After writing a disastrous article about Priyanka Chopra in which the author Mariah Smith claimed that Chopra is a “scam artist,” she has issued an unconditional apology on Twitter. The author has said that she does not condone, “sexism, racism or xenophobia.”
The publication, The Cut quote-tweeted her and apologised further for “letting everyone down in the process.”
On 5 December, author Mariah Smith had written a spiteful article about the Priyanka-Nick relationship and how Chopra was using Jonas to gain popularity in the west.
The article assumed that North America is the center of the world and that a person’s popularity is adjudged only by analysing how ‘liked’ that person is in North America. The article was poorly researched, playing on racist stereotypes and bereft of any factual information.
The author claimed that Nick Jonas just wanted a “fling” with Hollywood’s newest ‘it’ woman and got conned into marrying her.
Both Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra are adults who understand the consequences of their the decisions. So, chances that Nick Jonas was blindfolded into the marriage are bleak. Both in terms of numbers and popularity, Chopra is a way bigger star than him.
So, if this marriage is purely a ‘business’ marriage then Nick Jonas has got a great catch to piggyback upon and catapult himself into a market that has over one billion people.
The article also looks at the Hindu traditions from an Americanised, ‘I-don’t-get-third-world-traditions’ way. The author again assumes that Nick Jonas was forced sit on horseback for the Hindu wedding.
She looks at Jonas as a ‘poor, little fellow’ who was made to gallop on a horse and then asked to make money out of it.
Unfortunately, the article was not just racist, it was sexist and xenophobic. She ended up painting the Hindu traditions as something that the Americans would never understand. And since they’d never understand it, they’d may as well make a mockery out of it.
Inadequate knowledge is more harmful than complete ignorance. That’s what the problem with this piece was. The piece has been removed from the website and this is what we see when we click on the link:
But the world has not stopped talking about how harmful this article is and how women, especially women of colour, still have a long way to go when it comes to global acceptance.
Priyanka Chopra was the first-ever crossover artist to become the lead on an American TV show. She is also the first Indian to feature on Vogue USA. She has a production house, a full fledged career in both the Hindi film industry and Hollywood.
What Priyanka Chopra has achieved and will achieve gives every Indian immense pride. With or without ‘western’ recognition she will be our desi girl forever.
If this is what being a “scam artist” is, then a lot of us would like to become one.
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