Below is a link to the essay “Fair and Lovely” by Scaachi Koul, taken from Scaachi Koul’s essay collection One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter.
After reading this essay, please write a brief response below to the following question:
- How does environment affect Koul’s experience of racism? Point to a specific example from the text that illustrates your point.
Environment affects Koul’s experience of racism in a positive way. On page 58 of “Fair and Lovely,” Koul states that “my race didnt seem like a problem until 9/11, or at least, I never noticed a difference beyond forgettable microaggressions.” You can clearly tell here that even if his race played a negative role in his life, to him, it rarely felt that way. Earlier on that page he describes something he has observed overtime. When people ask him “where are you from,” they mean where is his family from, and whenever he replies “my parents are Indian immigrants… their faces would light up…” (Koul, 58). Here, you can again tell that his experience with racism was more positive than it was negative, at least for the earlier part of his childhood.
The environment impacts Koul in a positive way because as a kid Koul did not start noticing major racial differences until after 9/11 which gave Koul the opportunity to learn about himself and what race is for himself. Before when asked where he was from he always said how he gets to school but now says “My parents are India n immigrants” which in response his teachers “faces would light up and they’d say “Oh I hear India is amazing!””(Page 58) which most likely lead to a lot of positive reinforcement from his environment when it came to his race.
Revised Response
The environment has impacted Koul in a variety of different ways although in the very beginning she seems to have had little to no problem and even gained positive experience as show on (Page 58) when the teachers faces “would light up” later on she had a little more difficult time when it came to making some friends as well as shown on (Page 59-60) when she tries to sit next to a few white girls they ask “Why are you sitting with us…You’r brown” these moments of good and bad shaped her into who she is today. She understands the discrimination from her Indian culture from that one phrase the pros and cons to who she is in relativity to others. I believe she over all benefits from by coming out stronger because of this and even now deals with such problems weather big or small on an everyday bases no worse for ware.
In “Fair and Lovely”, Koul is particularly impacted by her environment positively at first but eventually turned negative, pushing her to be more white. Koul notes how she “never noticed a difference beyond microaggressions” on page 58. She even notes how “The older kids get, the more context they have about the world, the better they are at putting words to sentiments, and holy shit are those sentiments ever racist” on page 59. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, she notes how things changed for the worse and how in high school she was once called the n-word. This led to Koul pushing “against browness though high school to university”. On page 69, the quote “But will I look white then?” tends to resonate with me, showing how environment can deprive one of their identity.
In the essay “Fair and Lovely” by Saachi Koul, the environments that she is put in affects her experience with racism in many ways. For instance, In Canada she is subjected to childlike bias after 9/11, when she remembers a group of white kids restricting her from sitting with them because “[she’s] brown” (pg 60). In return, she tries to downplay her ethnicity by bringing in more normal lunches to school and trading in her cultural clothes and jewelry for none at all. She recalls wanting blue eyes and surgery to make her nose like those perfect button ones white people have. In short, she let the racism in Canada dictate the way she embraces her culture until she finally grew to come to peace with her true identity. However, back in India, she faced the true prejudice that the people of the country and her own family held. Koul noted the belief her parent’s had of being considered an upper-class family in India had stemmed from the fact that they were fair-skinned (pg 65). She realized that her own privilege was a result of race bias similar to that in Canada.
In the text “Fair and Lovely” Saachi Kool the author, had experienced sentiments of racism growing up in her surrounding environment following the events of 9/11. She was subject to such remarks such as “You’re brown” simply for eating her native food, and not all of the food she was eating simply just to fit in a society where they would be judged simply not acting normal as others were. Growing up in Canada she let this affect her as her self identity was changed as she now wanted to be come what is harming her, but also how discrimination would show her and explain how her mentality was on minorities growing up in India.
The type of environment does impact Koul depending in what country she is in. For instance on page 61 she says how in some countries there were different types of environment such as a country that is predominately white, safe, and dangerous. She even says at one point she was called the n-word probably because she was in a country full of one prominent race. Then she says she moved to Toronto and there were more brown people over there. She says that “…the number of brown people I saw in a day tripled, and I resented it, because they knew I was one of them.”(Page 61). Being in Toronto for Koul would be consider safe and comfortable for her because she can relate with the people of her own color. They knew she was apart of their race therefore she wouldn’t judged a lot. In other countries it was hard because they were all different from her and people don’t like anything that’s different from them.
In the essay “Fair and Lovely”, Koul experiences racism differently depending on where she is in the world. She explains how when she and her family visits India they are considered whiter and stand out among “browner” Indians. Koul states, “But most unsettling is how this time I notice my own fairness. I notice that while I might be a person of color among the diaspora back home, here I am the white person.” This is referring to how when she was in Toronto she was constantly dealing with racist remarks such as being associated with terrorism because of 9-11 and her race. As opposed to when she was in India with her family and locals asked to hold and take pictures of her beautifully “light” colored niece.
In the text, “Fair and Lovely”, Koul recalls on her experiences with racism. When she was young she did not notice anything, but as she grew up she started to realize she was being treated differently. Koul heard things such as “you’re brown” as a reason as to why she could not sit with her peers. She was taunted by her classmates,”some boys bought me a deodorant stick to help mask my curry scent”(60). The environment around Koul made her feel like she was different than everyone else around her and she experienced harsh racism.
Koul experiences racism in the junior high school when ” Some boys brought me deodorant stick to mask my ‘natural’ curry scent”, this and other experiences in her life lead her to the belief that being brown was not desirable. She then turns to oppose whiteness when in India with her family “But then Raisin came out looking like a girl I would ordinarily have considered my enemy”. Depending where Koul is she is either treated cruelly for being darker or is given an advantage for being fairer skinned.
Environment affects Koul’s experience of racism in the sense that depending on where she is, she is treated differently due to the color of her skin as well as her features. An example of this is when she wanted to sit with a group of girls to eat her lunch with, but they clearly displayed racism towards her by not letting her sit with them. When Koul asked why she cant sit with the girls, one of them replied with a very simple but disgusting statement- “You’re brown.” (page 60) When Koul went to India, she was treated very differently due to the change in environment. When she was there, since everyone is Indian no one is really racist towards her, especially since she has a lighter complexion than most of the people there. In India, as explained by Koul, the darker you are the less opportunity you have, since it is considered a blessing to be light skinned to people. As stated on page 66, boys who had skin darker than her avoided eye contact, and those with the same color skin wanted to talk to her, and the person who sold jewelry was never dark-skinned, and anyone who worked at a bank were also never dark-skinned, and the list goes on with examples of light skinned Indians having more opportunity. Her experience with racism is overall much worse back in her hometown of Toronto, than in India.
At the beginning of “Fair and Lovely” environment seemed to affect Koul’s experience of racism in a negative way. It primarily started when she wanted to be friends with this group of girls really badly. She finally, decided to sit with them only to hear “Why are you sitting with us?” Why not?” I said. “Your brown.” (pg59) At this moment Koul started to question why she was considered different even though she spoke/ate the same stuff as them. After the tragedy of 9/11 a lot of kids in her school would say a lot of racist/stereotypical stuff about her. One remark she quoted was a kid by the name of Joshua called her “Osama Bin Laden’s cousin” (pg60). However, when she went to India all of this changed to positivity as, due to her fair skin she was almost seen as a higher up. People of a darker shade would not make eye contact and one day when they were eating, they simply put their things on the tray and acted as the dark shade server wasn’t there while she took their stuff. Having fair skin in India was even advertised to women that it would be able to get them beauty, men and happiness. Thus, in Canada having her shade of skin didn’t benefit her much rather than when she went to India where she was seen as better than non-fair skinned people.
Scaachi Koul’s ” Fair and Lovely” shows how her environment affects racism based on when and where she is. First she says that her race was not a problem till 9/11 (pg 58). After this major event she wasn’t able to become friends with a group of white girls at her summer camp, this was when she realized the color of her skin was a problem (pg 59,60). After that she became sort of ashamed of being brown till she learned to embrace it as an adult. Then she describes her experience visiting India. She noticed how darker skinned people did jobs that required manual labor, or how there were many ads for skin lighteners. She was also treated better because her complexion was lighter (pg 65).
In Scaachi Koul’s essay, “Fair and Lovely”, the environment Koul is in affects the different experience of racism she may have. For example, towards the beginning of the essay Koul writes, “Nothing has changed, and yet I am holding a little white body and people passing by are looking, because she clearly cannot belong to us”(Koul, 56). In India, Koul still experience racism from just being with Raisin due to her lighter skin but this example of racism is more subtle. This is compared to a couple pages down in the essay when she’s in Canada, where she talks about trying to sit at a lunch table in middle school with other girls and they respond with “You’re brown”(Koul, 60). This experience of racism is more direct and hurtful and occurs in a very different environment being Canada.
Khoul’s experience varies with racism. When she was a child she experienced racism with school peers. She was told she wasn’t allowed to sit with them because she was brown that effected her in the way she viewed herself. She began to find negative traits about herself and in some ways degraded her ethnicity for her skin color. She explains in the text that when she was younger all she wanted to be is lighter or act as if she was but as she got older she enjoyed her ethnicity and skin color. She began to appreciate and accept that part of her.
Koul’s experience of racism in “Fair and Lovely” alters depending on the environment she’s in at the time. While Koul resided in southwest Calgary she made made it a priority to hide herself and any aspect of her culture, “Every piece of gold jewelry ever given to me was hidden in my dresser i refused to wear any of it because it made me feel I was being marked as an other”(57).She was mocked for being Brown and tried to fit in with white people. She even thanked her mom for packing her “white food” for lunch rather than Indian food (59).However when she was in India she realized the privilege that came with being a ‘Kashmiri’. Being fair skinned marks you as superior in India regardless of everyone being of the same ethnicity. Koul observed people with darker complexions averting eye contact and being ignored by her fellow Kahmiris. In India Koul didn’t have to hide because racism wasn’t directed towards her but she realized how shadism effects India. In Canada she was brown or at least a colored person. She was on the receiving end of racism. Being in India versus Canada would change her race from White to Asian.
Environment has a very noticeable effect on Koul’s experience with racism. While in the United States and Canada she is discriminated against because of her race, at one point the white girls at her camp specifically say they don’t want to be her friend because she’s “brown”. However, when in India, she benefits from her race. Because there she is very fair skinned, so people think highly of her because fair skin is valued highly in India. This puts her in a unique situation because in white countries racism affects her negatively, but in India, it affects her positively.
When it comes to racism, people have many viewpoints and much of the time they are influenced by only one point of view on the matter however Koul is able to have a unique viewpoint on the matter as she gets to experience the point of view of both the privelaged and the oppressed. In Canada she is treated differently because of her race and heritage, however the same happens when she goes to India, yet they are two completely different ends of the same spectrum. In canada she’s a “nigger” with a “natural curry scent” while in India she was the skin tone to be desired and was part of the group in power.
Environment affected Koul in a positive as well as a negative way. While residing in the United States and Canada Koul went through negative experiences because she experienced racism. There was this one event in her life where she tried to sit next to some girls and they totally rejected her because she is “brown”. However, when Koul went to India which is her parents hometown she was treated very differently. She fit in and people treated her with respect. Koul had two very different experiences due to her environment and who she associated with in that environment.
Environment really affected Koul’s view of racism in a variety of ways. Firstly, the fact that she was living in Canada had an effect on her identity because she was always considered “too dark”, while when visiting her family in India she is considered more “desirable” because of her skin tone. The way she is perceived by society is completely influenced by what country she is in, because the conclusions drawn about her are polar opposites in these two places. Environment also seemed to affect Koul’s view of racism because of the way she was discriminated against time and time again. An example of this is when she tries to sit down with girls at a table, but they deny her a spot with them because she is considered “too brown”. This contributes to her confusion about her own race because the reaction she gets to her skin in India is on the complete other side of the spectrum. An example of that on the other hand includes when Raisin’s features are being picked apart by her family when she was just a baby. They hoped that her complexion remain light, and that her “Indian nose” shrinks over the years. It is very clear the many ways that environment directly affected Koul and how it contributed to her internal conflict about her race.