How Racist Are You?

Vihan: Let’s go to Covent Garden. They have the best brownies in the world!


Frida: No Vihan, you’re the best brownie in the world.

Frida was interrupted and chastised for that comment by Betty. Although Vihan, and the other students, realized that Frida meant it only as a joke, Betty took it seriously.

But how could Frida come up with a comment like that, even as a joke? Because we have been pre-conditioned to certain set ideas and norms about people in general; the greatest divide being that between the white world and the rest of the world.

America has been the biggest melting pot of cultures over centuries. But I have not walked the streets of America. Nonetheless, I have walked down the British roads and travelled on the tube enough to notice subtle racial attitudes that the country continues to propagate.

Every non-white is given a second glance. One could argue that it is a general glance of curiosity. But then why doesn’t a white man or woman receive that glance?

British legal documents have a clear divide based on your ethnic origin – you are either White (British/Irish/Other) or you are Mixed (White & Black Caribbean/White & Black African/White & Asian/Other) or you could be an Asian/Asian British (Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Other) or a Black/Black British (Caribbean/African/Other) or Chinese/Other Ethnic Group (Chinese/Other). Does any of this make any sense?

For documentation purpose I am ready to understand the information of whether you are a British citizen or not. But I fail to understand the need for the other bifurcations. If I am a British citizen then what difference does it make whether I am an Asian or a Mixed or a Black? How would that affect my work and talent?

The Whites alone can’t be blamed as being racists. It has trickled and seeped into every corner of the world. And if you deny then let’s answer a few questions:

1. When was the last time you looked at a man with full grown beard and did not move a step away?

2. When was the last time you realized that you were next to a Muslim and you did not scan him and his luggage for anything suspicious?

3. When was the last time you looked at a leather jacket-wearing black boy and did not stare at him, noticing his every move with suspicion?

4. When was the last time you looked at a white woman and did not wish that you had her skin tone?

Racism may not be as blatant as it used to be but that does not mean that it does not exist. It exists in our minds each and every single day as we step out of our house. We choose to live in denial because we are not at the receiving end. But denial is not easy for those who did not choose their family or their skin colour or their ethnicity, yet have to pay a price.

I should be thankful to my aunt for giving me an Arabic name although I was born into a Hindu family. I am thankful not only because it taught me that human bonds are bigger than ethnic backgrounds but also because time and again it helped me see the latent racism that exists in our society. I can recall the times I was given a suspicious look or a second glance because of my name. I was forced to reveal that I am a Hindu to make them calm down. At that age, I was, for some unexplainable reason, proud of being a Hindu and wanted to
change my name to a traditional Bengali name, thanks to all those people who kept asking me why I did not have a traditional Bengali name. Today, I am proud of who I am, which is beyond the ethnicity that I was born into and the name that was given at birth. I am not the perfect human being but I am proud that I have been able to take a step forward and identify my mistake.

I cannot claim that I am not racist. I too am guilty of racial behaviour and thoughts. I can recall being suspicious of a Muslim, not because he is Muslim but because he is a Pakistani because “all terrorists are Pakistanis”. What I forgot in that moment was the fact that “all Pakistanis are not terrorists”. What I forgot was that terrorism exists within my country too and none of them are Muslims. What I forgot was that a lot of other countries across the globe have terrorism and the perpetrators are not Muslims. Yet, I am weary of a Pakistani but not an Italian, as if the Mafia doesn’t exist!

We are pre-conditioned and these conditionings work deeper than all our education. Would the world be any different for me if I was born a white girl or in Pakistan? May be it would in some respects but would that change the very basis of human existence – all men were created equal in the eyes of God, or were they?

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/how-racist-are-you/
http://www.nfb.ca/film/jaded