Tempest

Friday, 22 December 2006

The Colour of Money?

The one thing that all my friends and I were really looking forward to gaining from my trip to the UK was a clearer answer to the question of racism.

We had read in over a hundred books, the discrimination against races due to colour of their skin. The victory of the whites over the blacks and browns, through the centuries, in all jurisdictions of life. Be it, occupation, marriage, law, education, societal class and status.

We had read of Martin Luther King’s ‘dream’, Abrahim Lincoln’s war against apartheid, Gandhi’s struggle to unite class and dissipate myths of skin and many such tales of history. In all eagerness, I wanted to witness and discover for myself the cause for racism, to record the evidence of it.

It is the 21st century in London, one of the most cosmopolitan, multi-cultural, multi-lingual cities in the world and I am studying in one of its respected universities, one amongst the immensely eclectic mix of students. We live in the halls. We are of varied colours, we speak varied tongues, we have varied notions of life as it should and should not be lived. I see racism…but a different kind of racism. I see discrimination…but a different kind of discrimination.

The colour of skin seems to be absolutely unnoticed. In the everyday scenes of life we do not encounter any racist issues. We all accept each other as educated human beings and exchange ideas. But yes, when we talk about the world at large and of our image as a race internationally, do the differences arise. We talk about developed nations and under developed nations, we talk about economic stability and political power. We talk about the strength of the United States and the power of the Europeen Union. We talk about how the focus of industrial growth is shifting to Asia. We talk about strengths and weaknesses, of advantages and disadvantages, of upper hands and underdogs but, we do not talk about the colour of the skin.

It makes me wonder. Has the definition of racism changed over the years, or has it always been the same? Is it about the colour of the skin or is it about the colour of money? Is racism better described as division on the basis of skin or on the basis of economic power?

Posted by Pavitra :: 04:35 :: 6 comments