Well, yes, racism IS alive and well in the world. It has always been and perhaps always will.
Humans like to feel superior. To someone. Anyone. And we show it by treading on them. Many races have shown this propensity since time immemorial. From those marauding sailors emanating from Europe to colonize the world, to the Japanese who enslaved Koreans, to the Mongols who took over the entire Indian subcontinent - it has always been so. The Crusades were an excuse for a racist rampage of murder. The Holocaust was a racist rampage of murder.
I think of "racism" as being a particular form of "schismism", or any form of discrimination against "others". "Racism" comes in many forms, if you think about it. In itself, it is when one race discriminates against another. But, really, it is core human groupist behaviour to discriminate Us against Them, to the sole effect of making Us feel superior. We have always had it. "We can beat them up", is the most common feeling of superiority. "We can beat them up and enslave the strongest of them" was American slavery of Africans. "We can beat them up and kill masses of them" was Nazi racism against Jews. Less obviously "racist" are the Hutus' butchery of Tutsis and vice versa, Shia conflict against Sunni and vice versa. Indians - all of the same color, height and language - are deeply divided on this genetic schism we call "caste" now and piously called Varna before. Yes, even the vaunted Hindu scriptures had built-in-racism into the class system - but maybe more on that in a later post.
I don't want to muddy the waters by talking of "schismism" and annoying half my readers with Royesque invention of words, so I will continue to speak of "racism", because "collectivism" has been usurped as a socialist philosophy and perhaps because "groupwise discrimination" has too many syllables and too many letters to type.
So here is my thesis: that racism is built-into the human psyche. Yes, not yours or mine, but we see it all around us, don't we? We see sexism/misogyny on a daily basis. We see anti-LGBT behavior from cis (straight) folks everywhere. We see antipathy and animosity to people of other religions all the time; why? because Ours is the superior religion. But are any of these superiorities real? Are males really the better gender (I see examples to reverse that thesis everyday :-)? Is gay sexuality, or transgender dressing, really deviant - we see examples in the animal kingdom, so it is very likely natural. Is my religion really superior to yours? They were all invented by humans and should all probably go the way of Greek gods and goddesses - into history textbooks.
We humans enjoy these social discriminations and feelings of superiority. Until, that is, when we become comfortable, educated, well-to-do. Then, we begin to think and we appreciate that people are different. Period. And we enjoy the differences. At the least, we live with the differences. When societies get comfortable, we make laws against discrimination - developed countries have laws against hate crimes. The rest haven't educated themselves enough and keep old anti-gay laws. Some poorer countries actually make it illegal and criminal to be gay. But when our comfort begins to wane, when we feel threatened or under attack, we diminish to protectionist behavior, treating everyone else as lesser than us.
So get used to it. The 21st century will be seething with racism. And races aren't countries. Racists don't wear uniforms. They hide behind Brexit votes, cheer Trump for President, support jihadis who wreak bloody havoc in crowded prayer spaces. Get used to being told to go home where you came from, even if you were born here. Get used to saffron-wearing leaders casting Bharat Mata in the image of a evil-fighting goddess. Get used to not wanting to fly ever again because you missed the Istanbul airport bombing by just a few hours.
Let's wish each other the best of luck and hope we don't meet one of those haters down a dark alley. Rest assured, someone hates your kind.
Humans like to feel superior. To someone. Anyone. And we show it by treading on them. Many races have shown this propensity since time immemorial. From those marauding sailors emanating from Europe to colonize the world, to the Japanese who enslaved Koreans, to the Mongols who took over the entire Indian subcontinent - it has always been so. The Crusades were an excuse for a racist rampage of murder. The Holocaust was a racist rampage of murder.
I think of "racism" as being a particular form of "schismism", or any form of discrimination against "others". "Racism" comes in many forms, if you think about it. In itself, it is when one race discriminates against another. But, really, it is core human groupist behaviour to discriminate Us against Them, to the sole effect of making Us feel superior. We have always had it. "We can beat them up", is the most common feeling of superiority. "We can beat them up and enslave the strongest of them" was American slavery of Africans. "We can beat them up and kill masses of them" was Nazi racism against Jews. Less obviously "racist" are the Hutus' butchery of Tutsis and vice versa, Shia conflict against Sunni and vice versa. Indians - all of the same color, height and language - are deeply divided on this genetic schism we call "caste" now and piously called Varna before. Yes, even the vaunted Hindu scriptures had built-in-racism into the class system - but maybe more on that in a later post.
I don't want to muddy the waters by talking of "schismism" and annoying half my readers with Royesque invention of words, so I will continue to speak of "racism", because "collectivism" has been usurped as a socialist philosophy and perhaps because "groupwise discrimination" has too many syllables and too many letters to type.
So here is my thesis: that racism is built-into the human psyche. Yes, not yours or mine, but we see it all around us, don't we? We see sexism/misogyny on a daily basis. We see anti-LGBT behavior from cis (straight) folks everywhere. We see antipathy and animosity to people of other religions all the time; why? because Ours is the superior religion. But are any of these superiorities real? Are males really the better gender (I see examples to reverse that thesis everyday :-)? Is gay sexuality, or transgender dressing, really deviant - we see examples in the animal kingdom, so it is very likely natural. Is my religion really superior to yours? They were all invented by humans and should all probably go the way of Greek gods and goddesses - into history textbooks.
We humans enjoy these social discriminations and feelings of superiority. Until, that is, when we become comfortable, educated, well-to-do. Then, we begin to think and we appreciate that people are different. Period. And we enjoy the differences. At the least, we live with the differences. When societies get comfortable, we make laws against discrimination - developed countries have laws against hate crimes. The rest haven't educated themselves enough and keep old anti-gay laws. Some poorer countries actually make it illegal and criminal to be gay. But when our comfort begins to wane, when we feel threatened or under attack, we diminish to protectionist behavior, treating everyone else as lesser than us.
So get used to it. The 21st century will be seething with racism. And races aren't countries. Racists don't wear uniforms. They hide behind Brexit votes, cheer Trump for President, support jihadis who wreak bloody havoc in crowded prayer spaces. Get used to being told to go home where you came from, even if you were born here. Get used to saffron-wearing leaders casting Bharat Mata in the image of a evil-fighting goddess. Get used to not wanting to fly ever again because you missed the Istanbul airport bombing by just a few hours.
Let's wish each other the best of luck and hope we don't meet one of those haters down a dark alley. Rest assured, someone hates your kind.
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