India has grown by leaps and bounds. However, despite the growth, many people still refuse to acknowledge this growth and perpetuate the racist stereotype that everyone in India who is not immediately affluent is a hungry and poor person. Brown people abroad have to grapple with similar problems. Chef Vikas Khanna, who is now a proud owner of a modern Indian restaurant in New York, Bungalow, has faced similar challenges. An old clip from an interview now going viral is evidence.
Vikas Khanna Claps Back At British Interviewer’s Racist Question
An old clip of an interview given by Chef Vikas Khanna is making rounds on X (formerly known as Twitter). The interview is by BBC and in the video, the interviewer asks Chef Vikas Khanna which reeks of racism and classism.
The interviewer first recapitulates Chef Vikas has scaled the heights of success cooking for the Obamas and hosting alongside Gordon Ramsay. Then he talks about how it wasn’t always like this. He brings up the fact that he is from a small city — Amritsar in Punjab.
He then proceeded to imply that since Chef Vikas was not from a rich family, he ‘understands how precarious it can be in India.’ The implication here is that since he is from a small Indian city, he may have understood hunger, because, you know, everyone in India that isn’t rich is automatically starving and poor.
The Chef Claps Back With A Savage Response To Him
Chef Vikas seemed understandably peeved by this stereotypical implication. He clapped back by saying that he is from Amritsar, a city that houses the Golden Temple that hosts the world’s largest open kitchen or Langars. As such, nobody in the city goes hungry.
He then went on to say that his sense of hunger came from his time in New York when he was struggling. Since it was just after 9/11, brown people faced difficulty in getting jobs. He even mentioned sleeping at the Grand Central station and that is where his sense of hunger came from
What a subtle yet fantastic response.
Have you encountered such micro-racist moments in your life abroad? Let us know in the comment section below!
Cover Image Credits: Internal and @CestMoiz/X (Formerly, Twitter)
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