Photobucket had recently changed their policy and now all the images from my 650+ blog posts are disabled. I am slowly editing them by moving my images to my own server at AWS, but it will take time. In case there is a particular old post you want to see the images of, kindly drop me a mail at mizohican@gmail.com and I'll keep that at a high priority. Thank you.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Chp 94. Racism I: Chinky - What me insult?

“Oye chinky”
“Abey saala chinky”
“Ching chong bhen ch*d chinky”

These are just some of the few racial slurs people hurl at you everyday when you walk the streets of Delhi or other metros here in India if you happen to have a mongoloid facial character.

You’ll get that treatment everywhere for committing just one simple sin: Being born with “slit eyes”. Ah! What a crime! Completely unforgivable! Society must never accept such a heinous violation of our Indian Constitution. Burn every slit eyed male and female you see so that they don’t dilute the proud Aryan and Dravidian bloodline.

A regular follower of my blog will know that I for one am the last person to be insulted by the word “chinky”. I even received a couple of heated comments from some of my respected readers for using the C word too freely. I humbly apologize again if I had hurt anybody’s sentiments in any way.

I guess one reason why the word doesn’t mean anything to me is because of my upbringing. I’ve always been in a really diverse multi-cultured gang of friends where we used to utter racial slurs, expletives and other profanities freely at each other and none of us were the least bit offended by any of those “insults” as we were the closest of all friends (which doesn’t mean that we utter racial slurs at other people we don’t know. This was strictly only within our gang thingie). We still use those words even today (Read my upcoming post on “Racism: When is it “ok” to use Racial slurs?”).

Yet as my small World started getting bigger and bigger, I soon came to realize that people, a hell lot of other people, people I haven’t even met before, would cuss at me using that racial slur. The difference between my closest friends calling me a chinky and these strangers calling me a chinky is HUGE. The latter does it so in a very derogative, demeaning and offensive manner, all because of my race. Even when you don’t mean to offend anybody, identifying other races with a racial slur meant for that particular race is indeed a racist action (although I personally feel it is ok to use racial slurs with your closest friends as long as they are not offended by it, and as long as it is only between the two of you).

In my three years as a blogger, I have politely requested many bloggers who would generalize and identify us (Northeast people) as “chinkies” on their blog not to do so since the word is a derogatory slur. There are many Indian blogs out there where people would say stuff like “there were many chinky people there”, “he’s a stupid chinky”, “it sounded like a chinky language”, “we decided to eat chinky food”, “the waiter was a chinky guy”, "we watched a chinky movie", “there were two chinkies playing for the opposite team”, "the pub was filled with chinkies, like a bloody invasion" etc [These are all actual entries made by people on their blogs]. I never protest to such statements but rather try to tell them gently that chinky is an offensive slur. Some of them even replied that they didn’t intend to offend anybody. I don’t think “having no intention to offend anybody” gives that person the right to use racial slurs meant for other races. And if they really did not intend to offend anybody, then why use a racial slur in the first place anyway? I find that strange.

Ever since I got my nokia 3650 phone cam, I’ve been clicking away whenever I am with my friends. I have more than 4000 snaps taken from my phone cam stored in my PC now! Below is a collage of some of my closest friends over the past 2 years.



L-R: Amol, Shubha, Izzy, Ankita, Monu, Amra, Sowmya, Sanjeev, Adonica, Tommy, Kini and Amar. Amazing bunch of friends. My greatest treasure. They have what one might say a “typical Indian face”. And people will always associate such faces with India.

Below is another collage of some of my closest Mizo friends taken with the same phone cam over the same period of time.



The difference between this set and the previous set is that, the second group is usually not identified as an Indian face. They are insulted as “chinky” on the streets and even called “Chinese” even though they are as Indian as the people who called them are. They are all working/studying in Bangalore and everyday they have to not only put up with eve-teasing but also try to ignore racial slurs hurled at them from all directions.

The origin of “chinky”.

I used to wonder why other Indians would call us by that name just to have some strange satisfaction. Because “chinky” is actually derived from the racial slur “chink” which was solely in reference to the Chinese (not that I’m saying that’s ok). And by Chinese, I mean a person hailing from China. Not Japan, not Korea, not Thailand. I guess to a narrow minded ego-centric “stereotyper”, every mongoloid person comes from China, and still holds a valid Chinese passport, just because “we all look the same”. Lolz.

The Collins Cobuild English dictionary third Edition makes no mention of Chink in its list of words, while the Oxford dictionary defines Chink (also chinky) as “noun. informal. offensive. A Chinese person.” The
Racial Slur Database even defines “Chink” as:

Asian equivalent of "Nigger" for blacks. Two possible origins: the dictionary definition is "A narrow opening or slit", meaning a reference to their eyes. Or could also refer to the sound of someone working on a railroad, which Chinese immigrants helped build in 1800's America. Technically should only refer to Chinese, but used for all Asians.

The slang Dictionary also defines “Chinky” as:

Noun. 1. A Chinese person. Offensive.
2. A Chinese restaurant or takeaway. Offensive.
3. Chinese food, often a takeaway meal. Offensive.
Adj. Chinese in nature. Offensive.

Yet somewhere down the line, the word “chinky” suddenly transformed into a word meant to insult other Indians from India’s North-east. As if to show us that we are not welcomed to the rest of India, or to remind us everyday that we have a “non-Indian” face and that anybody not having a picture-perfect “typical Indian” facial feature is not accepted as an Indian.

The other day, I was watching one of my favorite comedy sitcoms “Scrubs” on StarWorld. Ofcourse I’ve already watched the complete season from 1 to 5 thanks to piracy (Forgive me for borrowing pirated DVDs from my friends), but that particular night I got no better things to do so I decided to watch the one running on StarWorld again. One incident deeply struck me.

In the original Scrubs episode that I’ve watched earlier, the script goes like this. Janitor asked JD to help him with his crossword puzzle. Janitor gave the clue “A dash in the armour, five letter word, used to describe a weakness of a particular thing”. JD thought for a moment and then suddenly exclaimed “Yes I know that one! It’s a chink! A chink!” And then suddenly Dr.Wang the Chinese resident doctor appeared out of nowhere, stared at him and said in much disgust “I knew it, it was you!” and after that, every Chinese doctor and intern were out to get JD’s blood. Ofcourse the joke here was, Janitor who was always trying to make JD’s life miserable at the hospital, managed to do it once again by tricking him into saying that word so that the entire Chinese community would deal with him.

The funny thing here was, in the same episode aired by StarWorld that night here in India, the part where JD exclaimed “A Chink!” had been completely censored.

I’m sure it was not the Indian Censor Board that censored that particular part, after all, when have they ever given a shit about us. Some people from the Northeast found that popular Amir Khan’s Coca cola Ad “thande ke tadka” offensive because of the way he imitated the Mongoloid Race, especially after Northeast students all over India immediately became the butt of crude comments such as “chinky ke phadka” thanks to Coke and Amir Khan. I personally don’t find anything wrong in that Ad but there’s this other Ad by a dog food company called Pedigree, where the dog featured in that Ad is ostentatiously called “chinky”. And the people in that Ad would throw a bone or a ball and proudly say “chinky, go fetch” and laugh their hearts out. And that Ad appeared like a hundred times on National Television (even till now). I’m sure members of the Censor Board too must have had a hearty laugh at the dog being called “chinky”. (I don’t know anyone who would name their dog “chinky” and even if you do, would you use that particular dog’s name of all the dog names in the World and show it on TV, especially when that name is a racial slur? I certainly wouldn’t.)

And then there is a certain bi-weekly business magazine... which is best left unnamed. When I was in IIMB, they gave a free copy to every student (to increase market share I guess) but one article in it really made my stomach churn. I think it was about China’s foreign policy or something like that. There was a picture of the Chinese Premier in the article and above, in bold letters was the headline “There’s a CHINK in the armour!” I found that extremely tacky and unpalatable, especially for such a renowned National business magazine.

(Speaking of ethnic slur, Beard and Cerf, in “
The Official Politically Correct Handbook”, p. 123, report that an administrator at the University of California at Santa Cruz campaigned for the banning of such phrases as "a chink in his armor" and "a nip in the air", because "chink" and "nip" are derogatory terms for a "Chinese person" and a "Japanese person" respectively) I never bought another copy of that mag again after that. But the fact remains, that whoever censored that part in Scrubs, did it so as not to hurt the sentiments of the Chinese and “slit-eyed” population.

India still has a long way to go in terms of educating its masses that there are also people of mongoloid lineaments included in what constitutes an Indian. But until that is done, India’s so called “chinkies” will continued to be stared at, goggled at and even jeered at by the vast majority that simply do not understand us.

Many renowned writers have boldly stated that all of us are racists, atleast a little bit. I believe in this theory as racial bias has always been ingrained within many of our cultures. One of the main (if not the only) cause of racism is stereotyping. And many notable psychologists have proved that all of us stereotype. John Dovidio, a professor of psychology said that even those of us who believe that we don’t stereotype, actually do. Various tests have proved this. According to psychologist Joshua Correll, the more a test-taker tries to not appear biased, the more bias shows up in the test results. John Stossel and Kristina Kendall in their article “The psychology of stereotypes” said that it is normal for people to stereotype other people, and that the biases in our head are harmful only if we act on them.

The only solution to this gross stereotyping (misunderstanding) is Education. School children should be made more aware of India’s Northeast at an early stage. One paragraph mentioning briefly about the Northeast in our geography text books will not do. So many people don’t even know the seven sister States of India (eight including Sikkim. Bro Sonam, you owe me a treat for saying that ), and some of those who do know a bit about the existence of these States, think people from these places are all cannibals, a hilly jungle occupied by tribals ready to bite off your knockers anytime. Some people even think that every mongoloid person walking around in India is a Nepali. Yes, I know learning about Rana Pratap Singh or Rani of Jhansi is important in our Indian history syllabus. But I feel learning about India’s North east is also equally important, if not more. Because these children, the future of tomorrow’s World, are going to grow up where they will never meet Rana Pratap Singh again but most definitely will meet a person from India’s North east.

The most dangerous consequence all these can have is that, a victim of racism usually turns out to be a racist himself. Check my upcoming post on this topic. Somebody who’s continuously a victim of racial discrimination will only end up stereotyping the “other” Race. Anything that befalls him, he will blame it on racism: restaurant bill taking a long time to arrive, impolite dickhead cutting the queue and standing infront of him, beaten up by a bunch of drunk rowdies, being flunked by a teacher at college, referee showing him a red card during a match, not being selected for a job at an interview etc. he will blame all that on racism. Such incidents will only heighten the insecurity of the minority group. It will soon become a case of “us” versus “them” (it already has, to a certain extent). This is not good, not good at all. Some of my Mizo friends are completely skeptical of every North Indians they come across especially Delhiites just because they've been tormented everyday by a section of people from there. In Kolkata, most Mizos prefer to take cabs driven only by Sardarjis because other “races” “always cheat them”. Many Northeastern students all over India hardly mix with their classmates from other parts of India because they feel they are insulted behind their back by everybody around them. By stereotyping others, we are just becoming as bad as those who stereotype us. I know, easier said than done you may say. But for a moment, just close your eyes and think. Would you rather take out your gun and shoot back, or try to remove all the guns that exist?

Eventually in the end, all of us do stereotype. We are humans and it is only natural of us to do that. What counts here is that we must always keep such biases to our heads and not act upon them. Remember, the more racists we get, the more difficult we are going to make this World for our children.

Peace.

95 comments:

MockingBird said...

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
Great post as usual.
And you struck a deep chord when you said “a victim of racism usually turns out to be a racist himself”. I remember you making a similar comment in one of my earlier posts. Also reminded me of that Academy award winning film, Crash. Really great post. My salute to you, Illusionaire!

Pixie said...

Very well written post as usual. Its sad how widespread this habit of using the word "chinkies" is even though most people know its a racial slur...
also, thank you for the compliment for my post!! :)
means a lot for a person who has just started writing!!

Mizohican said...

Dear mockingbird, thanx darling. A respect from you is like a marriage proposal except without the ring...and the honeymoon plans...and the physical meeting :-D What I mean to say is, it is indeed an honour.

Yup a victim usually becomes a victimizer. We must be very careful with this and alwasy try to have a browdminded view about anything the befalls us. By the way, I love your post on this same topic too.

Mizohican said...

you're welcome anytime whatever!. It's a sad world, but well, atleast slowly people are starting to be more and more aware of this racial slur, so in a way it's good I guess.

benjamin rualthanzauva said...

Masterji, great post. Thanks. I didn't know Chinky is the nigger version, though I never liked to use it myself or it being used on me.

MockingBird said...

Illusionaire, thanks a lot for letting us reproduce your post in MIDWEEK.
You're the best!! :D

Jerusha said...

I bow before you mister..as much as I hate to!:p
Fantastic post! I'm going to have to make everyone read this...well at least everyone I know.

claytonia vices said...

I remember watching Oprah with the cast of Crash debating the use of the word 'Ni***r' and 'Nigga' and she felt that when there is so much venom in one word, even saying 'nigga brada' isn't very alright coz it adds to the confusion of when it is alright and when it isn't...

As I read this post, I kept thinking of all the people I know, to whom I want to forward this post!

We Indians can be can be extremely racist sometimes! I still know people who use the word 'ch***' with abandon. >:-(

I am forwarding this post to as many people I can...

Anonymous said...

sonam: good post kima...columnist stuff!
have been at the recieving end of the slur for the years i was in bangalore...i would blame this on their ignorance and their pathetic geography..i mean some of the people dont even know about the diversity of our country..
call me an escapist, but one of the reasons why i choose to work here is becasue i am not the only "chinky" here...

Anonymous said...

sonam: yeah bro!...i read about the treat..am coming to India..year end..will drop by mumbai..lets share an old monk..if u must know, i drink for real now!

Mizohican said...

@ Sundancer & Claytonia Vices:

Thanx a lot guys for forwarding my article to your friends. And I am not just saying this because of the extra traffic I might be getting ... hehehe... It's nice to know that more people will be aware chinky is an offensive slur...

And Claytonia, even I watched that same episode of Oprah you mentioned. Ludacris was "criticized" by the people for using the N word in his rap songs, like most rap artists do.

This is a very interesting topic, highly debatable, about the fact whether racial slurs is ok to be used by people of that same race or not. Many african-american said that this will only encourage more people from outside the race to use those slurs, while others believe it's ok to use slurs meant for the race the belong to.

Mizohican said...

@ benji: Thanx for posting this at misual.com, although I didn't want to post it here as a paragraph is repeated from the previous article "Inter-racial relationship" I wrote for that website.

@ mocking-bird: Anytime dear. It is an honour to have my article published at your magazine.

@ Sonam: Haha bro, you a serious drinker now? lolz. One glass of Old Monk and you'll be flat on your back. hyuk hyuk hyuk. And lolz at your comment about being an "escapist". I wouldn't call you an "escapist" for trying to get away from racial slurs, but I would definitely call you an "escapist" for all those nights you climbed up and down the windows of a certain Spanish exchange student in the middle of the night.... lolzzzzzz......

Anonymous said...

man, this is good stuff...

I live in delhi and i have to face this hurled at me every single day and the only way i deal with it is to grow thicker skin!!!!...

joy

Anonymous said...

And sometines throw back the choicest cuss words at them...but it still doesn't really make u feel any better....

joy

Anonymous said...

Great stuff illusionaire! excellent piece you wrote.

I am a punjabi (hence not a "chinky" as u pointed out). u mentioned abt identification, n I think that is a very serious point u made. I've seen many women from India's North East, and they are very sweet, charming n attractive. I think this is one reason why we never had (and never will have) Miss India from India's North East (as you have said: "chinky") because it is not the face that is identifiable as Indian, especially since that person is going to represent India in Miss World or Miss Universe pageants. What's ur opinion on this?

-Neel

Anonymous said...

I came a across a similar site about how racist we Indians are. Thought it might interest you, although it's quite old.

http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00006258&channel=chaathouse

A very good discussion on racist us.

Anonymous said...

Sonam: Dude Neel, the reason why you feel that NE girls dont have an "Indian" face is becasue the rest of India has never accepted NE as a part of India...
During my school days, i read about the Rajputs, the mUghals, Indian independece, even the Khalistan movenement, but if i ask you whats the capital of Arunachal Pradesh, would you answer me correctly?...yeah google it and you may find the answer.
hence its not that we are not as Indian as the rest, its just that the rest of India has turned a blind eye!
So if you measure Indianness by the way you look, i think its a very poor measure...
Measure us by our actions...North East people didnt assasinate Prime Ministers of India, We didnt burn trains, We didnt get involved in hawala rackets and neither do we pinch a girl's bottoms in Delhi markets..
Jai Hind!

Mizohican said...

@ sonam: lolz bro. Well, I don't think Neel was calling us as non-Indians just because we do not have a typical "Indian face", but was rather just echoing what I have said earlier by asking whether this was the reason why we never had Miss India from the Northeast. Relax bro, calm down. Take a deep breath... hooof hooof hoooof :-D

By the way, how's the new girlfren coming along? Are you bringing her back to India?



@ anonymous: Thanx for that link my friend. That was a good post, with many equally good comments. Thanx again.

Mizohican said...

@ joykim: lolz wish I could see your face when you’re reacting to people calling you a chinky. It must be damn cute :-)

Cussing back at them won’t change anything dear. It’s not like they are going to stop because of that. Infact it will only give them more pleasure. Ignoring it is the best solution. I once walked up to a group of people calling me a chinky and I just stood right infront of them staring at them directly. Those guys just stood in silence trying to avoid eye contact with me. And then I walked away after shaking my head and making a “tcchh tcchh tcchh” sound. I never said anything but the message I wanted to send was well received.

Ofcourse I wouldn’t recommend anybody to do this when they are in a dark alley or an anti-social neighborhood. That day I just happened to be in a quite public place, with many elderly people walking around here and there. So I knew that these people wouldn’t do anything to make a scene.

By the way, off-topic: Do something about our Orkut community “Kim United”. Spice it up and invite other Kims! It’s getting a bit awkward for me to be alone in that community only with you, who unfortunately for me, is in a committed relationship. :-)

Mizohican said...

@ Neel: Man, I’ve never EVER thought about that! Well, I guess that’s quite a sensitive topic. I think this can be related to what I have stated earlier, that a continuous victim of racism will eventually blame everything on racism.

However, looking at it from your view, well, there are indeed many people who would prefer somebody from their own community to win this coveted laurel. India is an extremely diverse country, and although ethno-centrism has been associated with selfishness, it exists in every community. It is there within your Punjabi community just as it is there within my Mizo community. You may not be ethnocentric, and I may not be ethnocentric, but this doesn’t mean people from both our communities are not ethnocentric. Ethnocentrism exists everywhere and this gives rise to cultural relativism. Hence people always think of what’s best for their respective communities, and how to edge over other communities.

All of us proudly claim “India First”, but deep inside, many of us treat our respective community with a higher priority than India as a whole. Sometimes we even dampen the progress of our Country because we tried to let our community stand ahead of other communities.

I think one reason why there will never be a Miss India from the Northeast (are you sure there hasn’t even been one? Damn!) is not just because of the facial feature difference but also the vast cultural difference. Like many people believe the salwaar kameeze is a part of our Indian culture and a good Indian woman should always wear it. However, the salwaar kameeze has never been a part of the culture of many NE States, and when a NE woman does not wear salwaar kameeze, she is labeled as un-Indian, unpatriotic and rebelling against the Indian Union. What most people consider as the culture and tradition of India, are actually the culture and tradition of the vast majority group of communities. The minority groups are disregarded in this matter. Hence, most Indians would want to see a woman following the “cultural and traditional values of India” to represent “India and the stereotype Indian woman” in a global Miss World/Universe competition, and definitely not somebody who “looks Chinese”, “doesn’t speak Hindi”, “doesn’t eat much of rotis and chapattis”, “doesn’t wear salwaars or saris”, “doesn’t believe in arranged marriage” etc, as all these questions can come up during the Question round. And this is very important because what she says during the Question round infront of the entire World reflects upon all the women of India as she is representing the Country.

I think these are the reasons why we’ll never have a mongoloid Miss India from the Northeast, and I don’t think it’s not just because the face is not identified as an Indian. And ofcourse there are many Indians who do not find women from the Northeast attractive or appealing (Not everybody’s like you Neel). Anyway these are just my personal opinions and comments from others are welcome as usual.

Anonymous said...

thanx a lot dude. i hope ur fren Sonam didnot misunderstand what i was saying. Actually me n my frens has talked abt this before too n thats why i asked. ur reply was very good. waiting for ur other issues.

-Neel

Monu said...

Kim!
The posts keep getting longer and longer eh :)
Nice read though. Call sometime dawg.

Anonymous said...

Very well compiled post... Good writing my Fellow Indian.. :) Well.. I totally agree with Kim in this matter. The usage of word "chinky" is completly derogatory. For the simple reason as he has rightly put across.. wot it means in some of the best dictionaries available.

However.. I wud like to mention that most people wud not know meaning of the word and hence they use it freely following others. Including some people acclaimed as educated/literate. In my opinion a higher % wud not even know it is derogatory to use this word. They just use the word to identify a group of people, since they have heard someone else using the word for same purpose.

I spend my childhood in a different country before coming to Blore to do my university. There were many chinese looking people living there from different far eastern countries. I never came across the usage of word "Chinky" over there. It was first time for me to find people using it in Bangalore. Later.. I learned it is a common usage among the people in every Indian city.

To my surprise even some of the northeast people used the word to describe themselves...

Lemme put across an incident, which happened recently. It happened in a foreign country. I was attending a business meeting in an Indian based company's foreign office. The regional HR manager for the company is from Northern India. My meeting was supposed to be with her. We were waiting for her in the conference room. As soon as she entered the room.. She introduced herself and asked me.. r u a south Indian (bfre even asking my name or any other details). I was a bit doubtful, Wot answer shud I give this Regional INHUMAN Human Asset Manager. Anyhow, I answered immediately, I am an Indian from the south of India and passed a lite grin... She got the message.

In short.. I am just trying to say.. We cud make such attempts among the ignorant educated/literate people... Not to make them aware.. Just to caution them politely.. Such persistent and polite resistance cud bring some changes among educated or literate people who are ignorant, which may spread to different levels of the society. There are no QUICK FIXes to this matter.

Anonymous said...

A derogatory term for a Chinese person, also Chinkey, Chinkie, Chinky. The term is thought to have come from a mispronunciation of the Chinese word Chung-Kuo, meaning China.
1879 W. J. BARRY Up & Down vii. 51 We..had a good passage to Hong-Kong. When we arrived, the first Chinese war with Britain had broken out, and there was every appearance of plenty of fun to be shortly had with the Chinkies.
1882 A. J. BOYD Old Colonials 233 The pleasant traits of character in our colonialized ‘Chinkie’, as he is vulgarly termed.
1899 BOXALL Austral. Bushrangers 241 They rode straight to the Chinese camp at Wombat, ‘to give the Chinkies a lesson’.
1901 Munsey's Mag. XXIV. 536 The leader suggested the ‘chink’, and to the one Chinese laundry..the little band departed.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 26 Sept. 6/1 The farmers getting a reward of £1 for each ‘Chinkey’ they turn over to the police.
1910 W. M. RAINE B. O'Connor iv. 41 Chinks, greasers, and several other kinds of citizens driftin' that way.
1919 War Slang in Athenæum 8 Aug. 727/2 ‘Chinks’ for Chinese labourers.
1922 J. S. FLETCHER Ravensdene Court xiv. 173 ‘A Chink?’ ‘He means a Chinaman,’ I said.
1923 D. H. LAWRENCE Kangaroo xvi. 351 Brother Brown and Chinky and all the rest: the Indians in India, the niggers in the Transvaal.
1926 Chambers's Jrnl. 552/1 The towns, small or large, possessed from one to hundreds of ‘Chink’ laundries.
1932 J. DOS PASSOS 1919 17 The Barman was a broadfaced Chink.
1936 ‘R. HYDE’ Passport to Hell 229 The little Chinks hated the Boche like hell.
1945 [see CHOW-CHOW n. 3].
1959 N. MAILER Advts. for Myself (1961) 353 A certain Chinkie.
1969 J. DURACK in Coast to Coast 1967-8 99 We used to have a couple staying with us. Chinks, they were, medical students.

Almostunreal said...

[off topic] I wonder why your blog is never displayed properly in Mozilla, the whole page seems to move towards left. Thoug I use IE most of the time, thr are times when I use Mozilla.

Anyway, great post though had to read it between work. As far as I am concerned, most of the 'chinky users' are the 'wannabes', khow what I mean?. The high class will not use such words..just the wannabes.

Of course, there were times when my own colleagues would jokingly call me 'chinky' and unaware to them there's an eruption inside me....and then I'd tell them to never ever, ever ever use that word in front of me and to my relief that shut them up.

Chuan i word verification hi a va han sei thei deh duah bik ve :(, nin om

Anonymous said...

I do agree with u and I was someone who used to stop my frens from using that word, while I did my university in Blore. Anyhow... I like the way u have put it across.. U have put the message across in a very mild tone.. the message is clearly passed with no offence... I like it...

One of the reasons I cont... reading the post was.. I was preparing a doc related to NE as well as the states with unrest in India. That doc maynot be all that positive for someone from NE.. unless he/she is a visionary or a person who understand the current affairs of Indian politics and economy.

I have been to ur place, Aizawl. I have had the opportunity to be with some senior people from ur state. One of the leaders who participated in the MNF movement. I happened to spend quite a lot of time with them discussing various issues related to this. Not just this word "chinkie"
:). About several other aspects..

tribalsuperstar said...

Long time. hope everything's fine your side kim. Could'nt get the time to surf blogs. Am a little jet-legged with things for now but, I really like this post or rather the message it delivers. Again I have already rated this as one which deserves publication.

By the way, haha ... makes me wonder ..... why only pictures of mizo girls ..... A mizo matrimonial Consultant would surely fit your identity if ever you come across with any deserted banana boat fustrated unmarried old guys ...lolz ... sure you havent thought about it ????.... :P

suggestion: You should collect the resumes of the girls as well... :D :P hehe

Kidding... Nice to see you and your blog well and fine ...

Mizohican said...

Damn this is the worst time for my comp to crash... I don't think I will be coming online for quite a long time, but I really appreciate all the comments you guys have left.

@ Tribalsuperstar: Lolz John. I decided to put up only the faces of Mizo girls because I wanted to show that they had to deal with not only eve-teasing but racial abuses as well. If you are really interested in seeing more Mizo guys pics (incase you wanna experiment n stuff, u know *GRIN*) feel free to contact me in private. But do take your girlfren's permission first. hahaha. How was ur trip bro?

@ neel: you're welcome anytime Neel. I'm glad I could help.

@ almost unreal: I don't know. Even I face the problem. Some of my blogs are displayed properly on mozilla while others aren't. And every post of mine use the same template setting with [div align = center] command, so I am clueless as to why some posts are aligned on the left.

Mizohican said...

@ monu: dude! long story. Mail me ur mail id. I will tell u what's going on in private. As of now, I am living without a phone so you won't be able to reach me :-(

@ appu: Thanx for the comment appu. I totally understand what u mean. I have many close tam frens. Our group of frens consist of mainly mallus and tams during college days. We would call out the tams in our group of frens as pandis and no insult was take. But if anybody from outside our gang ever call our tam frens as pandis, we would be the first one to lunge at them. I guess, as stated above, among a close group of frens, racial slurs arent taken as offensive, but if someone from outside the circle utters that word, it is world war 3. There will always be a racial divide. What counts in the friendship people have in an inter-cultural group.

@ anonymous:
"To my surprise even some of the northeast people used the word to describe themselves..."

I guess this brings out the main topic for my next post, which I unfortunately cannot update due to an upcoming exam and also a conked out computer that simply refuses to start up no matter how much I cuddle it.

Even the N word is a derogatory term but african american themselves (especially rappers) use it. However many people from that community too do not like these same people to use it.

I guess to many people, it is ok to use a racial slur meant for your own race, hence thats why many people from the north-east too use the word "chinky". Its something like this: Racial slurs are meant to insult a person purely because of his race. And if someone from that same race use it, then it is not considered insulting because, after all, he belongs to that same race. I guess this is a pretty much debatable topic though, just like how many african americans resent other african americans from using the N word.

Mizohican said...

damn! so many typos I made!!!! Plz understand! My beloved comp crashed so my World is a total mess.

tribalsuperstar said...

haha ... Was just kidding ... Yep the TRIP was awesome !! seriously.
got a couple of clips on my blog, you can come and view it. oh! GF .. lolz ... she's on a trip too. But .. its an Andhra Villa trip (making documentaries, totally different from mine... lolz

Mizohican said...

@ elysia: thanz dear. u know ur always welcomed here. hope u have a great diwali, and don't forget about the treat! hehe.

Racial abuses are always there in India. Some people just assume that just because so many people racially abuses other people, it is ok to do so. That is a very big misconception, a really sad state of affairs.

@ tribalsuperstar: Yup, I'll definitely check out ur blog and the pics. Man I really envy you. But these days I don't come online at all coz my comp crashed... that really sux.

Anonymous said...

Words bring me down.But "chinky" is one of the words that does not hurt me.I do not give a damn when im called a chinky because i know that people who use the word are ignoramuses.Instead of fuming i just say"father forgive them,an hre lo ani".

Anonymous said...

Words bring me down.But "chinky" is one of the words that do not hurt me.I do not give a damn when im called a chinky because i know that people who use the word are ignoramuses.Instead of fuming i just say"father forgive them,an hre lo ani". (vai in min hmuhsit loh nan -correction)

Diddley said...

After a long time, I finally took time to read your very long post (PHEW!)….thank god for the patience… it was worth it. Talk about being called “Chinky”, the worst one I ever came across was on a trip to goa, me and my friends were walking down the shop’s near bagah beach and there were this group of “I guess almost educated guys” who had the nerve to call us “SAMURAI” OUCH!! We were like please “chinky” would still be a better term!!

It’s great to know someone finally had the guts to bring it out in the open and write about it. I’ve been so used to being called “Chinky”, I’ve almost forgotten to have the decency of being angry hehe!!!

Great Post!!

Mizohican said...

@ anonymous: "vai in min hmuhsit loh nan -correction" lolz!!!! my dear, sawi tawp chuan, i thil ziah dangah pawh khian tlem grammatical mistake chu a la awm tho a sin. hehehehe. a ho lutuk tiang ang mai mai, correct pawh a ngai hlei nem. Sap tawng diklo pui pui in comment mi in an ziak hnem tawh lutuk. Kan sawi tum ber kan deliver theih phawt chuan, eng ang mistake siam te chu a pawi lo reng reng :-)

@ diddley: Thankyou diddley. Glad ur back safely from ur trip. Or were u waiting for John to comment first? lolz. thanx for the comment dear. But my comp is busted right now so an update will take a long time... :-(

Diddley said...

yups good to be back safe and alive.. :D made a narrow escape from the community living on the border of ya state who sacrifice humans during diwali...phew!!

haha.... if i knew i was in KIMA's blog posting marathon race with john...am sure would have made my comments much earlier than him hahahahaaaaaaa :P

Mizohican said...

haha glad ur safe. nice. and no its no competition, but u sounded chicken to not comment until ur boyfren had commented. simply as that. bleh :-P

Kits said...

Great stuff man.Loved yur post..so true and wot is said I find myself saying that too. But somehow don't mean it in an offensive manner...if u knw wot i mean..

Anonymous said...

Believe me brother it ain't worse than the 'vai hou's the so called outsiders have to hear back in ur place

Diddley said...

ouch! u called me 'chicken'..dats a very serious racial slur in my personal dictionary :P muahhahaha man

Mizohican said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Mizohican said...

@ kits: Thanx for the comment. I agree, sometimes we have used many racial slurs solely bcoz we never intended to insult anybody. We must be really careful with what we say, although its very difficult under some circumstances.

@ diddley: lolz. calling u chicken is not a racial slur. It is a species slur. hahaha.

Mizohican said...

@ Mac: I see you are familiar with Mizoram. We had this discussion before too at other prominent Mizo websites. Is the usuage of "Vai" a racial slur or not? If we look at the origin of this word, the word "vai" came into being when Mizo tribes first came in contact with people who "didnt look like us". So those days, to describe such people, the word "vai" was coined. However this is not a standard expression and some Mizos claim that all those who are non-Mizos are vais, while others say, other mongoloid northeastern indians are not vais and vais should only refer to those from "the plains" etc. It was just a word to describe other people and this got embedded somehow in our lingo.

Chinky is a global racial slur. Vai is just a Mizo word used by Mizos to describe non-Mizos, just like how many people also use "goras" and "firangs" to describe foreigners (especially the white skinned ones). For example, in Singapore, some people from the Indian community don't use the racial slur "chinky" to describe the people there because they are offended by it. Hence they use the hindi word "chappa" or "chappu" to describe the mongoloid Singaporeans. Now tell me isn't that a racial abuse nevertheless?

I was only refering to the usage of the word chinky, which is globally accepted as a racial slur, and was not talking about what words certain communities use in their own language which may be derogatory or not.

I really appreciate ur comment and hope you continue sharing your opinion on this perspective bro. You've been to Mizoram?

Anonymous said...

true..i am very well aware of the kind of sick treatment my friends from NE have to face, especially in delhi and other northern states..and i guess maybe these are some of the factors which have somehow added up to give that very discomforting touch to the word vai, which wasnt supposed to sound so as very well pointed out by u..i have done my schooling in aizawl and my dad's a top bureaucrat in the mizoram govt..so am very familiar with the mizo culture as well as the politics and am really attached to the place..but unfortunately 'some' bitter memories too do remain which i believe both of us have experienced but from different angles
great post buddy..keep up the amazing work

virgochhas said...

....WOW...i DID it...

long long long post,interesting though...

i remembered wen i was in Rajasthan,me frendz used to call me either "Chinkis-than" or "chilly-chicken" but it was never meant in a bad way, as we call all our frendz from Punjab "sardarji" and frendz from Gujarat "Gujjuz" etc etc...

but wen others used the same term to address me, i'd never like it...

and yea...it sure is sick wen walking down da road of any place ive been to, outside the north-east...people keep on using these wordz to tease us,annoy us watever...

i wonder watz da big deal anywayz...

we never say "hairy people"..."people with Body Odour"...etc etc everytime we meet them...do we....

them using words is one thing...sometimes they make sounds which they think spunds like watever language they think we are speaking...e.g "chow khi hia hua..." etc...

they r so sick....

Mizohican said...

@ Mac: as the saying goes, a victim usually becomes the victimizer. Psychologists talk about a logical progression where a victim of bullying usually turns out to be a bully himself.

To talk about racism in Mizoram here on this comment page would take too much space. Anyway, i'll try to be as short as possible. It's hardly a couple of years since Mizoram gave up arms. The reason for the seperatist movement was due to the mautam (The Great Famine) that killed tens of thousands of Mizos in the 70s. A plea for help to the Indian Govt fell on deaf years and so Mizos formed the MNFF (Mizo National Famine Front) to deal with the famine ourselves when we realized that the Govt didnt care about us. Later this became the infamous MNF (Maizo National Front) that rebelled against the Indian Govt. The level of seperatist ideology was so great that the Indian Air Force had to bomb the entire city of Aizawl, the only Indian city bombed by our own Air Force. The Peace Accord was signed in 1986.

Hence, even though Mizoram had come to terms with India, the images of the insurgency era and the atrocities committed by the Indian Army (horrifying tales of torture, rape etc) are still fresh in the minds of many Mizos. That is one reason why many Mizos are still skeptical about the rest of India. However this is changing slowly as the current generation is slowly infusing with the rest of India...

On those lines, those were probably the reasons why you had a couple of unpleasant memories back then. I feel that the usage of the word "vai" is similar to words like "mallu" and "bhong" which is sometimes considered not a racial slur. It all depends upon the tone used. On the other hand, the word "chinky" is a racial slur worldwide, similar to the N word for black people.

If you come to Mizoram now, you will see a lot of change from what you experienced the last time. I can assure you that :-)

Mizohican said...

lolz virgo, its about time! hehe. thanx for ur comment dear. Your comment echo the point I was trying to make. When people call us by those racial slurs, we never object to it. But when people we don't even know use those words, somewhere within us, a blood vessel burst.

Anonymous said...

Racial slur. Racial slur. Racial slur. That's all I see in this post. What gets your goat is a mere word "chink"? What do we do now? Use some cheap politically correct substitute like "person of north-eastern origin" or "oriental born unto a filipino family" while we giggle under our breathes and say "Saala Chinky!"?

Look beyond a word with condescending overtones man. There is a distinct "us and them" barrier between us which you are equally responsible in creating and maintaining over decades. Excusez moi for my use of the racist term again, but why do Chinks hang out with Chinks all the time? How many Chinks, apart from you, try to blend in with the majority? I see Chinks as very territorial beings, who have made up their minds they are not going to be accepted into any other fold. Maybe its because of a long history of ridicule and outcasting, but you guys have to step out of your comfort zones and be a part of the bigger picture man. Learn the local language maybe or adopt their style of dressing or manner of speaking. Show us some personality man. I don't want to see a ghetto of gurkha men sitting in one cold corner like yesterday's noodles. Get off your asses and join in the fun man. You have broken these boundaries with that neat collage of "Indian" faces. Urge your fella Mizos and Nagas and all to break out of these imaginary boundaries you have created for yourself. Thats the only way to go.

Before you think I have no clue about what I am talking about, let me tell you - I am a dark faced Bangalorean. I was a Madrasi (or maybe even SriLankan) to my northie friends until I became one of them and they learnt to respect my origin. When I was in USA on work, I was called a Pakistani in a very demeaning tone. When I showed my value by my work, that was when I made an identity for myself. If I cried over it and urged people to call me a "Bangalorean" by appealing to their emotions, I'd only get a "saala madraasi" in return.

Forgive me if I came across harsh, but I am only trying to push a proven solution - You.

Anonymous said...

Kima,
Your take on the racial othering that underlies a seemingly innocuous term like 'Chinky' makes a interesting reading. The implications of a creation of modernity, race being among the many, need to be considered beyond thick descriptions and pushed to critical positions whereby people are conscientized to the depravity of such a positioning. Education yes but the taint runs deep so that no education can be free of undertones of ethinc othering. Then again, our own self identities are propped up with reference to the other. Its a sticky mire but you choosing to muddy yourself in it is commendable.

Anonymous said...

spartacus, birds of feathers always flock together. Are you implying that the reason why monorites get racially abused is because they hang out only with "their" people? Get real! Here in UK, we all stick together. Does that give the goras the rights to look down upon us and call us all Pakis? And FYI, most of us have achieved a lot among the white community. But we are still verbally abused as Pakis no matter what. Blending with the majority will not stop racial abuses. Period.

Anonymous said...

Shweta, good point. In my gusto to make my point, I may have made a gross underestimation of the levels to which racist feelings are perpetrated in the society.

Sensitization to each others' ethnic and cultural differences is a slow and laborious process. It will never happen in totality. But great starts ought to be made on all fronts. If we continue to do the same things the same way, we end up getting the same results. Breaking out of stereotype-moulds is in my opinion the most natural and liberating way to bring about this change. Its the black guy that listens to classical music, the brown guy on a primetime comedy central show, the Bong guy that doesn't support Saurav Ganguly, the Mizo guy in a premier B-school who will make a far greater difference in altering people's percpetions than some whiny-assed kid too busy getting offended over some racist term that incidentally means "slit eyes" or some such shit in some chinese urban slang dictionary.

Just my two cents.

Anonymous said...

great article Sandman. Soi tur vak ka hrelo na in, i ziak thiam khop mai, a ngaihnom lutuk.

tinkertoon said...

keema,
what was intended to be a treatise on non-discrimination has itself turned discriminatory. how to resolve the following problems?
1. empowering NE to emerge as business center of India?
2. changing mindsets - so no turbulent thoughts arise in the minds of ANY indian? (education of course as you say aptly, but is there some format to it? cant be that getting each a phd will solve this. your post is a diatribe, not a process manual)
3. all social aspects have their reasons ingrained in multiple dimensions exampli gratia lack of cohesion, peace, stability, prosperity, maturity of thought, legislation, empowerment. So the vision (of few) tranlated into (mass) movement is what is needed. Any thoughts on what/how/when/who can trigger this?

What you mention is not just a NE vs. RoI issue. Its a generic my ethnicity vs. your ethnicity issue.
So I trust the genteel humane intelligent Kima (and the previous misspelling wasn't accidental lolz ;) will spit his anger and translate it into a workplan and share with rest of us. On how to tackle this menace. And don't stop yourself at 'help yourself'. We REALLY need your help.

Swar Thounaojam said...

kima bro, finally here. been travelling a lot. where art thou?

very balanced post with damn good references. i feel very sincerely that one way we can bring a slow understanding of north-east culture is to introduce it into mainstream india. music, literature, theatre etc - not in the touristy-exotic genre but in a real contemporary sense. its hard work but it should happen. and we should start getting more articulate about our opinions.

Mizohican said...

hey swar! Good to finally see you again. Hope ur doing well. And about my post, thanx. Yeah I guess it is important to bring about more of an understanding between people of the Northeast and the rest. One important fact is, all of us have our distinct cultures, languages and even religions, but people usually identify us to be all similar. That is something that must be shown.

@ anonymous: That was quite a grandiloquent comment my friend :-) Thanx for your comments and compliment. I'm really glad you liked it.

@ Jonathan: Thanx dude. Are you the same Jonathan from zoram.com? I don't get that many comments on my blog from people who addresses me a "Sandman" :-)

Mizohican said...

@ Shweta: right on sis! :-) That was a great comment. My sympathies for all the racial abuses you have faced over there. I have heard terrifying tales about the level of racism in UK from many of my friends who are working there. Your comment on "infusing with the majority will not defuse racism" really struck a chord with me. Do share some of your other views too when you can, and thanx for visiting.

@ tinkertoon: hehehe... so we are now moving from racial slurs to empowering NE, changing mindsets and social aspects? lolz. I admit they are all inter-related, but I just wasn't expecting such a comment on this particular post. :-) Never-the-less, you've brought up a very good point which I hope we can talk about during the course of this discussion. And hey, don't get me wrong but don't mistake this post as an angry post or about some nonsensical rambling of a chink infuriated with being called a chink. Nopes that was not the intention of my post. It was merely to bring into light the racial abuses and discrimination people from the Northeast face and how this could inturn turn them into racists... which I think is a serious cause of concern.

Mizohican said...

spartacus. Thanx for your great comments. Phew! I sensed a lot of passionate fervour in your two comments. I guess in a way this might have to do with the unfortunate short phase that you went through when you were discriminated during your earlier years.

Regarding your rather crude remark on "why do Chinks hang out with Chinks all the time", any student of psychology will tell you that in any diversed society, there will always be a high degree of insecurity among the minority group (or the group that controls the power in the case of the sunni-shia Iraq during the Saddam regime). And the fewer the minorities are, the higher the insecurity is. Hence that is the reason why minorities usually tend to stick together, quoting Shweta's comment "birds of feathers flock together". They feel more comfortable with each other, among their "own people". I would definitely echo what you said by urging others to step out from their comfort zones too, but this is easier said than done.

Remember the Anti-Sikh riot of 84? A black day in our history indeed. Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two bodyguards, both Sikhs, and within hours, thousands of innocent Sikhs were murdered, tortured, raped and burnt alive on the streets. Or what about the anti-tamil riot in Karnataka when Veerapan kidnapped Raj Kumar? These are only a few incidents of a minority group bearing the brunt of the majority's unsolicited ire.

Hence a minority group will always feel insecure and tend to mingle only with people from the same race or culture, be it a Mizo in Punjab or a Punjabi in Mizoram. Even when it comes to religion, do take a look around at your city. How many places are there that you can call a hindu area, a muslim area, a christian area? Hundreds. They all stick together because they feel more secure to be among their "religion mates" incase a communal riot breaks out. It is easy to tell others to stop hanging out only with their people, but for most of these people, it is practically not the most feasible thing to do.

You and I may have "broken out of the stereotype moulds", to quote your own words. But I dont think coming out from our respective stereotpye moulds will stop stereotyping as a whole. Forget racial stereotyping. Let us go back to the time when racial stereotyping wasn't even there becuse races did not mix then. I'm talking about a long long time ago. Even then, there was sexual discrimination and stereotyping, and even today, inspite of so many members of both the sexes breaking their so called stereotype moulds, people still stereotype women and likewise men are stereotyped too.

Hoping to hear more of your take on this issue and once again, thanx for your insightful views from a totally different perspective. Feel free to point out your views.

Sameer Sarma said...

Dude i used to stay in Shillong, and we then faced similar discrimination, us being called dkhars (which is a slur for plain people). And when khasis go outside they face the same treatment. Racism is inherent in all of us in more or less measures. We Indians as a group are probably more racist than many. Goras, chinks, madrasis, momos, sardars, bhaiyyas, kalus, pakis, dkhars, mates', vai and what not.. you name a group, and we have probably have a derogatory term for it. And then we have the audacity to criticise others when they are racist towards us, you being a prime example here.
But it is a non issue, i feel. Once you get to know a person the stereotype disappears and is replaced by the individual. Of course full power to you and others who wants to remove our shitty country of this evil. Of course thats more easier said than done.

Anonymous said...

Kima,Nice post buddy! we'll have to live through all these. Even people like Zizou are not spared either.just that he isnt a 'chinky' but an 'arab or whatever. what matters is how we take it! So what if anyone calls me 'chinky',its for me to take that to my heart and feel bad or to stand up and give him right back.

The Last Templar

Anonymous said...

Kima,
AS an afterthought, I notice that you end your thoughts on 'chinky' (and also 'Horny') on a very positivistic note. It makes a great message to a contemporaneous post-mod world..to have it but keep it under control and not act on it. You seem to have it under control unless your photos intend to convey another message but the larger challenge is to deal with the memory of violence endured in the past (like your DElhiite friends) and even of our parents prior to and during the MNF days and constructively position ourselves in relation to the 'other' (vai or whoever)so that the violence is not repeated. Again, I dont think a hibridised identity of both 'self' and 'other' is helpful because you end up overwriting particularities. The constructive position is underscored by mutuality implying that we celebrate and promote our partiularities while celebrating the particularity of others too. I must hint that I find my ideas of mutuality informed by Jesus' message of the kingdom of God.

I mull over this to make sense, in collaboration with your ideas, on how to make sense of a strange yet exciting world that we find ourselves in.
Kima (et tu!)

Jason said...

I just stumbled across your blog this morning and i havent left it for about an hour and a half now ..

A must read for every 'narrow minded ego-centric “stereotyper”'

Great stuff, dude!

hellfire said...

Hey there!
Nice article.

gypsy said...

Interesting topic. The first time i was subjected to racial discrimination, i was shocked- shocked because i had never thought i would be judged just on the basis of my facial features. i mean, it is really sickening when somebody thinks you are dumb just because your eyes are not wide/big enough!! i have learned that the best way to handle it is just to be indifferent to it all. Because if you think about it, what is the point of getting worked up just because somebody is stupid/ignorant/uneducated? i believe that when someone calls you names, it reflects more on his character than on yours. Right?

Mizohican said...

rightly said wandering gypsy! :-) Thanx for all your comments Last Templar, jason, hellfire, here's looking and anonymous (kima et tu lolz). I just got back home and got myself a new net connection. Was out of contact the past one month. Thanx a lot for all your great feedbacks.

Anonymous said...

nice
benjamin from misual.com made me read this when i used it in a comment. well life sucks and we all still live with it each day.

kava_101 said...

These indians and pakis are ass-kissers of whites. As an Indian 'Malabari' I am ashamed at these north indian skunks to insult such an intelligent race as orientals. Oriental girls are much sexier than ugly north indian bitches who think they are goddess if they get just a tad bit far. Y'all North Indians can kiss my malabari ass. Boycott North Indian films with f---ing white-wannabe actors/actresses. Only naturally tanned/wheatish beautiful actors/actresses should be allowed.

If you hate orientals, stop using all the advanced Japanese technology and collaborating. Kiss some German white ass by buying mercedes, bmw and other overrated cars with poor reliability ratings.

Malayalee and proud

kava_101 said...

funny thing is these dum mofo north indian directors use sony camera (made in japan), musicians use korg (keio organ), roland and yamaha equipment - all japanese. they use samsung lcd tv and phones - s.korean. then the north indian mofos think that they are superior to 'madrasi' (or malbari) and 'chinks' (orientals).

orientals and madrasis will always be superior to you bloody gujus and smelly punjus, north india is a disgusting sh##hole - just ask any white man lol! kerala is much better - much less beggars and very beautiful and much cleaner

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I am from Delhi and not racist. I always had a mysterious attraction for the noertheast and its people. In college I wondered why students from northeast kept to themselves. Your blog explains it. Then , I would have been delighted to have some friends from that group but it never happened but Now I will make an attempt by extending my hand first for a shake when I see a northeastern. I will take the first step and make him or her feel an equally welcome Indian friend

Anonymous said...

Hi illusionare,

Interesting post. Yes, it's a fine line, isn't it - knowing when some word one uses offends another irrespective of what one's intentions were.

Let's take an example from your post : you've said 'bite off your knockers'. 'Knockers' is internationally used to describe women's breasts and as a sexist slur. So was your use of it intentional or unintentional ? Did you realise that you would offend the women reading your post?

It's a subjective line to draw, my friend.

For a man, the word 'knockers' is just another word. For a woman, it's an ultimate insult. In the same way, for many non - oriental people, the word 'Chink' is just another word to describe a set of people who look a certain way. And as you pointed out, it's an ultimate insult for people with oriental features.

I'm not defending racism, just pointing out that sometimes, all of us are so caught up in 'protecting our rights' and being 'politically correct', that we carry it too far.

Mizohican said...

I know this reply is really late! But better late than never I guess :)

@ anonymous1: Thanx for visiting, and thanx to Benjamin for asking you to read this post :)

@ kava_101: Dear friend, it is great to have someone from South India give his opinion on this issue. Most of my closest friends are from South India too. Even though you stated your support for the NE people for which our community is truly grateful, you have ended up stereotyping the entire North Indians again with a lot of anger and hatred, which is exactly what my post is against. A victim of racism/stereotyping will only become a racist himself. There is too much hate in this World already and we must learn to live with each other in harmony. I pray that you find your peace in the near future.

Mizohican said...

@ anonymous: Maybe you and I can have tea one day and extend such harmony to everyone. Thank you for such a lovely comment.

@ liz: My apologies if my post hurt your sentiments. But when I mentioned "knockers", what I had in mind were actually "balls" so as to put it crudely. I meant "ready to bite off your balls". I had no idea knockers is a derogatory term for breasts, and it is only now that i think I've seen in the movies (Hollywood) that people pass on sexists remarks like "that girl got huge knockers". But what I actually intended to say, was "balls", since , you know, the male balls act like a gong and if you swing it, it can knock on doors etc! It was just a crude joke I had in mind then, and I never meant the female breast in the first place. My utmost apology for that.

Anonymous said...

i am indian born, who has travelled much accross philippines and south east asian countries, many mizos and north eastern people have very similiar culture to that of filipinos and faces similiar to them. i believe mizos and north eastern people are the best, and i always believed they deserved their own homelands. God bless you, and i wish i had your face, because my closest friends are all filipinos, i promote your culture world wide. this proves indian is not a race, and india is made up of different nations in it. unfortunately, nothing much one can do at this stage, but rather stick to your identity and province proudly, you will find greater acceptance abroad and among east asian nations than in india. this nation is kept together by its army nothing more, or it would have split long ago. i am sorry for all the insults and things north eastern people had to go through, i wish a million times i was born there, but i am not, best i can do now, is do my best to spread the word.

Anonymous said...

Hey,
My name's Yulun Changezi.
I guess I can totally relate to what you mean. I would be your female counterpart to the victimization of the 'Chinkiness', from Pakistan. I was born and raised in Pakistan and majority of the population of both India and Pakistan do not even know where Mongolia is, let alone what 'Mongoloid features' mean. I grew up being called Chinky but I also grew up being called 'Gori' because countries such as Pakistan and India yearn for fair skin (which 'Chinks' usually have). So yes, a lot of confusion.

We've moved to Canada, and it's still the same. Except in Canada, we're known as 'Chinks'. It's all good though. I have never personally been offended by it but I remember something funny that happened with my younger brother in Pakistan back when he was about 8.
His principal called my mother and complained that he had been in a fight. When he came home, he was so mad, but it was cute because he was the youngest and the last person we could expect to be involved in a fight. He said his friends were calling him "Cheeni! Cheeni!" and so he hit one of them. My mother sat down to explain to him how to ignore them yada yada yada... and he looked confused. He said, "I dont understand. But why did they call me Sugar?"
haha. Hope you got the joke. The issue has never insulted my family after that, we have adapted to make fun of the situation and it subsides. Life goes on. More important things to worry about :)

Anonymous said...

Old old post.. but nevertheless. You said nobody would call their dog chinky.

In Delhi, lots of people are called Chinky (pet-names ?).

And there's a wedding caterer in south Delhi, called Chinky caterers.

And the piece de resistance: Chinky Chowmein near Saket.

I kid you not.

Anonymous said...

Well written illusionaire.. heartening to see aware, articulate and intelligent people like you do your bit. Makes me feel a little ashamed of myself as well.

Spot on, and Rock on!!

Anonymous said...

They should fight back, India give back Mizoram, Assam to the Mizos!

Anonymous said...

I got a stoy to tell. One of my friend recently went to Chennai. She checked in to a hotel and the receptionist asked for her passport. She said she was from Mizoram, India. She then cm back to Aizawl and told me this story and complained that it is so irritating. I told her look at it like this. It is just that they are not familiar with your looks so they asked. You explained and it was fine. I gave her my example, I work in Aizawl, can speak reasonable Mizo and have been here for quite some time. Everytime I land at Lengpui airport, they always aske me for ILP, then I tell them that I happen to work for the Government and then its OK. We just cant label every incidence as being discriminatory. Often , my colleagues directly call me "Vai pa" and laugh it off. Wont this qualify for a racial abuse?

Unknown said...

I agree to the situations, we, northeast people face.

Being born 'chink' itself makes the life tougher !
Everywhere, even in northeast too.

I have been brought up in Assam and has been insulted a lot of times in Northeast itself.

And everywhere we go, we have to prove ourselves to earn a little respect.

Here in Bangalore, I have spent a year studying. Everyone used to look down at me. 'she is a chink- i am sure she is just a waste'- that's the first thought.
But when you work hard and do what I am meant to do, chucking the people around, we get what we deserve to get... at the end of the day !
Now, teachers like me.
And I have been at times praised to the extent that brought me tears out of excitement, and it happened 2days ago.
So you see, it really doesnt matter.
People are people !
People will remain people !
People are there to speak- laugh at you- insult you, but if we are what we should be, people do start taking you seriously, 'someday'
:)

I know its hard for us- 'chinks'- but it makes us more tougher too- don't you see that?

We have other things to think about, my fellow Indians!
Let people talk as much as they want, its their lost if they don't see the potential Northeast has.... if they don't see the change we can bring... We should do what we need to do... Our work of interest !

That's why India shall remain India !
Multi-cultured country which don't really mingle.
I just pray, people start thinking over serious issues than watching some stupid 'splitsvilla' and saas bahu soaps.

Start living life_

and yes ! one important thing. we cant blame always to people about getting insulted.
Majority of the northeast people are actually spoiled or wasted by materialistic pleasures.
Look at the state Manipur- I feel very sad being a Meitei myself that I cant do anything to help the idiotic rebels who are destroying their own state, in the name of preserving the culture !! Where is Manipur now?
Its a wasted land. Such a beautiful land with so much potential and its manipuris themselves who destroy themselves with either drugs and sex.
I can't blame 'Indians' here, can i?

Rather than complaining about what people say about us, I'd be the happiest person alive they we use our brains the right way !

Enough said.
I feel choked now.
Happy too, to have written such a long comment :P

Regards,
Dolly

Anonymous said...

An open letter to North easterners, courageous enough to publish it here, please do so, if scared, don’t.

Oh, lets start by getting things straight, what is this? A Whining little chink from North east? What happened can’t get along with the realities of life in India?
Basically, If you find it so difficult at handling the truth, you might as well as pack your bags and leave through one of the major airports in India in an international flight out. You do have the freedom.
Lets start, over the last 60 years, our government has spend crores of rupees and thousands of lives of our brave soldiers on your ungrateful, dog eating, subhuman species that are infesting the north eastern corner of our nation. That money could have been well spend on our own people, our children, our education, throughout India instead on a bunch of whining slitty eyed gooks like you.
North east was never meant to be a breeding ground for you, but a clearing ground for us, We already have to deal with Islamofacist nuts from Pakistan and our northern borders, the last thing our independent nation needed was communists from China and other dog eating crap flowing in from Myanmar becoming a threat. North east was meant to be a buffer zone for our people. We admit that. The biggest mistake our troops did was to let your people alive and breed there, what should have been done, was to clear that area out, and kick your dog eating chinki under developed, subhuman tribals into myanmar, or outright exterminate them. Extermination would have been a better solution.
This would have lead to a healthy and quiet buffer zone between Myanmar/China and India’s eastern frontier with Assam, where Hindus live

Sadly that didn’t happen, and hence over 60 years we had to deal with pests like you leeching on our government, our soldiers blood and our resources, that could have otherwise spend elsewhere throughout the country.
There is nothing much in common between Aryans /Dravidians or Indians or Hindustanis as I call them and with you whining losers.
Each time I come across a North easterner, they always whine and complain, me and my mates had lots of fun in our university days, making a mizo chink clean our toilets, and drink our piss, we ragged him like hell, and the guy just farted out his frustrations against our nation in hand, its amazing how a little bit of pressure can bring out all the truth from their petty little brains.

Anonymous said...

CONTINUED FROM TOP PREVIOUS POST-

India doesn’t need whining chinks like you, we just need your land to be the buffer zone , not you. We poured out crores of rupees into Mizoram every year, and what was the result? No industries, nothing. You are just leechers. Bunch of leechers, compare that with Gujarat or Punjab or other industrialized states , you havn’t done nothing.
Lets move onto cultural issues, Mussies and their Arabian prophet has already done enough damage to our nation and its values, the last thing we need is a bunch of dope smoking, aids infested , half evolved nuts like you getting their garbage into our society, why ? What for ? When your rat problem came in Mizoram, you blamed our country for it, basically shows, you cannot handle challenges of nature properly, to do that you need a fully evolved intelligent brain, that your “tribe” doesn’t possess. You could have eaten the rats, but no, you went in , revolted, and created disturbance, the IAF bombing was necessary to show you, your pathetic little place in society and the world. Amazing how its brought you whining in all 4 paws down to your knees ? Now you want to “integrate” sure, the first rule of integration is, stop whining and complaining CHINK.
A bunch of chinks perished whining, so in Mizoram in 1950s ? You can pack up and move across the border and live with a bunch of loosers in Myanmar and enjoy a summer of dope and sex, no one is stopping you, good riddance to bad rubbish.
India has many other problems to deal with, our people have the need for clothing, food, education, security, there isn’t enough for handouts to your pathetic Mongolian tribe, if you need it, why not start a sex tourism industry like your chinks in eastern lands such as bali or Philippines or Thailand? You can mint a lot of money that way , that can keep your subhuman race satisfied.
The amount of money and resources spend in trying to “maintain peace” in north east, could have been used to secure our northern borders, and deal with muslims, but no, its all being spend on north east, the solution? Complete extermination or complete expulsion of these insignificant and whining mizos.
A good mizo is a dead mizo, period. We can do much better without gooks like you crawling into our cities, and leeching on our resources, and then whining on about how boo hoo we call you chinks. You know the word Chink has nothing negative, it clearly indicates, describes and establishes the truth about your people.
Your ugly aids infested wh0rish women and your ugly men, including your butt ugly face and nose, and eyes clearly deserve the word Chink.
I can tell you one thing for sure, once we have dealt with the Muslim problem in India, you are next. And yeah, I am not the only one who believes in this, I have lots of friends, in multinationals, government and other areas who agree and share the same belief as me, that your people are a liability on our country, our resources and a clear evident antipode of our values and social culture.
Do us all a favor kima, stop whining about your chinkiness, take your crap and complains and go hang yourself from your ceiling fan, I am sure you won’t be missed or even acknowledged as existed in India
If we meet you on the streets, man, we are gonna have lots of fun.

Oh on a final note, you may have “some” buddies from our so called “sickular” india, basically pathetic morons, or those who just don’t have enough backbone for their own country or culture, would bend backwards enough to kiss your dickless front.

Most of us, don’t care about your crappy people, hump thump and dump is what we do to your ugly gookish females, and bash, smash, and trash is what we do to shorties like you. But go to admit, you ain’t that much of a nuisance compared to piggy mohammed’s followers and the koranic trash they spew.

Ab Akal ayi kya?
Chootiye
With luv
Shiv Verma

Francis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
apple88 said...

Hi, Guys. I am a real "Chinky". I am suprised to see the Mizo word "vai". You know what, in chinese there is a same word "vai", which means "outside". The more interesting thing is that chinese also this word "vai" to refer to all foreigners. Of course, it has no offensive meaning, only means people from other country. Since there is no historical contact between chinese and mizo, this similarity is interesting, isn't it?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

shiv verma.....first u deal with ur family problems...brothers fighting for property...sexual relationship with ur own bro's wifey...y'all dont have respect for ur own family.....bloody selfish.....ha ha ha ha...as cheap as u guys look... u know wat..... y'all doesnt even know how to carry urself...u think u guys look good on those bootcut jeans...gone case lol.......get a life..and pls one serious thing ....u guys badly needs waxing else u vll end up locked in a zoo.....ahh...y'all smell so bad..ur armpit hhhmmmfffff sharper than LPG...HA HA HA ...gay biharis tats d term for y'all ...y'all are plague which is yet to remove by us
with hate
chin chong...go f***k wit ur m*****

Anonymous said...

mizohican.blogspot.com is very informative. The article is very professionally written. I enjoy reading mizohican.blogspot.com every day.

Anonymous said...

Great post!!!You have done that with grace.

I am South Indian(Keralite) girl livin(20 yrs) in Dubai.I agree with the Changezi from Pakistan that the craziness for a fair complexion is one main reason for this.The men from rest of India and Pakistan just LOVE Mongloid girls since thay r fair cute n attractive n have far eastern girlfriends too but the so-called WARRIORS dont have the balls to fight against thier MOMS n the system and most finds it EASIER to add it to one of thier SEXUAL CONQUESTS.One can see that in Dubai.Looks like the south indian men have also joined the race.

With regard to RACISM it was even worse for us ,the SOUTHIES. Atleast they admire you for ur colour and skin man..the whole world knows.OURS is even worst.It has improved over the years since we hav done well in academics.Education on both sides will do good but somethings remain the same.

The other day a man from DELHI was justifying the act in TV by sayin that its the western outfits worn by the NE girls that provokes.ITS CRAP..the other girls do wear that but infact looks good on the NORTH EASTERN girls better than the BULKY North Indians n Punjabis.

And here they complain that SOUTH INDIANS keep within ourselves BUT the fact is who want to GET INSULTED at the end of the day !!!!

Anonymous said...

Its the large heartedness of the blogger here to retain Shiv Verma's comment on his blog. I understand many "Indians" are coming to know more of the North-Easterners today than ever before but messages like the ones from Shiv Verma keep the guns firing in the North-East, which is bad, just too bad.

The experimentalist view said...

Great post Kima, i only hope it brings more people to better understand each other.As for people like shiv verma,its them who should be EXTERMINATED(his comments were pretty offensive),its such groups with their sick thoughts who divide the society...insensitive loons!!Great post though...keep up with the good work!!

Anonymous said...

Great post !!!!!

I am sorry for my ignorance but i used to think chinky is the nick name given to northeast student, just like sardar ,marathi,gujju.....
it did not occur to me that its a racist slur.....i belive majority of indians dont know chinky is racist slur so they keep using it...

truly said only education can remove this sterotype..
i think existance of caste,religion,gender,ignorance is the root cause of every disturbance in fabric of society.

Anonymous said...

i wud just like to mention that, north eastern people are very beautiful, pure and simple. they never interfere in other people's business. though i am a madrasi, and i have been referred that way many times, i felt bad...and now i understand how NE ppl must feel...but i wud also suggest that, u ppl shud mix with ppl like us. not all of us are racists and not everyone will talk behind ur backs..maybe if u start mingling with others, u will not be racially discriminated by indians. so plz do take the effort to adopt to our culture as i have tried to adopt everyone else's culture...be open minded, if u want to study here in the south.

Unknown said...

Any kind of word that refers to race or geography is a racist slur....chinky for the North easterners....madrasi for the south indians...gujju for the gujaratis....bhaiyya for the north indians.....ghati for the maharashtrians.....sad that people knowingly use these words in an insulting, derogatory demeaning manner. I dont really see their use being stopped on the streets of India. Articles like yours are the only way ahead. In fact...racism against any race or section of people is unacceptable....

Anonymous said...

Why are North East Indian people creating such a "WOO" about the word "CHINKI"?

Well, How would u feel if someone called you a "turbanator or curry muncher", It's just as offensive for them.

North Easterners give Delhi a special flavour. They are completely different from the mainstream India in appearance and culture. Having them in Delhi gives us a sense of pride in that it makes Delhi a universal place to live in, you get the feeling of living with the entire country simultaneously!

Unfortunately, many of them have been harassed by narrow-minded people and this has severely dented the city's image. However, the fact is that Delhi-born people who've lived long enough in this city never commit such acts. It is the immigrants to this city from other states only who resort to such crimes. And it is those people only who make the city dirty by littering and peeing everywhere. As I told you, Delhi relates to India on the whole. No body in Delhi can challenge anyone's presence. It's a national city, for the people of India. All are welcome with open arms, irrespective of where he/she hails from.

Piu Bhattacharjee said...

I like your post very much.I am a Bengali but I also look like a Assamese girl. One of my school mates in class 8th asked me whether I was a Indian or Chinese. She was the biggest piece of junk I have ever met.Also another one I have heard from so called North Indians that people from north east do black magic one must stay away from them. This belief is very famous among many north Indians

Anyways I have also seen that people from NE India tend to stay within their own group and don't hang out with others and this applies to people of all faiths and languages of India. Lack of understanding between two groups is the main reason of such terms being used against each other

Srijit Mukherjee said...

Really every word of your post is so true..Awfully true.. For North Indians every Bengali is a ewww improvished fish eater whose hindi accent sucks and every person from the north east is a 'chinky'. Pisses me off often ! Not only that .. North Indians consider South Indians Mallus no matter where they are from.. Mallu/ Madrasi hoga..And then starts racial comments !
Pisses me.. I have a perfect north indian hindi accent though I have spent a considerable amount of time in Kolkata.. People here in Chandigarh presume that I cannot be a Bengali as my accent is unlike one..Does everyone need to be like a babumoshai or a Mamata Didi!. Phew ! This is so crappy..My dad was posted in Guwahati and often I would make trips to Arunachal/ Nagaland.. People there would take this man from the plains stance !
Educate and Unite remains my message !