Does Racism exist?
While talking to my father this weekend, he made a remark that will haunt me for a while. Flight XX075 was overbooked and I was trying to get on on with the legacy employee dependent ticket.
"There are about 25 people in the wait-list and you are the only Indian, the rest are all Americans and Europeans, so you will be last preference."
I was shaken. I couldn't say a word. Being an employee of a global corporation and having recently read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, I decided to investigate the matter further. Are we viewing the world through racist goggles? Or are the westerners genuinely unfair to us?
For starters, there's a lot to do with your background. It is about your experiences. How much the discrimination has affected you personally. I am sure the older generation with the likes of Max Mueller writing partially racist explanations of the 'ineffectiveness' of one part of the world as compared to other have achieved what they wanted to some extent. To make the Asians feel inferior to them by encouraging them to look at seemingly 'genetic' differences in the attitudes, physical characteristics and mental capabilities. How else would the older generation have explained the cleanliness and wonderful freeways of Germany and the while in India was a still battling poverty? So the times in the seventies when my father was hunting for vegetarian food in Europe, he heard an indifferent disregard to assist him with his deficiencies with the local language. "They don't want to help." is what he concluded.
That brings me to ask a question - what is racism? Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, I would think. Which often leads to assumption about a person financial status, but then discrimination on the basis of financial status is obviously not racist. Example? Just now I tried using the restroom intended for first class and the air hostess was pointing me to the other direction. I was determined.
"Yeah, but there is a huge line there, and it's very urgent."
OK, it's not like I have never been treated differently because of my skin color. The last two thoughtless insulting remarks I heard about my dark skin were in a country where racism is still a big problem. I have heard from other Indians too that they have been discriminated here. Oh no, it's not Liechtenstein - It's called North India - a fairly large land mostly flat piece of land where the Indo-Europeans camped some thousand years ago.
"Oi blackie, walk in the shade, or you shall be darker!"
"Kaala Bhoot! Kaala Bhoot!" (Black Ghost! Black Ghost!)
Jeers and more jeers. Children rolling on the floor with laughter making fun of the Southie's color. This has happened, my friends, and the victim was you-know-who. I pity the Nigerians who come to India to study.
I have, also, been discriminated in Europe. Accused of carrying a bomb. Yes! I was walking towards the train station, and I asked a white brother where it actually was, he looked at my laptop bag.
"Is that a bomb?"
"Yes, should I detonate it right now?", I said. Another incident was when I was called 'Muhammed' by a drunk lady in a bar - albeit in a friendly way. Now lets not say that was an innocent poke, or assume she had mistaken me for a friend of hers.
OK fine, maybe it was a joke. Poor taste though. Both of them. As to America, I cant say I have been discriminated against in any way, but then, hey, I haven't been anywhere down south for longer than 5 days. To some extent America's history of not letting the Afro-American vote till the sixties (as appalling as it may sound, it's true) as made the country super aware of the rights for the minorities.
So let's face it. Humans always tend to discriminate people visibly, on their face value. The North Indians thought I was stupid because I was dark. The British thought I had a bomb because I had a stubble. Tomorrow they might shoot me in Texas for looking Hispanic (that would be extreme, I admit). What you can control is how you perceive the little acts of discrimination that other people get into. Before that, I must tell you that I have become fairly capitalistic in my views. Men are not born equal, or at least some are more equal than others. However, our discrimination can transcend from a visual one to an intellectual one. So I encourage everyone to adopt something called Counter-Racism. Here is the idea. Since being racist is an attitude, why don't we turn the tables on the visually-racist and discriminate intellectually against them. Something on the lines of:
"Poor chap, he is a bit racist."
Going back to the flight on which I was wait listed, when I got home my dad says:
"There were two seats empty on that flight, they still didn't take you on board."
"Must be stupidity dad, not racism." I said.
"There are about 25 people in the wait-list and you are the only Indian, the rest are all Americans and Europeans, so you will be last preference."
I was shaken. I couldn't say a word. Being an employee of a global corporation and having recently read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, I decided to investigate the matter further. Are we viewing the world through racist goggles? Or are the westerners genuinely unfair to us?
For starters, there's a lot to do with your background. It is about your experiences. How much the discrimination has affected you personally. I am sure the older generation with the likes of Max Mueller writing partially racist explanations of the 'ineffectiveness' of one part of the world as compared to other have achieved what they wanted to some extent. To make the Asians feel inferior to them by encouraging them to look at seemingly 'genetic' differences in the attitudes, physical characteristics and mental capabilities. How else would the older generation have explained the cleanliness and wonderful freeways of Germany and the while in India was a still battling poverty? So the times in the seventies when my father was hunting for vegetarian food in Europe, he heard an indifferent disregard to assist him with his deficiencies with the local language. "They don't want to help." is what he concluded.
That brings me to ask a question - what is racism? Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, I would think. Which often leads to assumption about a person financial status, but then discrimination on the basis of financial status is obviously not racist. Example? Just now I tried using the restroom intended for first class and the air hostess was pointing me to the other direction. I was determined.
"Yeah, but there is a huge line there, and it's very urgent."
OK, it's not like I have never been treated differently because of my skin color. The last two thoughtless insulting remarks I heard about my dark skin were in a country where racism is still a big problem. I have heard from other Indians too that they have been discriminated here. Oh no, it's not Liechtenstein - It's called North India - a fairly large land mostly flat piece of land where the Indo-Europeans camped some thousand years ago.
"Oi blackie, walk in the shade, or you shall be darker!"
"Kaala Bhoot! Kaala Bhoot!" (Black Ghost! Black Ghost!)
Jeers and more jeers. Children rolling on the floor with laughter making fun of the Southie's color. This has happened, my friends, and the victim was you-know-who. I pity the Nigerians who come to India to study.
I have, also, been discriminated in Europe. Accused of carrying a bomb. Yes! I was walking towards the train station, and I asked a white brother where it actually was, he looked at my laptop bag.
"Is that a bomb?"
"Yes, should I detonate it right now?", I said. Another incident was when I was called 'Muhammed' by a drunk lady in a bar - albeit in a friendly way. Now lets not say that was an innocent poke, or assume she had mistaken me for a friend of hers.
OK fine, maybe it was a joke. Poor taste though. Both of them. As to America, I cant say I have been discriminated against in any way, but then, hey, I haven't been anywhere down south for longer than 5 days. To some extent America's history of not letting the Afro-American vote till the sixties (as appalling as it may sound, it's true) as made the country super aware of the rights for the minorities.
So let's face it. Humans always tend to discriminate people visibly, on their face value. The North Indians thought I was stupid because I was dark. The British thought I had a bomb because I had a stubble. Tomorrow they might shoot me in Texas for looking Hispanic (that would be extreme, I admit). What you can control is how you perceive the little acts of discrimination that other people get into. Before that, I must tell you that I have become fairly capitalistic in my views. Men are not born equal, or at least some are more equal than others. However, our discrimination can transcend from a visual one to an intellectual one. So I encourage everyone to adopt something called Counter-Racism. Here is the idea. Since being racist is an attitude, why don't we turn the tables on the visually-racist and discriminate intellectually against them. Something on the lines of:
"Poor chap, he is a bit racist."
Going back to the flight on which I was wait listed, when I got home my dad says:
"There were two seats empty on that flight, they still didn't take you on board."
"Must be stupidity dad, not racism." I said.
posted by Puru Iyengar at 12:56 PM
4 Comments:
hmm... I think US is among most tolerant nations of the world, black america notwithstanding.
and no prizes for guessing the most racist country of them-all. I live here!
a lot of 'racism' in the US might be in hiding, where people are so afraid of the consequences that they choose not to express their feelings in public. Anyway, better that way.
-Puru
Underneath the lies abt fairness and equality runs a shade of racism that is present in every country of the world.
The Americas
Europe
MiddleEast
Indian Subcontinent
Far East
There is racism everywhere; sometimes we are too naive to see it.
I just think it is normal human tendency to think that people unlike them (socially/ethnically/economically) are different/inferior. I am pretty sure you think that the North Indians (with their tandoori chicken, scotch on the rocks and bhangra music) lack the finesse which you might posses. It is impossible to avoid comparing people who are different from you with yourself and one invariably comes to the conclusion that the other person is inferior in some regard. The best one can do is to keep his/her feelings to him/herself and not let them spill on to their social interactions.
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