As you may know, I am British but also Kazakh. This week with the news of “Borat 2” forthcoming release saturating my newsfeed, I was vividly reminded of mental torment I, my family and my Kazakh friends were put through with the release of the first “Borat”. The racist jokes, the daily abuse we were getting from white friends, acquaintances and strangers alike. Always with a chuckle, as in we should find it funny that our ancestral traditions and rich culture get appropriated and dragged through mud.

This time I decided enough is enough. Kazakhs are very soft charactered people by nature and never rebel but it is time to take a stand. If Sacha Baron Cohen, a white wealthy celebrity, created a, say, blackface character, he would have already been outcast and condemned. Yet somehow using a Kazakh, an Asian person, for crude cheap racist laughs, berating my nation, belittling our Central Asian race and racially abusing us so publicly and for significant money is ok. There is truly a double white privilege standard. This is a perfect example of how ingrained racism is.

I never post anything political here but I am strongly called to raise awareness of “Borat 2” being a highly racist film. And I hope that this message reaches Amazon so they can stop the release. Please help me. Read and sign this petition that I created, take further action as outlined in the petition and help the humankind take one further step towards racial justice.