US blogger says Indians too poor to buy iPhone; draws flak on Twitter
Washington, Jan 5: An American yoga instructor and travel blogger recently made negative remarks about Indians in a post on Instagram and she was blasted as a result, even called "racist". She said Indians are too poor to buy an iPhone and that someone in "the poorest most overcrowded country" was likely to return his/her lost iPhone X.
Hailing from Indianapolis, Indiana, the 24-year-old blogger named Grady said she lost her expensive five-month-old iPhone X on the streets of Jaipur which she described as "the most scammy tourist cities in all of India". She also added that she didn't expect to get her device back since it was "worth more money than some people in this country will have in their whole lifetime". She also vented out her frustration saying anyone who finds it "probably would not even know what to do with it."
this so much colonizer cringe
— Hot Take Monger (@SanaSaeed) January 4, 2019
(h/t daya subramanian on FB) pic.twitter.com/msdTF9rQqQ
The social media in India was not happy with it. Many users found the American blogger's explanation as "condescending" and said it resembled "colonial hangover".
This man has restored polluted wetlands in Peru in days; should he be called in Bengaluru?
Grady, however, deleted her post but even her account after facing backlash. However, screenshots of her post had gone viral on Twitter by then and the Twitterati targeted her for her ignorance and even threatened to boycott brands of they did not stop working with the American blogger.
The woman later apologised for the post, saying: "I am sorry that my words did not give clarity to the intentions in sharing my story. I had no intentions to belittle the Indian culture. The moral of the story was the blessings and gratitude I had for the Indian people who helped me in a moment of panic when losing my phone in a foreign country. I apologize the most for the amount of pure hate that this has pulled out of so many people's hearts and spread around the world."
"Ask yourself - If you found a smart phone device on the street locked, out of service, broken, no buttons, and the software is not in your native language: would it be easy for you to find the owner and return it? For me, the answer is no. I think most of us would agree the answer is no. This has nothing to do with race, ethnicity, class, education, etc." she said in defence.
Some of the reactions that the Twitterati came up with for Grady's post are:
Wow, the cringe are top levels. She is also totally poor. Rich person would be like "shit, I'll buy new one once I return". Smart person would be like "Shit, that's a lot of unbacked data". https://t.co/jroas2k5Tb
— Muhammad Majid (@mhd_majid) January 5, 2019
If we see another brand collaborating with racist @mindbodycolleen we will take them down! Are these the values you want to project as a brand? pic.twitter.com/pUgALbtpT2
— Juanny DeVito (@juannydevito) January 2, 2019
"Hardly anyone in this country has an iPhone"
— shawarmapapi (@moaizmq) January 4, 2019
Read an article not long back from Apple saying how India alone has more than 10 million users of their mobiles lmao !!
Doubt all this even happened.
Star Plus Drama at its best. https://t.co/GaXzARmrd8
Why is this MindBodyColleen even allowed to make a living off Yoga when she thinks India is such a poor dirty country and that Indians can't afford anything and have no brains? Why?
— Chitra (@MyBookJacket) January 5, 2019
I love how she talks about the local Indians at being so technically illiterate that they can't use an iPhone. INDIA REACHED MARS WITH LESS MONEY THAN IT COST TO FILM 'GRAVITY'!!!
— Samar @TheMJAP (@TheMJAP) January 4, 2019
Don't let these people back into India! https://t.co/MfkJJmSuMO