Gandhi's Three Monkeys, Racism, et cetera
If you have read something about Gandhiji, you are likely to have come across the three monkeys. He had a small statue of them. One of them covered his eyes, the message being, "see no evil". The second monkey had his ears covered, urging to "hear no evil". The third monkey covered his mouth who "speaks no evil". I believe we have grasped the message well and are doing the same; the teeny tiny difference being our ignorance of diversity. The three monkey today signify the principle - see no diversity, hear no diversity, speak no diversity; else you're a racist, xenophobic, narrow-minded, et cetera.
A simple google search tells that racism is "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Pretty simple to understand, right? Apparently not!
Homo Sapiens reside in different parts of the world. Owing to the geographical conditions and lack of mobility initially, people developed different appearances and cultures. So say while an Indian would touch the feet of his elders, a Brit will probably prefer a handshake. We will also have different appearances, resulting from something called geography, genetics, and evolution. Those living closer to the equator have a higher content of melanin and those away from it have less of it. The former people are dark skinned and the latter aren't. Now, when two dark skinned humans reproduce, the offspring is dark skinned as well (courtesy genetics). Same goes with white people. We also have differences in our eyes, nose, lips et cetera. It's as simple as it can get.
And hence, we have humans in different colors and appearances. We can't ignore this diversity. It exists. It's around you. If you are in a cosmopolitan place like the US, you will have all sorts of people around - Asians, African-Americans, white people. India has its fair share of diversity too.
Unfortunately, we have reached a state of political correctness where the accepted standard is to completely deny the differences. To illustrate my point, let me share an anecdote I came across on Quora. A 10-year-old white kid who was given the role of Dad in a play had another white kid as his wife. However, their child in the play was of Indian origin. The kid asked his teacher if his child in play was adopted because two blondes wouldn't produce a brown kid. And that was the tipping point. The kid was deemed to be racist, and later, the blame was shifted to the parents who were proclaimed to be racist bigots. In a nutshell, you need to be cautious while acknowledging the diversity around you.
I call this "Contemporary Racism" and this is how we produce Donald Trumps and Marine Le Pens. We pretend as if there are no differences, that everybody is just the same - in appearance and in culture. Someday, a Trump had to come, telling people that they were, in fact, being lied to.
The idea, ladies and gentlemen, isn't to ignore the diversity. The idea is to celebrate it, to get rid of our prejudices and understand different cultures without labeling them inferior or superior, to tell our kids that Asians look different but that's immaterial and last but not the least, to accept that two blondes wouldn't produce a brown kid.
Footnotes:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qArvBdHkJA (You are welcome!)
A simple google search tells that racism is "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Pretty simple to understand, right? Apparently not!
Homo Sapiens reside in different parts of the world. Owing to the geographical conditions and lack of mobility initially, people developed different appearances and cultures. So say while an Indian would touch the feet of his elders, a Brit will probably prefer a handshake. We will also have different appearances, resulting from something called geography, genetics, and evolution. Those living closer to the equator have a higher content of melanin and those away from it have less of it. The former people are dark skinned and the latter aren't. Now, when two dark skinned humans reproduce, the offspring is dark skinned as well (courtesy genetics). Same goes with white people. We also have differences in our eyes, nose, lips et cetera. It's as simple as it can get.
And hence, we have humans in different colors and appearances. We can't ignore this diversity. It exists. It's around you. If you are in a cosmopolitan place like the US, you will have all sorts of people around - Asians, African-Americans, white people. India has its fair share of diversity too.
Unfortunately, we have reached a state of political correctness where the accepted standard is to completely deny the differences. To illustrate my point, let me share an anecdote I came across on Quora. A 10-year-old white kid who was given the role of Dad in a play had another white kid as his wife. However, their child in the play was of Indian origin. The kid asked his teacher if his child in play was adopted because two blondes wouldn't produce a brown kid. And that was the tipping point. The kid was deemed to be racist, and later, the blame was shifted to the parents who were proclaimed to be racist bigots. In a nutshell, you need to be cautious while acknowledging the diversity around you.
I call this "Contemporary Racism" and this is how we produce Donald Trumps and Marine Le Pens. We pretend as if there are no differences, that everybody is just the same - in appearance and in culture. Someday, a Trump had to come, telling people that they were, in fact, being lied to.
The idea, ladies and gentlemen, isn't to ignore the diversity. The idea is to celebrate it, to get rid of our prejudices and understand different cultures without labeling them inferior or superior, to tell our kids that Asians look different but that's immaterial and last but not the least, to accept that two blondes wouldn't produce a brown kid.
Footnotes:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qArvBdHkJA (You are welcome!)
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