What do you do when you realise that someone you think of as a hero is… well, not so cool after all?
I read about how Darren Sammy, the former West Indies cricket captain, was called ‘kalu’ by some of his teammates in the Sunrisers Hyderabad. He thought that they were praising him and and calling him a ‘strong stallion’. I read in the newspapers about how disappointed Sammy felt when he found out what the word ‘kalu’ really meant. That must have sucked. I felt really let down by the players who did this.
To find out that people who you thought were your friends and teammates were being racist. Racist . That is what they were. I know some of you reading this might think ‘hey! Take a chill pill, bruh!’, they didn’t mean it, or it was just a joke or they were using it as a fun nickname. And that’s what a lot of the Sunrisers players said when they were asked about it.
Don’t ignore
But is it really okay? Is it really funny? I don’t think so. No way. To take a whole person and then call them something that ignores what a great sportsperson or singer or writer or actor they are and then make it just about the colour of their skin or how they look. NOT COOL!
I know that there are all kinds of nicknames based on how people look — lambu, motu, Chinky — and people think it’s okay to use them because they’ve been around for so long. But, just because all the generations that came before us didn’t know any better, does that mean we shouldn’t know any better, either?
And it’s not just the people who use these names who are awful, it’s terrible if YOU hear someone calling someone else that and don’t say anything. It’s called being a bystander. I’ve been a bystander before. I didn’t want to stand out for sticking up for someone. Or, get picked on myself. So I stayed quiet.
The next time you hear someone use a word like ‘kalu’ or ‘motu’, say something. Speak out! Even if it’s your parents or grandparents or next-door neighbour. If we keep saying how wrong it is, who knows, maybe they’ll change. And maybe they won’t. But we have to speak out about these things.
I really hope the Indian cricket players own up and admit that they were being racist instead of trying to pretend like it was all a big joke. Maybe, I’ll be able to respect them again if they do.
