Assghanis by racists. Unfortunately, we live in a world which despite becoming smaller, is becoming more and more polarized.
You do realize that when we call someone gora, we actually mean foreigner? You know, because back in the good old days, the British were our gora rulers, thus the term stucks? So if you say to your Pakistani-American friend, what would you know, you’re gori that means you’re saying she’s too foreign to understand local matters, or if a girl says, ohhh I wanna marry a gora, she really means she wants to marry a foreigner, or if you tell your friend, stop talking like them goras, that’s not going to work in Pakistan, it means that your friend is trying to apply a Western concept or theory to Pakistani issues which won’t work not because we’re brown but because we’re Asian? I won’t go as far as to call it baloney, because while your examples are horribly wrong, your main idea is right. We are racist, just not the way you’ve described it. Hell, the rishta aunty telling me to put on powder so I look gori is more proof of our racism.
I am SO happy to see someone writing about racism in Pakistan. This is an issue that has bothered me for many years now, since I started looking at race relations in our country more objectively. Racism, both against foreigners and indigenous ethnic groups, is a problem that we need to work on in our society. No Sindhi is better than a Pashtun, and no Punjabi is better than a Balochi. We are all equal, as Pakistanis and as global citizens.
I would love to see a piece on racism against ethnic groups within our country too!
I think this piece is a bit off. Do fair skinned Pashtuns, Kashmiris and North Punjabis look down on Urdu speaking Muhajirs in Karachi because they are darker skinned? What about Sindis, Baluchis and Central Punjabis who are a neutral brown skinned? Do the dark skinned Muhajirs look down upon the even darker Sheedees whose ancestors came from Africa as slaves for the arabs in Sind? I don’t know what this article is trying to explain.
Some bigots call Arabs Sand Niggers and “Hajis” as a bad name in America. Other citizens from Muslim nations have bad names associated with them. Why should we care that some British have derogatopry names for us? After all, they had to demonize us after they took over South Asia from our rule. This is only a logical way of justifying taking over another people. Racism has been around for a long time. Look at how Jews were treated by Europeans for the last 2000 years. Read Shakespear from the 1600s which is only a mild taste!