Indian travel vlogger says he was racially abused in South Korea

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Nomadic Indian, a travel vlogger from India with over 1.7 million YouTube followers, claimed he was subjected to racial discrimination during a recent visit to South Korea. The content creator, whose real name is Deepanshu Sangwan, recounted his experience in a video posted on Sunday.

What he’s saying: Sangwan recalled how some Koreans purportedly gave him uncomfortable stares, which he attributed to his brown skin. “We’re Indians, we have brown skin, what can we do? We were born this way,” he said. The YouTuber shared other encounters in his pinned comment, including an incident on a bus where a passenger allegedly shouted and made rude gestures while he was talking to a friend. Another alleged incident involved a man yelling at him at a restaurant, telling him he had “no right to film while people are eating,” even though he says he was only filming himself. Indian YouTuber Nikita Thakur highlighted similar instances of racism faced by Indians in South Korea in a December 2023 video, including one incident in which an Indian man was reportedly barred from a club due to a rule that allegedly prohibits entry to Indian and Pakistani nationals.
No grudge: Despite his experience, Sangwan pointed out that he does not hold a grudge against Korean people and still considers South Korea one of his favorite countries. However, he stressed that “if I don’t address these incidents, I won’t be being honest with my subscribers by only showing the good experiences,” adding that “it’s important to show both sides.” While he acknowledged the presence of racism in other countries, Sangwan said the issue is not prevalent in his homeland of India. Sangwan’s video has drawn mixed reactions, with some users correcting a translation error to argue that he was not being discriminated against. “11:40. This means that for safety reasons, you should film from the sidewalk. The translation is incorrect because ‘인도’ (‘indo’) has the same word for ‘sidewalk’ and ‘India,’ but different meanings,” one Korean user explained. Still, others shared similar experiences of purported racism, such as one commenter who noted, “I worked in Korea for three years. And I can completely relate to you.”