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Indians could probably learn a thing or two about racism, and what better place to do so than the classroom? The video titled The Indian Classroom Racism tries to do just that.

The six-minute-long video is not particularly funny, and nor is it meant to be. A bespectacled, kurta-wearing teacher informs a class full of cocky students that their use of derogatory terms like “momo” or “thukpa” while addressing a student from the North-East, or carelessly telling “Santa Banta” jokes in the presence of a turbaned Sikh student, is racist.

Of course, whether the video panders to another equally odious stereotype – that of the khadi-clad, jhola-carrying, greasy-haired “Hindi teacher type” – may be up for debate too.

The story opens with said teacher, Mr Sikhade, trying to initiate a debate on what constitutes racism. One of the students says racism is foreigners calling Indians “curry”. The students bicker among themselves and throw around words like “kaala kaluta”, “chowmein”, “Madrasi” while Sikhade explains to them – first with patience and then with invective-laden exasperation – that is is the use of such words that make us racists.

The video gets repetitive after a point. As does Sikhade’s explanation of what constitutes racism. But then this is a lesson that needs to be taught again and again. Because we seem to have bunked the class on racism.