South Asians — esp. sanctimonious Indians!—focusing on cultural appropriation as our sole mode of anti-Blackness rather than histories of caste violence, colorism, anti-Blackness & hatred of minorities — you’re shifting focus from what matters. Black liberation. Black lives.

Gandhi was anti-Black and also derailed Dalit struggles and the fight for separate Dalit electorates in India. Want to talk about how problematic it is that he’s still held up as the father of non-violence and peace? We need to go DEEP fam.

Not lost on me that this Bangladeshi family — the Islams—who lost their restaurant in Minneapolis, Gandhi Mahal, named a restaurant to be considered peaceful, Indian, familiar. We often pass as Indian to be legible. This solidarity is a part of our long history in the U.S.

Indian, upper-caste, white adjacent folks who wanna jump on the bandwagon of “Hey look, South Asians in solidarity!” Learn our history, learn YOUR history of oppressing Dalits, Muslims, Christian minorities — and oft darker-skinned South Asians —when you claim us as the same!

Indian-Americans have a role akin to white people for those of us who are of diasporas adjacent to theirs: as Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Paskistani, Nepali ppl we reckon with this hegemony taking up all the space in conversations about race in the U.S. when they don’t even see us

I’ve had many an Indian-American “friend” co-opt the language of brown oppression — with total ignorance / erasure of caste oppression & Islamophobia—as they benefit from whiteness & visibility. Check how you’ve inflicted racism within diaspora first before you assume the lead.

Be wary of any of these people who claim to be the voice of brown people. They’re corny and basic as fuck.