Balpreet Kaur, dignified Sikh Lady with facial hair wins Huffington Post Religion’s Person Of The Year 2012
Remember Balpreet Kaur?
She is the Sikh girl with facial hair, whose picture was posted on Reddit and taken potshots at because she, a Sikh – wore a turban, had facial hair and a woman’s breasts. The story took a turn when the lady saw the pic which had made her an instant Reddit sensation, negatively albeit, and posted a very dignified and remarkably sane reply. This is what she wrote:
“When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away,” Kaur wrote. “However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can.”
The Redditor who had taken the shot at her then did the unbelievable by apologizing to her publicly. The apology was “I posted the picture of a Sikh woman on here and I’d like to apologize”
I know that this post ISN’T a funny post but I felt the need to apologize to the Sikhs, Balpreet, and anyone else I offended when I posted that picture. Put simply it was stupid. Making fun of people is funny to some but incredibly degrading to the people you’re making fun of. It was an incredibly rude, judgmental, and ignorant thing to post.
/r/Funny wasn’t the proper place to post this. Maybe /r/racism or /r/douchebagsofreddit or /r/intolerance would have been more appropriate. Reddit shouldn’t be about putting people down, but a group of people sending cool, interesting, or funny things. Reddit’s been in the news alot lately about a lot of cool things we’ve done, like a freaking AMA by the president. I’m sorry for being the part of reddit that is intolerant and douchebaggy. This isn’t 4chan, or 9gag, or some other stupid website where people post things like I did. It’s fucking reddit. Where some pretty amazing stuff has happened.
I’ve read more about the Sikh faith and it was actually really interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense to work on having a legacy and not worrying about what you look like. I made that post for stupid internet points and I was ignorant.
So reddit I’m sorry for being an asshole and for giving you negative publicity. Balpreet, I’m sorry for being a closed minded individual. You are a much better person than I am.
Sikhs, I’m sorry for insulting your culture and way of life. Balpreet’s faith in what she believes is astounding.
Well that Balpreet Kaur – the dignified and sane Sikh Lady has won the “Huffington Post Religion’s Person Of The Year” (link). Not Dalai Lama and not someone else, but this lady got the appreciation and the respect of all in the religion section on Huffington Post.
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