Hola Amigos.....
Wikipedia puts racism as " Racism is the belief that race is a primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race".
Racism has its roots in prejudice, violence, discrimination, lack of opportunities etc.. But the way Racism is perceived in today's world has completely evolved from what it began as. Today, the color of the skin, is the primary driver of racism worldwide. Color based racism is prevalent everywhere these days... from the football pitches in Spain to the local departmental store in Australia.
Every other day, we read of an attack on an Indian living in UK, France, Australia... name the country and you would have read or seen some kind of attack on an Indian in a foreign nation. The media portrays every attack as a racist attack which makes life for an immigrant, imminently hostile.
Our politicians are now using this media outcry of " Indians racially abused " for their own un-moralistic vested interests. We Indians are hypocrites of the highest order. We are the ones who are most obsessed with the color of the skin and yet we claim to be the victims when the same color based discrimination is doled out to us.
We are obsessed with "being white". This is evident from the number of fairness creams that are available in the Indian market. The ad-makers so shamelessly portray that having fair skin is the only way to success. Take the Fair & Lovely ad (or whichever fairness cream ad it is) for example; A make-up man's daughter is shunned by the panel because she isn't 'fair' enough. Instead of telling her that she is beautiful and talented, he takes out the fairness cream from his pocket. In a jiffy she becomes this 'Apsara' who has been sent from the heavens, bags the biggest role available in Bollywood, and is standing on the podium receiving the award for the 'Best' Actress and she thanks her father for being the reason that she's receiving the accolade and the father coolly credits the 'fairness' cream for her success.. Have we really become so shallow and fixated with fair skin that we can't look beyond it ???
Even the matrimony ads which are published in paper are farcical in nature. 9 out of the 10 days would read " Looking for a 'fair', slim, beautiful girl" I seriously root for these ostentatious ads to be banned because they are so demeaning to any self-respecting individual. Aren't intelligence, a good sense of humor and a positive attitude important virtues that you'd look for in your partner ? Is being 'fair' skinned the most important criteria ? The saddest part about these ads are that it is the Boy's mother who consents to such ads being published. Ask any Indian mother from Jammu to Tamil Nadu as to what kind of girl they'd want for their son and the answer most probably would begin as " Meri Bahu tho Doodh Jaisi Gori..." ( My Daughter-In-Law should be as white as Milk..)
And the sad part is, the public figures are not helping in changing this mindset. When you have mainstream actors like SRK, John Abraham, Shahid Kapoor, Genelia D'Souza etc promoting fairness creams, how can you expect the general mass to think otherwise. These are smart educated people to whom the younger generation looks up to.
We Indians need to look deep into ourselves and change our thinking before we start pointing at others as the proponents of color based racism.. We need to ostracize people who campaign that fair skin is the only ingredient for success. Start with a ban on baseless fairness cream ads and take a stand on the obsession of color and make people around us realize that discrimination on the basis of color is completely absurd and criminal.
I am a strong believer that change begins at home... and if we want color based racism to be wiped out globally, we need to start acting locally to begin to change people's mindsets....
Till next time... Adios...
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