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Malavika Mohanan OPENS UP About The Racism She Faced As A 14-Year-Old; Addresses Prevailing Racism In India

A well-worded note!

Her debut with Beyond The Clouds was commendable but she was immediately a favourite ever since she donned the role of Poongodi in Rajinikanth’s film Petta directed by Karthik Subbaraj. Her screentime may have been short but Malavika Mohanan sure did win hearts in Kollywood ever since. With Master all set to release, Malavika is climbing her way up to make it as one of the topmost actresses of the South film industry. Also, Malavika has always voiced her opinion be it against sexism back then or be it racism now.

Addressing the George Floyd murder in the USA, Malavika penned down a strong-worded letter and talked about the racism in India that is very much prevailing too. “When I was 14 yrs old, one of my closest friends at that point told me that his mother never let him drink tea because she had this weird belief that drinking tea darkened ones’ skin complexion, and when he asked for tea once she told him(referring to me) “If you drink tea, you will become dark like her”.

He was a fair Maharashtrian boy and I was a wheat-ish skinned Malayalee girl. The complexion dissimilarity we had had never even occurred to me up until that point. This left me perplexed because it was the first time somebody had made a comment like that with a mean undertone about my skin colour.

So much casual racism and colorism exists in our own society. Calling a dark-skinned person ‘Kala’ is something we see on an everyday basis. The discriminatory behaviour against south-Indians and North-East Indians is also appalling. Dark-skinned Indians are jokingly referred to as ‘madrasis’ because for some strange reason these ignorant people think all South Indians are only dark-skinned. North-East Indians are almost exclusively only called ‘chinki’, all black people are casually referred to as ‘negros’ and fair people are equated as beautiful and dark-skinned people are equated as ugly.

While we speak about global racism, we must also become aware of what’s happening around us, in our homes, our friend circles and our society, and do our part in thwarting the obvious as well as the subtle racism and colourism that exists all around us, in our everyday lives. What makes you beautiful is being a good and kind person and not the colour of your skin,” she wrote.

 

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When I was 14 yrs old, one of my closest friends at that point told me that his mother never let him drink tea because she had this weird belief that drinking tea darkened ones’ skin complexion, and when he asked for tea once she told him(referring to me) “If you drink tea, you will become dark like her”. He was a fair maharashtrian boy and I was a wheat-ish skinned malayalee girl. The complexion dissimilarity we had had never even occurred to me up until that point. This left me perplexed because it was the first time somebody had made a comment like that with a mean undertone about my skin colour. So much casual racism and colourism exists in our own society. Calling a dark skinned person ‘kala’ is something we see on an everyday basis. The discriminatory behaviour against south-Indians and North-East Indians is also appalling. Dark skinned Indians are jokingly referred to as ‘madrasis’ because for some strange reason these ignorant people think all South Indians are only dark skinned. North-East Indians are almost exclusively only called ‘chinki’, all black people are casually referred to as ‘negros’ and fair people are equated as beautiful and dark skinned people are equated as ugly. While we speak about global racism, we must also become aware about what’s happening around us, in our homes, our friend circles and our society, and do our part in thwarting the obvious as well as the subtle racism and colourism that exists all around us, in our everyday lives. What makes you beautiful is being a good and kind person, and not the colour of your skin. ✊🏻✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

A post shared by Malavika Mohanan (@malavikamohanan_) on

Well said, Malavika. This is truly a need-of-the-hour message.

On the professional front, Malavika will be seen playing the lead in Vijay’s next titled Master also starring Vijay Sethupathi, Gauri Kishan, and Andrea in pivotal roles.

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