Hari's Corner

Humour, comics, tech, law, software, reviews, essays, articles and HOWTOs intermingled with random philosophy now and then

Forgive me for not being shocked or outraged by racism

Filed under: People and society by Hari
Posted on Sun, May 12, 2013 at 10:05 IST (last updated: Sun, May 12, 2013 @ 12:28 IST)

Every now and then, I come across a news story wherein some person of the "wrong" ethnic origin is racially profiled or discriminated against in some international airport or in some other public place, and the media reacts with simulated horror and outrage at such practices. Even though such instances reveal the ugly mindset of racist thinking, I always remind myself of the state of human society some 100 years ago. Lest we forget, less than a century ago (which is a real short time in human history):

A large number of Asian and African countries were colonies of European imperialistic powers with little or no individual political identity. Racial segregation was the norm, not the exception. Entire communities were forced to live separate from their racial "superiors", in some cases, in ghettos.
Entire nations were denied education and jobs at the standards of their Colonial masters. Most of the colonized peoples were educated for employment only at lower level positions in Government and denied any say in the national policy of their own country.
People were denied access to clubs, hotels, restaurants, railway coaches and other public places on the basis of their ethnic origin/skin colour.
In some parts of the world, it was the official policy that certain races were inferior to others and that deportation/segregation/ethnic cleansing/genocide was the right way to deal with the problem.
Westernization was imposed by a the majority of the Imperial powers in their colonies in varying degrees and entire societies lost touch with their native culture and traditions. Of course, Westernization also brought with it a lot of benefits, but those are besides the point.
Inter-racial marriages were uncommon or frowned upon and in some parts of the world, outlawed. Even socializing between people of different racial origins was strictly controlled in many countries.
Slavery was still quite common, although it was slowly disappearing.

All these have more or less disappeared in the space of 50 to 100 years but still remain in the conscience of the former Imperial powers.

Everything has a historical basis and a background. Racism is no exception. It may be too much to expect that human beings have evolved to a state of being within a century where race/ethicity no longer matters at any level of consciousness. While It is true that racism/racial discrimination has been outlawed and has slowly become unacceptable in many parts of the world, I just don't expect feelings of racial superiority in the collective subconscious of entire communities to be entirely obliterated in the space of half a century. Indeed, I doubt if it is possible to eradicate it entirely by external influences, without some kind of inner spiritual evolution in the individuals that make up societies.

Don't get me wrong. Racism is fundamentally evil and a scourge of mankind. Every instance of racial discrimination makes me angry in a way, but I cannot pretend to be shocked at its existence or simulate an outrage I don't feel when instances of racial discrimination rear their ugly heads every now and then in some parts of the world.

6 comment(s)

I never thought about it this way. So true. In terms of the bigger picture this change is in its infancy.

Comment by Seeta Kasturirangan (visitor) on Tue, Feb 4, 2014 @ 18:39 IST #
Thanks, Seeta. Yes, the political debate today has changed so much and so radically. Reading history is rewarding because it gives some perspective to current issues.

Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Tue, Feb 4, 2014 @ 19:38 IST #
The flip side to this, Hari, is that without the outrage progress of the issue may stall. Hence, we may all need to keep up the outrage and the issue alive.

Comment by Seeta Kasturirangan (visitor) on Tue, Feb 4, 2014 @ 20:16 IST #
Oh of course, the issue needs to be in the collective consciousness of society as a whole.

Today the issue of racism is even more relevant as the case of Nido Taniam's death has brought out the ugly side of India's own brand of racism. But such incidents are serious, heinous cases of racism, and while racial profiling is a detestable practice, it is definitely not at the same level as beating somebody to death for their race.

Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Tue, Feb 4, 2014 @ 22:06 IST #
Delhi is especially bad. There are numerous reports on individual and collective experiences of people from various African nations as well as NE Indian states. Stories keep appearing in various news outlets. Of course, we also know how safe women are in our esteemed capital city.

Comment by Seeta Kasturirangan (visitor) on Wed, Feb 5, 2014 @ 08:01 IST #
Yes, the new ruling party in Delhi seems more keen on staging demonstrations, protests and playing one-upmanship games against the Delhi police/Centre rather than actually taking care of issues of Governance and law & order.

When a leading minister leads a mob of people to target Nigerian women on the basis of their race, it sets a very bad precedent.

Comment by Hari (blog owner) on Wed, Feb 5, 2014 @ 09:24 IST #

Comments closed

The blog owner has closed further commenting on this entry.

Hari's Corner

Forgive me for not being shocked or outraged by racism

6 comment(s)

Comments closed

Search

Navigation

Featured

Categories

Archives

Subscribe

Misc