Calling a Spade An Instrument Used for Removing Soil (and other material) from the Floor (and Other Surfaces)
I was thinking about the discussion spawned by Sunshine's post on Sardar-jis. It is, I think an interesting focal point of something that affects all of us - racism. A lot of people I meet (I'm talking about foreigners and by that I mean people foreign to India) are careful to be politically correct around me. They will not make jokes about the Indian accent, or curry or Indian sadhus or anything else that they might secretly think is hilarious. And in what can only be considered beautifully ironic fashion it is THIS that makes me feel more alienated in a crowd of foreigners rather than anything else. Racism after all, basically refers to any discrimination based on race. So everytime some one censors what they were saying simply because I'm among those present, or everytime a group of people quickly stop talking when I join them and hastily wipe the smirks off their face, it is THEN that I feel discriminated against. Racism, to me is not about having curses yelled at me, or insults heaped on my head, but the simple everyday acts of people around me that emphasize the fact that I don't belong SIMPLY because I was born in a country different from this one. When people make jokes about Indians, I would rather laugh WITH them (especially when there is some truth or humor behind the jokes), or be given a chance to state my point of view than be laughed AT behind my back.
Disclaimer: This is not about violent racism, or extreme racists, or the other kinds that you see on the news, who are rabid and irrational. This is the sort of racism that "normal", educated people who you could meet at work practice without thinking twice about it.
posted by Revealed at 6:08 AM
11 Comments:
Interestingly enough, I recently got accused of being 'policially correct' and made the object of ridicule because I wouldn't join in some depreciating remarks about another human being simply because of their race.
Beg to differ, folks-- I get to be sensitive to the world around me, whether they're around me or not. And I'm not much for talking ABOUT people--I'm more about talking TO them.
It's called being 'loving'.
I don't suppose they kept that 'opinion' of my 'politically correct-ness' when I suggested they shove their own sense of 'self importance' up their *ss and get over themselves. LOL
If we can't laugh at OURSELVES perhaps we're taking life too darn seriously, eh?
But laughing at others to enhance our own feeling of superiority..... Pass.
6:59 PM
ummm, i dont know how to put it better than mel :)
8:01 PM
First! (Technically) Am I onn a roll or what???? Good time to buy lottery ticket, methinks....
@Mel: I do believe Revealed rather agrees with you - hmmmm best to let her reply I guess!
@Revealed: Completely understand what you mean - no need for the disclaimer! (at least for me). Like I mentioned before, it's rare rare rare to be this honest. Just be prepared to be misunderstood most if the time, but please please please don't ever change! (Why am I typing everything thrice?)
8:36 PM
@Mel: Being true to what you think is right is the best policy to follow at all times, so I'm glad you didn't stop being PC just cos people laughed at you, but I wasn't talking about laughing at other people to enhance my own feeling of superiority. Quite the contrary. I think what I was trying to say and apparently not succeeding was that being human should be enough to belong anywhere. I don't want people to think I'm some kind of alien freak simply because I come from some other place, or because I talk English a little differently. At the same time I want people to recognise that I AM different from them because of my background and my upbringing and simply because I am who I am. The point is that EVERYONE is different and the difference is an individual one as much as its a racial one. And at the end of the day people being politically correct doesn't mean they aren't racist. Ugh, I can't even explain this. But let me just say that I understand what you're saying but it wasn't what I was saying :).
@Adi: Ditto
@Cloudy: Thank you thank you thank you (third time lucky doncha know :D ). Thank you primarily for making me feel less like a raving lunatic cos honestly I don't know how to explain this any better:).
10:29 PM
if i laugh at my own faults...i've a good sense of humour, and if i laugh at others, it is bad...okay, but the fear to laugh at other's, is that okay...just because somewhere inside we feel they are superior to us?
racism is as much an individual's acceptance of his inferiority as the oppressor's feeling of superiority.
10:42 PM
@Revealed: I think racism is going to be a major problem soon, if it isn't already.. the world is shrinking and the problems are multiplying.. sigh..
And, thank God for Mel! :-)
10:49 PM
@Adi: I love that. That is exactly what I was tring to say ineptly. Racism is as much about the victims as the perps. If I am not ashamed of my race, and if I don't feel that I have to be treated specially cos of my race (but that I should be treated specially cos I'm HUMAN) then I would have no hang-ups with people acknowledging my differences. Thank you for putting into words what I was thinking.
@Sunshine: It already is. We all face it everyday.
12:08 AM
;-) I'd be the LAST person to 'lable' myself 'politically correct'......ever.
We're all G-d's children and we each have a right to be here.
Goodness......LOL.....believe it or not, it was being labled 'politically correct' that got me defensive in the first place! I'm AS far away from 'politically correct' as one can GET! LOL
I just put it out there cuz what's right is right--matters not the person's race or what culture they embrace.
I found myself nodding at adi's comments.
Actually, I think we're saying the same thing and it's getting mucked up in the translation.
I can laugh at me--and I can laugh at you. Human beings are funny creatures.
Can we laugh together? I'd like to think so.
Celebrate the differences and embrace the similarities cuz we really are all children of G-d.
I'm shushing up now! LOL
*sitting on hands*
9:36 AM
Correct me if I am wrong, but am I 2nd or am I 2nd??? I think I'll settle for 2nd!!!
As for racist jokes, they are jokes for Gawd's sake, let's just laugh at them, because that is their objective. Just because I laugh at jokes about sardars, punjabis, south-Indians(called Madrasis in jokes and otherwise, without anyone meaning any offence I am sure), blacks, or goraas, does not mean that I have anything against every person of these races! If that were true, we would all be so lonely, don't you think???
The problem is with fundamentalism- of all kinds- be it racial, religious, class-based or intellectual. The day we kill the fundamentalist in us, we open the doors for a world in which we can all just LAUGH together at jokes!
Phew!!!
10:50 AM
I knew Obi wd say something that makes perfect sense :D
12:12 PM
@Mel: Lost in translation is right :). But I had a feeling that was the problem right from the beginning :P
@Obi: Course you're right about the fundamentalist part but that was actually my point! Some of the people who become terrorists or go to camp to get trained are normal people who just feel isolated. And why do they feel isolated? Cos people treat them like they don't belong. Human beings are societal animals. We need to feel like we belong. Anyway, that's where I was coming from :)
@Sunshine: I'm still waiting for my pocket edition of Obi. Hehe.
9:16 PM
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