Saturday 11 May 2013

The Idea of Racism

Humans, just what are they?

Allright. Skip the lame intro question.

I mean, just how you are differentiating them?
Our blood is all red you said. We are born equal you said. Races doesn't mean anything you said. I couldn't agree more. But, based on that you're telling me we are all completely the same. Stress out the word 'completely' there, because I'm quite lazy to have it bold. And that is when I start to contemplate.

"Completely the same".

In what context? I believe that races don't mean anything, in a context of superiority. No race should be treated better than the other. If that is what you mean, I don't have any objection. But yet again, is that what you mean? Or you have never explore your own meaning of anti-racist slogan that you hailing about. I don't know.

Lets make a 'lil twist without a shout here.

I went into the pet store last weekend, and one of the salesgirl handed me a pamphlet. The pamphlet was about dogs. She smiled, I smiled. Well, I don't really like dogs, but I'm not a cat person either. I'm more fond to panda. It said there in the pamphlet that there were 3 kinds of dogs that they sell. Poodle is kinda cute. It said there that poodle is easy to train, intelligent, but always have a healthy problem. Balance. Then there was Shar Pei, the dog that the breed history is from China. Ugly. Very ugly. Nothing to look about. But yet again the pros were they are very clean, easy to train and mature very fast. But what really caught my eyes was the Japan breed dog, Akita Inu. Gosh they are so handsome. With the brown fur, elegance physic. I felt like grabbing one of them right in the moment. But, hey. I have a second thought when I read the contras that they are difficult to raise, often bark with no reason, hard to tame and very aggressive towards strangers. In fact I have a third thought, when I realised that I cannot pet any dogs since my religion forbid me to do so.

But that is not the story anyway. When I walked out the door of the pet store (which don't sell any panda), I tried to relate what I read in the pamphlet with the scenario of my country.

We have a multiracial citizens. Same as dogs. They have lots of races. But what is racism?
I never gonna quote any kind of literature review here. Because when we talk about facts we sounds reasonable and intelligent, but we have lost our ability to be human. It is about human can think. And quoting literature review is in the same degree of throwing facts. Here you don't expect anybody's facts, but my fact.

In my country, you always can hear someone say,
"All Chinese is a cheat. They like to cheat people in their business. We must be careful of them!"
Or,
"Malays are lazy. Don't ever hire them!"
Or,
"Indians' tongue is like a zig-zag puzzle! I just cannot understand what they are trying to say! And they like to spread rumors!"

Is all that are racist statements?

How about these?

"Chinese are hardwoking. They will give you 100% commitments if you give them any work."
Or,
"Malays are very well-mannered. They are kind and caring too."
Or,
"Indians are very friendly. You can never find any race in Malaysia that always smile to you like Indians."

Now is that are racist statements?

If you ask me, I will say yes. It is a racist statements. And I will also say that the two statements are true. To me racist, is when you have a certain sentiments in a certain race. They say that sentiments is not good. We should kill all the sentiments of any race, they said. Just how it is possible? Sentiments is a characteristics that long known and long observed in one particular race. It also means that when you say you want to kill sentiments, you want to kill characteristics.

And I ask again, how it is possible for you to kill and wipe out all the characteristics of one race?

We are created with a distinctive characteristics and behavior, externally or internally. Each race has it. Either it is good, or bad.

So how do you cope with this?
One word, love.

Just like you love your lover, you cherish his/her good side, and you try to hold on with his/her side that you hate.

Another word, tolerance.

And I say, negative racism is only an oasis. We can never kill it, since it is not exist.
And I say, sentiments are only a characteristic. We can never wipe them, since each of the races is created differently.
And I say, we can never be the same. But we are equal, with no superiority.

Now, would you excuse me.

I'm gonna catch some panda.

5 comments:

karenontheshore said...

panda..err..i'm more fond of chameleon. hehe.

ini blog baru kau?

Ahmad Arba'in Ali said...

A'ah. And panda is not the main subject here.

ewanthology said...

actually, tanpa sedar semua org adalah racist.

perbezaannya samada diri mampu membendungnya atau tidak.

hanaahmad said...

setuju dengan the malay male.

Ahmad Arba'in Ali said...

tak semua. cuba jumpa lebih ramai manusia lagi.