A news article about the increase of police prosecution on illegal street vendors was headlined as “a crackdown on nut-selling Kaeks [Indians]” on the front page of a leading Thai newspaper yesterday. It was the latest in a string of examples of casual racism against people of Indian-descent that are casually accepted in Thai culture and presented in the media.
Kaek is a casual word Thais use often to refer to Indians, but in some cases, they also use the word to refer to people from other South Asian countries.
“Crackdown on nut-selling Kaek! [They] sell fabric, give loans, act like mafia, have settled here for a long time,” the headline read.
From a job ad that said “No Indians” to an apartment listing with the odd requirement of “No smoking, no India!”, the headline on Thairath felt like a slap in the face to the Indian and Indian-Thai communities and an example of blatant stereotyping.
A capture of the newspaper was widely shared online yesterday among people who felt that the article was insulting and unfair.
“Indians cover a wide range of professions from doctors, lawyers, engineers, hoteliers to social workers like myself. I don’t understand how they can still get away with such generalizations.
I was born in Thailand, and this country is my first home and will always be my home,” said Maynica Sachdev, who brought the story to attention of Coconuts this morning.
“I am born in an Indian family in Bangkok and it was hard being called ‘kaek’ and ‘juk’ throughout my childhood due to my religious beliefs. I love Thai people, they are kind and forgiving. However, seeing a leading newspaper using racial abuse is not acceptable,” said Veerachai Sachdev, a palliative physician.
“My only concern is that we as a society need to work together to get rid of racially discriminating words, media has a role to educate and not to instigate,” he added.
And it’s not only the media that indulges in this behavior. Thairath may have taken these ideas directly from high-ranking officials making generalizations and insulting large swaths of the population. The Thai Labor Department’s Director Arak Prommanee expressed his concern on the population of “Kaek” workers, who he said illegally “sell nuts and roti” on tourist visas.
“These people have migrated to Thailand. They’re in every district, every province, selling roti and nuts. There’s a lot of them. They enter Thailand on a tourist visa and work illegally. Some hired Thai women to marry them. They see Thailand as a heaven, and they wouldn’t leave.”
Vorasa Srichaikul, a tax manager at one of the big four auditing firms, was unpleasantly surprised by what she saw in the paper. She said, “As a Thai, I felt insulted that Thairath would publish such a misleading headline. Not only was it downright racist, it perpetuates the stereotype that people of Indian descent are nutsellers or bloodsucking money lenders.
“For a leading publication, their usage of the words in this context sends a message that regular Thais can use these words too, when in fact I don’t know any person of Indian heritage who is comfortable with the word [kaek]. There needs to be work done to create a message of unity amongst all Thais and things like this do not help.”
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