Riz Ahmed Reveals How His Brother Faced Racism In Australia

Racism so casual that people think its normal.

Riz Ahmed

The Night Of (2016) star Riz Ahmed shared his brother’s recent encounter with racism on a trip to Australia.

Emmy-winning British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed shared a tweet from his brother Kamran Ahmed explaining his an encounter with racism at the Manila airport.

The incident is an example of everyday racism or casual racism that is so normalized people don’t feel the slightest discomfort doing it (it comes that naturally to them).

An Ugly Incident

Kamran Ahmed, a psychiatrist, was at the Manila airport, going through airport security. The man behind him was pressing him to go faster.

“Hurry up! We can’t wait all day.”

When Kamran Ahmed asked the man to learn some manners, he retorted with:

“I’m an English gentleman, we invented manners”

 

 

When Riz Ahmed’s brother responded that he was English, (affirming that he knows what manners are and this man clearly lacks) the man sarcastically said ‘Really?’.

It looked like the stranger was implying that you can’t be brown and British, just because as a white man he thinks so. This, folks is a classic example of everyday racism or casual racism. It’s now so normalized the man just threw it around like ‘no big deal’.

Riz Ahmed then retweeted his brother’s account, to call out this everyday racism.

https://twitter.com/rizmc/status/1125667322885222400

Not The First Time

This isn’t the first time brown actors have called casual racism or everyday racism. Besides the Rogue One star, Pakistani-American comedian Kumail Nanjiani called out the sheer ignorance in most cases during an appearance on Saturday Night Live.

“A lot of people were like, ‘Go back to India,’………..I’ve never been to India. Are you just hoping I’ll have an awesome vacation soon?”

In his own comedic way, The Big Sick actor spoke on how the ignorance behind racism bothers him.

“My problem with most racism is the inaccuracy,……..Do the research, put in the work. You will see the benefits. For example, if a guy tells me to ‘Go back to India,’ that guy is an idiot. But if someone tells me to ‘Go back to Pakistan, which was part of India until 1947 and is now home to the world’s oldest salt mine, then I’d back my bags.”


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Indo-Canadian YouTuber Lily Singh also spoke out on the racism hurled her way. The comedian stated she’s been told ” go back to ur country, you terrorist paki afghan indian muslim slut #MakeAmericGreatAgain”, adding that these people haven’t seen a world map.

“If I ever meet a genie, all three of my wishes will be for you to get an atlas”

YouTube’s Superwoman called for ‘first and foremost making education great again’.

“I just don’t like when people are bad at things. If you’re going to be racist at least do it right.”


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The A Little Late With Lily Singh host then dug into her ‘Geography Class for Racists’.