Author: Tara Amrapali Basumatary & Bonojit Hussain

Amrapali Basumatary teaches at Kirorimal college, University of Delhi and Bonojit Hussain is a freelance researcher and writer

Africans in Delhi often get yelled at as kala bandar or habshi, invariably laughed at and ridiculed, sometimes denied something as basic as milk in stores, refused houses on rent and made to feel inferior on public transport, harassed by police as potential criminals and so on. Similarly, the array of racist discrimination that people from the Northeast face, includes everything from actual violence to persistent racist remarks like chinky or safed bandar, stares and at times sexual harassment. Women of both the “races” are popularly perceived as sexually “available”.