Racism or Favouritism???

Recently, when I saw and read about hate crimes and racist attacks, my heart went out to the college kids who bore the burnt of attacks. It is a pathetic sight for a parent to see their kid on TV with stab injuries! Punitive action should be taken against the attackers – no doubt!

But, if you observe carefully, what we witnessed was just another case of mugging which went terribly wrong, and the ramification was severe just because the attacker and victim were of a different skin color! Why do people with darker skin need to feel that they are being “racially” discriminated? So, do dark skinned people implicitly admit that the fairer skin is superior? Are dark skinned people not racist?

Think of the following situations…

1. A trader at a tourist location charging more for a bottle of water from a “foreigner” than he would for a fellow country man.

2. Our own Indian government which charges different rates for foreigners and citizens to visit Taj Mahal. I am quoting this as an example because, if our government had built the Taj and is collecting toll to recover the investment, it is absolutely OK to charge as the Govt., feels like. But, we invited the tourists and encourage them to travel to India and see the best of it, didn’t we?

3. In India, it’s a common sight to see “chinkis” (someone please sue me for using this word) from North eastern states waiting on us or cleaning up in restaurants. Why? Is it their core competence???

4. “Sardarji” jokes are the most popular e-mail forwards!!!

5. We all love making fun of “Madrasi” accents when south Indians speak Hindi!

6. Reservations for “SC / ST / OBC / MBC / BC” – Oh my God! A blatant admission of our racist behavior!

7. Why on earth is “Fair and Lovely” running its ads encouraging people to become fair??? Is it the most racist ad and product ever?

8. The so called representatives of the oppressed class – the Political parties, spreading messages like “Tilak, tarazoo aur talwar unko maaro juthe chaar” – which means hit the Brahmins, businessmen and warrior class with shoes!!

9. Imagine the innumerable situations when we have made fun of foreigners. Incredible India – a campaign run by our Indian Govt., persuades people to treat foreigners with respect. Why does the government have to do it if we already do not differentiate people based on color?

10. Just after conference calls in IT companies, when we get together to discuss how Americans or whites in general cannot do math and how they could not understand a simple concept or design, are we not being racist?

11. How many times have you seen a dark skinned guy in a marketing and sales team in our new age IT companies?

12. Let us go a little international.
1. Rwanda – An African country torn apart by civil war between two clans. Hutus and Tutsis. Only thing that separates them is one has a longer nose than the other, nothing more.
2. Sinhalese and Tamils in SriLanka. Both are dark skinned but there is bloodshed. Root cause of it in one word – “racism”.
3. I am sure an informed African would be able to make a laundry list (Senegal, Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia…..) of such brutalities committed by his own people in his own continent!

Given this, I feel that dark skinned people are just being hypocrites by calling the fairer skinned ones “racists”.

Come to think of it, I feel the term racism is used only in cases where a fairer skinned person is the attacker and dark skinned person is the victim. We as humans, by nature, differentiate ourselves on the basis of color of skin, language we speak, religion we follow and an endless list…, but why do we make such a big fuss only when we are discriminated on color of our skin?? I feel racial discrimination is no bigger evil than any other form of discrimination!

Furthermore, all forms of discrimination we see, hear, do and experience in our day to day lives, eventually culminate in racial profiling and hence I tend to believe that, probably, there is a racist in all of us. Just that some of us don’t roam around wielding knives and screw drivers and hurting people around. However, we do certainly hurt people, especially the lesser privileged (socially, economically and in any other way lesser fortunate than us) in many subtle ways (knowingly or un-knowingly) in our day to day lives.

There is only so much one could contain using laws and legislation. Humanity has come a long way on the issues of slavery and human trafficking. Beyond these, there are certain human tendencies, which, cannot be overcome but have to be endured. The best we could do is to strive to avoid confrontations or to level the playing field!

In the recent case in Australia, What could we have done differently to avoid confrontation?

Simple: “Be a Roman in Rome”!

When we travel to a foreign land for any purpose, it is our responsibility to mingle with the society as much as it is the society’s to welcome, accommodate and make us feel comfortable. We should be sensitive the local custom, culture, values and belief systems. We should understand the fact that we are an alien in a foreign land and we should make efforts to learn the system and adapt to it.

To understand how we could overcome subtle form of discrimination at work place, let us take another example. The world has become a “flat” and a multi-cultural work place is a common scenario. There have been stories in the past where racial discrimination formed a glass ceiling for many talented individuals. Today, an Armani suit, a game of golf and standardized wine and dine etiquettes seem to level those imbalances and hence has allowed people from a different ethnic backgrounds to take charge of large multi-national companies. Again, the underlying theme is to be a Roman in Rome and get immersed into the company culture where ever the company might be say, America, Saudi Arabia, India, China or Africa!

Let me clarify one thing. When I say “Be a Roman in Rome”, I am certainly not suggesting you to compromise on your fundamental value system. All, I am suggesting is work towards integrating with the alien system instead of standing out. After all, a metal plate does this my friends. When we fix a fracture with a metal plate, the metal plate is designed to integrate with the human body or at the least it is designed not to be allergic!

We humans will continue to have our own perspectives, prejudices and in some way or the other discriminate the less(er) privileged. Think of this world as an ecosystem. There is a certain hierarchy; there is a certain high and low state of energy. There is an inherent flow from one state to another. This flow is the essence of life. Ups and downs, highs and lows, good and bad, right and wrong, superior and inferior are the prime movers of materialistic life on this planet. So discrimination or if I were to put it positively, “favoritism” will always exist! The only way to overcome “favoritism” in any facet of life is by being a “Roman in Rome”.

So, let us not make much ado about nothing! The latest incidents are typical examples of certain natural human tendency which got blown out of proportion by some arbitrary middlemen like media, politicians who made merry of the situation. We need to understand that no one is better than the other and that it is natural for humans to differentiate and react.

I am sure the examples I shared with you might have sparked off a debate in your minds or at least provoked some thoughts. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the same!

- Ciao