During the post-war period in the second half of the twentieth century which saw large-scale immigration from the commonwealth nations of India and Pakistan (and later on Bangladesh), a growing South Asian presence was created in Britain. This became even more pronounced when in the 1970s the wives and children of male migrants who had arrived in the 1950s came as part of the family reunifications, increasing the population by three-fold from 112,000 in 1961 to 516,000 in 1971. While when these male migrants had arrived a ‘myth of return’ was attached to their presence which was believed to be temporary, the migration of women and children from the Subcontinent confirmed that these migrants were here to stay in Britain.
As the number of migrants from ‘black’ commonwealth nations increased, including the Caribbean and African countries, paki-bashing became a strategy that was employed by the white population to intimidate the South Asian population into fear and assert their racial superiority. It is important to note, that South Asian people were categorised as ‘black’ which served as a racial tool used by the British state to impose restrictions on migrants they deemed as ‘undesirable’ due to racial and cultural reasons. Paki-bashing followed a similar pattern to the intimidation that Caribbean and African populations faced, which included attacks on their homes, school children being bullied, and campaigns by white supremacist groups to physically intimidate them by targeting areas that had a high concentration of migrants living in them such as the East End, Notting Hill, and South-East London. For example, on May 4th, 1978, Altab Ali a Bangladeshi migrant living in the East End was murdered on the streets of Whitechapel in what was known as a racially motivated attack. White supremacist groups such as the National Front engaged in organized and systematic patterns of violence against the local Bangladeshi population of East London, using slogans such as ‘Blacks out’, ‘White is right’, and ‘Kill the black bastards’. In this way, due to the historical context of racism in Britain, ‘paki’ is not an abbreviation of the ethnicity of ‘Pakistani’ because of the clear tone of disgust behind the word; it is a racial slur that has been weaponised against South Asian people.
A recent incident with a YouTuber inspired me to write this article because I believe that as a Pakistani woman, I have the right to comment on this and offer my criticism of his racist behaviour. In a Sidemen video, KSI said the word ‘paki’ in order to gain points in a game which he believed was acceptable because he warned his audience prior that he didn’t mean it in a ‘malicious way’. His awareness that this word has a malicious motive behind it implies that he knew he shouldn’t have said the word in the first place, and then proceeds to say it again (but is censored by the editing) which makes his friends laugh as if he’s said a funny joke. KSI was under the false and delusional impression that as a black man, he is allowed to be racist towards non-black populations, and that no one would call him out on his racism. The reality is that being black does not exempt you from holding racist beliefs; men and women of colour are perfectly capable of holding prejudiced views towards other races and ethnicities, and many do. The same way KSI holds prejudiced views towards Pakistanis is the same a Pakistani can hold prejudiced views towards black people.
This entire situation has been severely downplayed by KSI fanboys and white people in online comment sections but begs an important question that needs to be addressed. If a Pakistani man, or if we stick to the sidemen circle, if Vikstar has said the n-word in order to gain points in a game would people defend his actions and deflect by labelling those who find it offensive as ‘soft’? I am certain that would not have been the case because in people’s minds, there is a hierarchy of racism, which places certain types of racism above others. Racism towards the black population is placed at the top of the hierarchy, while racism towards Pakistani people is placed at the bottom and thus ignored and trivialized.
In order to write this piece, I asked my Indian friends and my siblings to offer their opinion on the KSI controversy, and here are some of their views:
One of my friends said that “If there is no backlash against KSI, he will think that it’s okay to say the word and will keep saying it.” As a Christian woman, she mentioned an example of an Indian comedian who used Christianity as the pun of her joke, which received backlash from her audience and acted as a statement of their anger at her action. When I asked her about the word ‘paki’ itself, she said it shouldn’t be used because it has “bad associations” and “it’s not a real word used by people”.
Another friend of mine believed that the reception of the situation had been unfair. She mentioned how white celebrities have been “cancelled in the past for posts they had made as a teenager”, for example Camilla Cabello, Iggy Azalea, and Justin Bieber, but that this happened in the present day and wasn’t taken as seriously. Upon searching on Google that KSI is a 29-year-old man, she felt he should have been held more responsible because the excuse of youth or ignorance is not applicable to him.
My brother had an interesting perspective to offer by making a comparison to the black lives movement. He said, “They talk about BLM but then say paki like it has no history behind it”. He also mentioned how KSI had no right to say the word and that the people defending him are the “same people who call South Asians working in the corner shops pakis, spit in their faces and rob their shops”.
My sister who studies at Bristol University talked about the failure of the British education system to teach people about the experiences of South Asian migrants in Britain. She mentioned how a guy from her university said the word ‘paki’ thinking it was short for Pakistani, which she corrected him for. As I myself don’t watch KSI or Sidemen content, my sister offered me some context of his fanbase. She said, “He got too comfortable with the Muslim community and thought he was exempt from the repercussions of saying it.” She went on to say that, “He thinks he’s part of the ones allowed to say it because he thinks he’s got the respect of the community due to positive feedback he got before from appreciating the culture [by saying words like ‘wallahi’]”. Apart from the obvious fact that saying two Arabic words does not make you part of the South Asian community, especially since Arabic is spoken in the Middle East and Africa not in South Asia, people make the mistake of conflating religious and cultural identities. KSI believed that because he had the respect and admiration of Muslims, he could use a racial slur that has been and is still used against some of them.
My final thoughts are that education is the antidote to ignorance and racism; teaching people about the history of ethnic minority communities in Britain will help people understand the harm that saying seemingly ‘innocent’ words can cause. I believe that KSI was fully aware that saying ‘paki’ is wrong but because for so long, people have said the word and no one has had the courage or knowledge to call them out on it, he thought he could get away with it. Calling people out on their racism is one way to tackle the issue; the other is to educate yourself.