Don't be ashamed if you can't speak English, says Hamza Ali Abbasi to Sarfraz Ahmed
Our obsession with the English language is a colonial hangover we haven't been able to shake off.
And Hamza Ali Abbasi is calling us out for it.
In an adorable Facebook video, Hamza sent out a message to our cricket team, particularly Sarfraz Ahmed who was swamped by reporters speaking in English after an amazing win against Sri Lanka.
Ahmed stumbled a little while responding and soon after, the star athelete became the victim of relentless social media trolls:
Hamza drives home a really important point about how it's wrong to make fun of people who don't know how to speak proper English, especially considering the fact that it isn't even our first language. The Mann Mayal leading man also pointed out that the cricket players are there to do what they do best (most of the time anyway!) which is play cricket.
"If we want to give constructive criticism, we should critique their game; their English speaking skills are, or at least should be, irrelevant. The people who are making fun should free themselves from their mental slavery to colonialism," added Abbasi.
Abbasi also gave the players a simple suggestion: get a translator if you have a press con involving international media and do it without shame!
Majority of the people in Thailand or France don't know English very well but they own their sense of identity, language and culture. We, on the other hand, tend to act like we're ashamed of ours. Maybe time will change things but for now, we must learn to check our privilege.
We don't always agree with Hamza Ali Abbasi but he hit the nail right on the head with this one.
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