'who Is This Rag Head?' Racist Comments After Facebook Video Stars Sikh Man

[InderjitS]

We can only imagine this sort of hate to increase following the siege in Sydney.

http://www.firstpost.com/living/racist-comments-after-facebook-video-starred-sikh-man-1850657.html

The above video @ link looks quite innocuous, it's about tips for using Facebook and how likes ensure that your News Feed gets more content. And sure while some of us might not like Facebook videos on our News Feed, that doesn't mean we're going to start swearing at the person in the video who happens to be Vishavjit Singh, an Indian-American Sikh and New York-based cartoonist. Singh has a website called Sikhtoons for his cartoons.

When the video was put up on Facebook's Tips page, most of the comments were racist, some calling Singh a 'rag head' or terrorist.

As Singh himself noted in this post on Salon, the comments were something like this,

“Get the sand niggef off my news feed. Please and thank you." "im not takeing advice from men it those kinda hats period lol”
“Bombs..made by him. Lmfao” “Terrorist”

“Why would you use a towel head to promote this, ur as crooked as Obama…….no wonder ur a billionaire”

One comment even had a person saying, “I had rather cut my wrist than see this.” One person called him an ISIS terrorist, while another asked if they could "borrow your towel on your head I ran out of toilet paper please sir?"

Screenshot from Facebook video

Singh wrote in the post, "These users have taken umbrage with my countenance. A turban, mustache and a DNA spiral of a beard have provoked a range of responses, some of which I have never heard before despite being stereotyped and targeted all my life for standing out."

In an interview to Huffington Post Singh said, "I don't know who these people are. I don't know their stories. If I were to judge them, then I'm a bit more like them in that moment."

Racism against Sikhs and basically anyone who is not white is nothing new. Post 9/11 attacks, Sikhs have often been targeted in the America and even other Western countries, their turbans often mistaken for a sign that their were Arab Muslims.

The Huffington Post piece points out that Singh had moved to India a child and survived the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom and has faced "abuse and stereotyping," in America as well.

This is not the first time that a Sikh man in an ad for a prominent company had faced racist comments or backlash. Last year clothing company GAP had released posters with Sikh actor and jewelry designer Waris Ahluwalia. The posters were then vandalised with racist comments. In response, the company had then made the posters their cover photo for both their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

The Facebook Tips video featuring Vishavjit Singh has been viewed close to five million times. A number of recent comments on the post though have criticised the racist comments and called them shameful.

[mrggg123]

Maybe we should say we are proud to be ragheads similar to how pakistanis are proud to be paki? Just a thought rather than complaining...

[JSinghnz]

Maybe we should say we are proud to be ragheads similar to how pakistanis are proud to be paki? Just a thought rather than complaining...

Do you realise "raghead" is derogratory and you want be proud to be one

Be proud of your crown(Turban) and do not let any one insult you by calling you a "raghead."

[mrggg123]

Do you realise "raghead" is derogratory and you want be proud to be one

Be proud of your crown(Turban) and do not let any one insult you by calling you a "raghead."

yeh but why not turn it into a positive. Be like " yeh I am and what? What you gona do about it? "

[JSinghnz]

yeh but why not turn it into a positive. Be like " yeh I am and what? What you gona do about it? "

Insults are never "positive", the sooner you understand that, the better for you.

[mrggg123]

Insults are never "positive", the sooner you understand that, the better for you.

Welll you can fight but then that will make you look stupid... Would be much better to counter the bullies by this method then they cant say anything because they know it wont affect you :D

Make a twitter trend Imaragheadandwhat lol

[JSinghnz]

Welll you can fight but then that will make you look stupid... Would be much better to counter the bullies by this method then they cant say anything because they know it wont affect you :D

Make a twitter trend Imaragheadandwhat lol

There is no dearth of self proclaimed clowns in this world who love to make a clown of themselves.

[mrggg123]

There is no dearth of self proclaimed clowns in this world who love to make a clown of themselves.

Try to stop racists, it wont happen. You even have sikhs cussing other sikhs who wear pagh....

[ghettosikh]

We should just ignore these keyboard warriors who can only talk big behind there computer these white ppl would never dare say this to a sings face cos they'd kno tht they'd b put in the hospital

[JSinghnz]

We should just ignore these keyboard warriors who can only talk big behind there computer these white ppl would never dare say this to a sings face cos they'd kno tht they'd b put in the hospital

Nah, mrgg123 will go find these keyboard warriors and say to them, " Imaragheadandwhat." :biggrin2: