Sunday, March 12, 2006

Everyone Is A Victim.

Racism. That's what I'm talking about. What does it mean exactly? As what the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary has defined, racism is "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race". In other words, it is "a belief that different races have different characters and abilities, and that the qualities of your own race are the best" - Longman. I don't believe that people are born racist. That's a learned behavior. For me, the term of 'race' is racist itself as it implies that there are sub-categories of humans. You can't just ask a stranger "Hey, what's your race?" That's rude. I believe that there is only one human race and outward appearance is just a variation within the same human species. With that being said, I know that we humans can go to unreachable extends to discriminate terribly against people who are some sort, the "others".
Come to think about my own experience, sometimes I do find myself avoiding certain people in life, but not because of their skin colour or anything like that. For me, I get alil nervous and awkward around people who dress or act weird. It's only that I get to know these people then do I feel comfortable to blend. I mean, this happens to all of us, and we do have predjudices, but they are more based on personal protection than other aspects.

I once had someone told me a couple of years ago, "You know, I'm a racist". I ain't gonna mention names but that person is still very much alive and LOUD. Okay, let's call this person SHIM, since I'm not revealing the gender either so as not to cause any misunderstanding. So SHIM continued to rant and confessed that SHIM has got a problem with some races in our little island. SHIM sounded serious. Or I thought. The moment I heard that, my opinion on SHIM changed drastically. What the hell is wrong with you?! I've forgotten what I told SHIM but I was just dumbfounded. These words could actually come out from SHIM's mouth? Given the opinion that SHIM is such a DEVOTED child, it just sums up to one word, SHAME! What I'm gonna say to SHIM is, if you're reading this, do you actually feel for minority groups that experience this kinda agonizing discrimination? Have it ever crossed your mind that WHAT IF, you were in their positions and WHAT IF, you were to go through that? Have you ever thought of how people will think of you as? Perhaps SHIM has learned that keeping quiet in the public is the key to mighty discretion, but I'm pretty sure deep in SHIM's heart, there's a barrier that divides SHIM and people of the certain races shim dislikes. What goes around, comes around. You might think that these "others" whom you so called "dislike" are minorities to you. Now, guess what, you make yourself the minority. Oh well, we know SHIM, don't we?

One recent movie that we can relate racism to is Crash, which we all know, just won the Best Picture at the Oscars. Yes, people who watched the movie will simply exclaim "Wow! That's a great film!" I thought so too. But at the same time, I thought this film isn't really sending out the message. The thing is the film is doing nothing for the problem. It's not examining the roots of racism, it's not questioning its existence, it's not proposing any way to curb the existence, and because of that, it is fully accepting its existence. People will just say "Yeah, racism does exist... Big deal? We see that in movies, we see that in our countries, its everywhere." It pretends to be socially conscious, but it doesn't tell us what we don't already know. But it does tell us that we are all victims of us human beings. We walk in and out of people's lives and we really can't anticipate what happens next.
Thank God I'm living in a racially diversified society where everyone accepts the others for who they are... though there might be some shadowed discretion amongst individuals. But you know, I've always wondered why there hasn't been any Afro-American President in the USA...

PS: No one here is SHIM unless you think you are.

freed his mind P.Y.R.A - U.G.I.N.E at 5:43 PM [comment]

Life is beautiful, so are you.