The world is all in black and white. And according to me, brown, yellow and any other possible color too. I am not talking about environment here; I am talking about race; Racism to be precise, of color, religion and all possible denominations.
I was reading an article in the New York Times about the US presidential elections that delved in detail about the color of Barack Obama’s skin and his Muslim middle name, all the while emphasizing that he was Christian. Apparently, the article claims that people in the Arab world and Muslim states are excited that Obama may become the next US president. And all the excitement because Obama’s middle name is Husein.
As I thought of the article, a pattern started forming in my mind about various articles written by the global media, the actions of people and reactions of politicians and governments to the same. A pattern of separation by race, by color, religion, by social status.
I guess we, human beings, like to think of ourselves not only as better than the rest but as better than one other too. If we map conversations, we will realize that there is so much need to differentiate. America has color, while we have religion, caste, geography, etc., etc., etc.
The key question then is, how right is one country OR a set of people in terming others racist. In my opinion, most of us are racist at heart. There will be a few, who do not differentiate, but then they are evolved souls and if all people across the whole world were so evolved, we would be living in Paradise, won’t we?.
I have so often heard people in India or Indians living in the US, or elsewhere in the world, refer to Africans as kallus, the Orientals as chinks, the whites as goras, and Pakistanis as bloody Pakis to cite a few. And I am sure people from other countries will have their terms to depict people from different parts of the world.
If all this is not being racist, then what is. In India, we call people from the south as Madrasis, from UP and Bihar as Bhayyas, so on and so forth…the list is endless. And we still get offended when people from other parts of the world call us racist; this trend applies to people across countries.
As a reader your question would be, where am I going with this line of thought? To them I say nowhere. I am just trying to understand all the brouhaha over the term Racism when 99% of the world’s human beings are racist at heart. Therefore, do we take offense to being labeled a racist because we believe the allegation is unjust and a lie, or is it because it is the universal truth that 99% of us are closet racists and we feel offended and go on the defensive because we are living a lie?
It’s for you to look into your hearts and find the answer. And believe me, 9 of 10 times the answer that comes from our heart may jolt our conscience.
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