I am a racist
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I think one of the best movies that ever came out of Hollywood was the 1968 classic — Stanley Kramer’s “Guess who’s coming for dinner”. It is a popular favourite among movie fans. It is a movie about love, about good parenting, class differences and above all about racism. In fact it is a movie about colour-blind love to be precise. I have a favourite line in that movie. It’s the scene when the white mother tells her white husband that their white daughter is in love with a black man. And the mother played by Katherine Hepburn thus goes: “It’s not just that our color difference doesn’t matter to her. It’s that she doesn’t seem to think there is any difference.” That is the beauty of the golden oldies — the dialogues. They were precise and conveyed serious meaning with no trace of ambiguity. Well this is not a belated movie review. My point is that something more current but related to the issue the movie deals with. For all practical purposes I am a black man. OK brown to be precise. Hues and shades don’t matter here. The point is I am non-white. I don’t feel inferior about it. Neither do I have a misplaced notion of being an underdog. This is just the surface. The truth a bit deeper and its quite unsettling. I find that I am constantly reminding myself of my skin colour. I did not have this issue for 37 years in India. But in a country like the UK where the whites out-number other skin colours, I seem to think that I am a minority. Not a victim, but just a numerical minority. It has been nearly a year since I came to this country. With absolute certainty I can assure you that neither me nor any of my family members have had any experience that suggest that our skin colour is alien in this country. Yet, I constantly judge. Every normal experience I have is evaluated by my notion of racism. I find that before a white takes a seat next to me in a bus or the tube, he or she scans for other vacant seats. When there is no other vacant seat, they unwillingly sit next to me or sometimes prefer to stand. Or so I think. When me and my visiting Indian friends were made to wait for a bit longer in a Pizza Express outlet before our order is taken, I refused to tip and mumbled something about the white waitress being a racist. Another day, I found myself in a new neighbourhood not very far from home while trying to catch a bus home. Two buses went by and did not stop despite my hand-signaling. A black lady who was waiting with me said it was a bigoted neighbourhood and white drivers will not stop when they see the stop has only blacks waiting. I turned around and noticed that it was an all-black crowd at the stop. Well may be the lady was right. I have met the sweetest white man on the street who took me on a ‘Jack-the-Ripper’ walking tour and the rudest black man in the bus elbowing me for more standing space. I have been cursed by an old white lady for looking at her weird dog for a few seconds longer and have had the most interesting conversation on Christianity with a black cab driver. I find that racism is not about skin colour. It’s just about people and their stupid prejudices. And more importantly it’s not just about white against black. In can be as much the other way around too. Extreme cases of race hate is easy to notice and write about. They are obvious and don’t demand a terribly intelligent mind to comprehend its existence. It is the inherent and deep-seated notion about race that worries me more. Personally I would feel free from this mental baggage when I stop noticing the skin colour. Until then I will consider myself to be racist. It does not matter if doesn’t manifest itself in a prejudicial form.
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(25 votes, average: 4.16 out of 5)
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September 21st, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Being served late, being ignored by a bus driver… boy, grow up, kid. Racism/group prejudice has had much worse consequences than that. Right here in India as well, but money is vibrant, it can buy lots of whitewash and media praise (for “development”, “good governance” etc etc etc).
September 16th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I knew a “Kalyana Ramanathan” from Chennai in the distant past - perhaps in the late 90’s - when he used to work with a relatively less-known Business Publication from the South. Later he started some kind of a web-designing venture briefly. Are you by chance the same author? If so, do send me a reply. Sorry to use this forum - don’t know any other means of getting back in touch. Naren, Chennai
September 16th, 2009 at 11:14 am
http://anilanilanil.blogspot.com/2008/06/micro-racism.html
September 15th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I agree with the statement that racism is not all about colour. Discrimination of any sort stems from a feeling of superiority. Whenever an individual considers himself better than another, in terms of economic/social status, academics, or even upbringing, prejudice somehow always manages to creep in some way or the other. The degrees of prejudice may however differ depending upon the extent of the superiority complex.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hi All Racist
We Indians are legacy racist . Our constitution allows legally to discriminate based on caste and religion . India is divided based state , caste , religion etc etc.
In Mumbai a person called Raj abused the north Indians and he is not behind bars rather govt has provided him Z plus security. I get surprised when Indian complain about racism . I think no Indian has right to complain about racism. We should say ” Racism is OK , we are used to it, we just call cast-ism ( in Hindi ) in India .
September 15th, 2009 at 8:40 am
Very good observation. But I feel more than that. UK is an old country which has ruled for years and world is changing very rapdily now. Since they have ruled for so many years so it is obvious that they wont like someone standing beside them with equality whose parents you have ruled for years. Or atleast they will try to make sure that though someone stands beside him with equality, let him feel deprieved just by sipmly putting community or nationalism in fron and by showing a false unity which appears but in real it is not. and that’s exactly is what we call as UNITY or PATRIOTISM…they are nothing else…
I think sometimes, we just ignore the facts or simply do not think about it.
I like the fact that WE ALL ARE RACIST, but its just a matter of time where we are. There are many in India, where they do not like other caste, other state people, or poor people. So in our country itself we have many UK’s.
Not because we are producer of something, though we boast of, but a hugh consumer. So now they are more sophisticated business man and they are killing us other way. Just by saying that we are great or biggest economy of the world of course we are and I am not undermining the fact. But we have to stand on our feet first and the should become a dream powerhouse and then only world will start respecting us.
In the end I would like to say that yes we all are racist and we have to be …its just a matter of time and …but we have to understand ourself first
because when you point others, four other fingers are pointing at you which tells us that first look at yourself and then start pointing others.
So introspection is the key here and stannd tall because we are INDIAN…I know I am becoming a racist to others when I say India..but this is the fact that thy are coupled togther and hard to define…It’s just individual’s perception…
September 14th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Good piece Kalyan. I agree with you that racism is not about skin colour, it’s about people’s prejudices. I can only think of one of the wonderful quotes of Martin Luther King Jr –”We aren’t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.”–
September 14th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Dear SRK. You have seem to forgotten the fact that its only a few centuries ago, whites of Any country- name the country France/ Germany/ UK all Felt superior enough to invade, colonise and terrorise the locals in every continent in the guise of East India trading Company or the French foreign legion or the German Legion.. It was Africa- Asia- Australia-everywhere. Name the civilizations in all of organised world and follow them through- All of them derived sadist pleasure from orphaning INDIANs-as they called all native folk of invaded lands. To the extent of stuffing the specimens and bringing back trophies from Far away lands. No living creature was spared- man or animal.Such barbarians they were.
Now there’s a unique character these whites possess- which is not shared by the uneducated illiterate third world INDIANS- we fail to read, register our relevant history. We mug dates and events but don’t understand the series of events in history. Therein lies our shortcoming.
They still remember themselves as the invaders-and us coloured skins as the invaded.
So- my friend you cannot equal the invaders and crib about being a racist!
The principles of human civilization may have changed- but the human brain inside the bony skull hasn’t left its bony cage- it still remains caged within the boundaries of nepotism- you cannot rid that character.
All the loose talk of equality is spoken by the bow-ed and tie-d white aristocrats who themselves never share a cab with the lowly Black- they ride singly in their limousines driven by another white- and expect the commoners to ride in rails and trams with the Blacks! Infact even I find that amusing.
September 14th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Very Nicely Said. Everyone is a racist in one way or another.