The word racists brings out sneers and aghast looks from most of the human race around me, but most of us don’t realise we are, in our own little way-a racist.
Living in India, I never delved too much on the subject, Gandhi faced it, so did Martin Luther King; did I honestly care? Not really. The only two times you think of it seriously, one if you are facing it and two if you are a racist yourself.
Coming to a different place, ensures that men envision their own land and fellow country men quite differently. I always thought Indians were intelligent, now I believe we’re a superior race as far as intellect is concerned. If there is a derivative problem to be solved and an Indian and Chinese come up with two different answers, I’d take the Indians-blindly. Don’t get me wrong the Chinese have a brilliant methodical brain, but I’m biased to the South Indian calculation skill set.
In a packed train, I’m seated and my station is about to arrive-who will be the lucky one to get my seat? you guessed right-the Indian. (barring the fact if there are elderly, or pregnant women-I’m human first). It doesn’t matter that the Indian has come back from an hour long of shopping and the other women are making their way home after a hard day of work.
The person I relate to most at work is a Pakistani, because he speaks the same language, he understands and appreciates shayari’s, he can share my kheer with me. When I get mithai’s I share it with only a few people-who said that the other communities will not enjoy Indian sweets, its just an assumption, but I don’t bother to find out, do I ?
Aren’t we racist within India as well? Gujuratis favour their own caste more ditto for Maharashtrians.
Sub-consciously the fact that we relate to a certain sect of people does play on our mind and affect our behaviour towards people. I belong to that section of people(which I believe is all humans)who connect with the like mindedness. Racist, I am indeed.
2 comments:
Preferring something you are familiar with over something that is alien is a perfectly natural human phenomenon. However, equating this to Racism is non-sensical.
Gassing 6 million Jews and giving your seat up for a lazy fellow Indian instead of hard-working a Chinese person - they don't stem from the same ideology!!! Even if they did the degree of execution of the ideology varies hugely in magnitude, hence making them incomparable.
And all this talk about "superior" race is another non-sensical concept. Even if there was such a thing, any one who has seen the functioning of the Regional Passport Office in Worli,Mumbai would agree that Indians definitely aren't the superior race!
Humans are victims of circumstance and habit. Race has nothing to do with intellect.
A lot of the points made in this post, "accepting the Indian solution blindly" , "relating to a pakistani who speaks the same language" leads me to believe that you are xenophobic and insecure in the company of people who are not similar to you rather than being racist.
However, if your next post is going to be about how you deliberately deprived a person of basic human dignity and rights purely because he/she wasn't the same race as you, then you will have earned the title of a racist/bigot!
Oh, and one more thing ... your theory/belief that all humans only connect with the like minded is wholly flawed.
If that was the case, no one would learn anything new.
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