I personally find it very wrong when people make fun of a particular ethnicity say Pathans.
That is the reason why i prefer not to have jokes about pathans in my inbox because well, it's wrong. If you consider pathans stupid or dumb, what do you know, you might be as dumb or stupid as them but just because they are pathans, you label them as dumb.
That's not right.
And then,
NOT ALL pathans are dumb and stupid.
Before I start off talking of one pathan I know, let me make one thing clear.
I am not a pathan. I am a person who thinks cementing ethnic divide is wrong and that it should be stopped. I am a person who believes in equality and fraternity. I, not being a pathan, am siding with the pathans who get discriminated about just everywhere.
Ok, so
Rayaan khan is my classfellow. He's been in my class since last year so I've known him for almost two years now. He was initially pretty weak academically and the entire class made fun of him. He has his own interests. He likes to sing and sings differently, in his own style. He likes to play football and yes, he has his own style of playing football.
Everyone makes fun of the fact that he is a pathan. So what?
If he belongs to a different ethnicity does that mean we start making fun of him and making him believe that he is worthless, he can achieve nothing in life because wherever he goes, people will crack jokes about him being a pathan.
What happens is if a 'pathan' stands like this :
We even make fun of that pathan standing that way as if he was doing something like this :
Pathans exist. They are a race. Sardaar's are a race, there are other so many other races within Pakistan. Why do we have to make fun of them because we aren't a part of them?
Think for a second, what if you were a pathan that you made fun of? Aren't pathans humans? If a pathan is sitting with you, is he only meant to be laughed at or made fun of?
And then, ok, even if there are majority of the pathans that are not so smart and all, why do you put a bad name to the entire race? It isn't so that all pathans will NOT be smart.
And this isn't even sounding convincing because of this idea instilled into our minds that pathans are always going to be dumb.
My really good friend Mahira is a pathan. She gets awesome grades. She is not dumb. She is smart. She thinks smart. Should I and the rest of my group start making fun of her because she is a pathan?
So when for example, Rayaan, my class fellow opens up a math book and starts practicing math in a free class, he is discouraged in class. People go on staying stuff like
'Aanay phir bhi wohi marks hain khan sahab ke'
and then, laughing at him. This will in turn make him feel really really bad that we never think about and probably even does,because of the fact that he has this khan attached to his name, the fact that he belongs to a pathan family, the fact that he is a pathan himself and that there is this big stamp of 'dumb, always illogical and stupid' on the name pathan,he will get laughed at EVERYWHERE for maybe no reason at all!
And at school and at workplaces, there is discrimination present.
Rayaan barely has any good friends. I don't say he always makes sense but even when he does, he is made fun of in class. ALWAYS!
There have been times when he has been a helpful hand, he has saved us from the tyranny of many teachers by for example, giving the entire class copies of those worksheets that we were supposed to get photocopied ourselves as homework but we didn't.
So, yeah, who's more responsible here?
Us or a 'Pathan'?
He has a different way of pronouncing words or reading but is always enthusiastic and eager to read. It may be funny, funny for those who are immature, Who look no further than 'rendezvous' being pronounced differently or maybe an easier word pronounced in a different way because that 'PATHAN' speaks like that.
I'm sorry but if you can't pronounce a word right and neither can a person who is a pathan, the person you make fun of, i define you in the same terms as you define a pathan at all times.
Let's extend a hand of friendship to these very pathans that we make fun of at our schools, colleges, universities and workplaces and all other ethnicities that we discriminate because only if we stop this, will we result in a healthier, co-operative and an overall better society in this sense at least.
