If you’ve spent even a few minutes browsing TikTokover the past month, you’ve likely come acrosscontent creators pairing the wind tunnel faceeffect with a snippet of a classical Indian song.The premise of the wind tunnel trend —which has been replicated over 2.6M timesas of writing — may appear harmless.But Monique Virk, a 22-year-old studentfrom California, believes there are moreinsidious implications to the trend.In a now-viral video, Virk explained how usinga classical Indian song as the butt of aTikTok joke — especially when combined withmocking facial expressions or gestures —can contribute to discrimination.“I get everyone is just laughing at the filter,but why use that Indian song?
Is that filterwhat Indians look and sound like to you?”.“when you let little things like thatslide, you’re going to start to seepeople being even more offensive”.Ultimately, Virk says she hopes her storycan help others stop and listen beforeperpetuating potentially harmful ideals.“I know not everyone may agree, but instead ofinvalidating our feelings now that we are speakingup, it is important to try their best to understandthe message we are trying to get across”