No app no website no page is going to save us

[Music]

scented

it’s what azalea banks called zayn manic

over a twitter dispute back in 2016.

banks was accusing malik of stealing

elements of her music video and

incorporating it into one of his own

unfortunately the confrontation got ugly

with banks calling malik a range of

nasty names ranging from the n-word to

homophobic language and eventually

a curry scented she later

apologized

now i’m not here to play morality to

police on

what happened during this twitter

exchange nor am i here to decide whether

zayn actually was a copycat

or to judge banksy’s use of social media

over the years

including recently digging up her dead

cap

but what i am more interested in is what

happened in the days to follow

this heated exchange the hashtag

curry scented went viral

and no not because fans of one direction

zane’s former band

were swooping in to support their

beloved singer but because

the young asian female diaspora across

the globe

took ownership of the slur images of

young brown women were filling up

feeds on instagram twitter and facebook

for me the hashtag reminded me of the

many times

i was worried that my school blazer

would smell of turkey

a smell i now love in brown cooking a

smell that no amount of

impulse body spray could mask

but more importantly i was tired of

carrying this

internalized self-hate that had been

with me since i was a teenager

a self-hate that derived from being told

that we had no place here

social media had helped change that

the digital age also had given

marginalized voices voices that had been

muted or ignored for so

long a platform to be heard

to show the world that we will no longer

be left

invisible as a brown woman

i felt a constant sense of erasure of

our existence and

by erasure i mean that our stories and

our voices are often ignored

our voices our story our history was

never mentioned in the school

textbooks the storybooks and the tv

screens but now

the digital world gave us that

opportunity we were

unmuted and we were ready to shout

as well as giving us a voice it gave us

a sense of sisterhood

and solidarity a unique bomb that hasn’t

happened in

any other time in human history it’s

happening in south asia but also

across the diaspora too

these platforms have allowed

marginalized women

women of color trans women and

non-binary people

to design their own forms of feminism

sometimes even a transnational feminist

vision

we’re currently in the fourth wave of

feminism

a wave characterized by a focus on the

empowerment of women

and the use of internet tools and

intersectionality

and like all waves they’ll probably fade

and move on

to the next but before it does i want to

make sure that brown women aren’t just a

footnote

in the history books

i’ve had a love-hate relationship with

social media over the years

but without it my journey as a spoken

word poet

would have never begun it transformed my

life

it gave me a way of instantly sharing my

story with a global audience and the

same goes

for other brown women that now become

household names

youtube stars like lily singh and liza

koshy

actresses like jamina jamil and social

activists like ashtakar

poets like rupee corps musicians like

mia

when my first poetry performance went

viral

little did i know that a new chapter in

my life life was about to begin i could

share

my words with the world and it could

actually make a difference

i found other inspirational brown women

too

they were online fighting against

patriarchy the systemic forms of

oppression the

eurasia i found poets and writers

academics

and friends ready to empower one another

many who truly changed my life i didn’t

have the social capital

or powerful allies and influential

positions that could

get me to the front of the line on tv

screens or at the top of a publisher’s

desk

all i had were my words my keyboard

a decent wi-fi connection a mission

and a dream a dream to make sure that

the brown woman’s experience in this

world could be a happier

and healthier one and that was

empowering

but all this empowerment that arrived

with the digital age

it came at a price i naively thought

that because nowhere no one could

physically hurt me or say anything to my

face that i was safe

but unfortunately i was very

very wrong there were people

especially men that wanted to mute me

again those that

feared seeing women at the title of

books

rather than in the footnotes telling me

someone with a history of

depression and anxiety that i should

kill myself

death threats rape threats troll attacks

bigotry and misogyny there are people

who hate women

so much they hate marginalized women

voicing their opinion so much that

they’d want you to die

and for what to make themselves better

or more superior

or out of fear that we women may

dismantle their patriarchal

understanding of the world

there’s also all the other scary stuff

too like data mining and cyber snooping

and the use of our personal

data as capital with us having no clue

about

it the kind of behavioral data that can

even be used in political campaigning

maybe it wasn’t such a safe space after

all

we’re left holding this double-edged

sword

the same place that gave us empowerment

and freedom to express

is the same thing that could cut us back

down

so what can we do to make sure that

brown women

don’t get muted again

well first we need to consider

how to be safe online and how to use it

wisely how to

use it as a tool than don’t be the tool

because if you don’t pay for a product

it’s most likely that you are the

product

and to consider what you use social

media for and how much of it you consume

turn your notifications off and your

self-awareness on

i usually remove social media from my

phone entirely

when i’m working on big projects or

during festive periods too

so that i can feel more present with my

family my friends

and my work diversify your media

so that you can use it as an opportunity

for learning and to think critically

about the information

and the news that you are seeing

unfollow

block or delete people who bring you no

light or no joy and protect your energy

because it’s precious and it could be

used more wisely in other places

we need to make sure that our voices are

being heard off

the internet too because ultimately

no app no website no page is going to

save us

it may help us heal you may help us find

solidarity and sisterhood in the

struggle

but it can’t be the only thing we rely

on we still need to be fighting for our

voice to be heard in wider fields too

in politics on screen in books in music

because

one kamala harris and one mirror seal

isn’t enough

think about the area that you work in or

the skill set that you have and how you

can use that

as your platform to be heard in a

sustainable

way and finally

we need to make sure that we take this

sense of community spirit this

sisterhood and solidarity

offline too whether that’s book club

supper club support groups monthly

meetups

art exhibitions music events or even

meeting up with someone for a cup of jar

for me tea has always provided me with a

sense of calm

and for generations brown women have

been having discussions about politics

and identity

about motherhood and relationships about

revolutions and change

over cups of tea we still need to hold

space for that

let’s lean into old traditions because

there’s still a magical energy energy

that can be found when you

meet with someone face to face when you

have a group

discussion in certain insane in the same

physical environment or

when you simply are in the same room

with people that you feel a sense of

solidarity with

a large group of brand women perhaps

elderly women

grandmothers or those with specific

health needs might not be able to access

the digital world in the same way that

we do

so we need to involve them in these

important moments of dialogue too

because these intergenerational

conversations can

benefit us all there is a power

in human connection and i’m not sure

that’s something that’s

always able to translate online

so let’s grab our cups of jar and head

to these spaces

make sure that we use the online world

safely and not to treat it as our only

means of empowerment and continue to

fight to make sure that our stories our

experiences

our voices never get erased

or muted again

i would love to finish up on one of my

favorite poems

entitled aging beauties

why do brown women hardly age

maybe it’s because they’re used to

swallowing ugliness

down in spades holding its height

in their belly and to never let it show

they’re aging on the inside but i guess

we’ll never know

how they’re dying on the inside learning

to bottle in that rage

the screams filling up in a cage that

they will later call a womb

a womb that will birth out a daughter an

ugly

loud fierce daughter fighting battles

like her mama taught her

so my sisters stand proud

loud and be heard like you should

let’s do it for our beautiful mothers

that never could