Don't Freak
I ordered my "Don't Freak, I'm a Sikh" t-shirt today!
In the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks in London, as South Asian stereotyping and attacks on Hindus and Sikhs started increasing, blogs and sikh community boards have been ripe with discussion.
One faced a similar backlash (though much milder, admittedly) post 9/11. The way I handled it back then was to shrug it off as the taunter's immaturity, or to laugh at their cultural ignorance. British sikhs today have used a similar tongue-in-cheek response: they are wearing t-shirt and carrying backbacks with "Don't freak, I'm a Sikh!" emblazoned on them to fend off the mistaken identity.
Some enterprising indians have started selling these t-shirts in the US as well. To support their case, I ordered my own t-shirt today.
Some people argue that positioning myself as "non-muslim" can have the implied meaning of "don't attack me, attack the real muslims". However, I feel that raising people's awareness through provocation could itself cause them to see beyond the stereotype. They might realize that the generic label "south asian" applies to people with many different faiths, countries, ideologies. And hopefully, they will someday see that the generic label "muslim" also applies to many different faiths, countries, ideologies...
In the aftermath of the 7/7 attacks in London, as South Asian stereotyping and attacks on Hindus and Sikhs started increasing, blogs and sikh community boards have been ripe with discussion.
One faced a similar backlash (though much milder, admittedly) post 9/11. The way I handled it back then was to shrug it off as the taunter's immaturity, or to laugh at their cultural ignorance. British sikhs today have used a similar tongue-in-cheek response: they are wearing t-shirt and carrying backbacks with "Don't freak, I'm a Sikh!" emblazoned on them to fend off the mistaken identity.
Some people argue that positioning myself as "non-muslim" can have the implied meaning of "don't attack me, attack the real muslims". However, I feel that raising people's awareness through provocation could itself cause them to see beyond the stereotype. They might realize that the generic label "south asian" applies to people with many different faiths, countries, ideologies. And hopefully, they will someday see that the generic label "muslim" also applies to many different faiths, countries, ideologies...
wher can i order one????? let me kno plz mrsingh4real@hotmail.co.uk
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Anonymous |
8:24 AM EDT ·