Do We Need to Talk About Racism?
And if so, are we doing it right?
I’m not very optimistic when I hear people talking about ending racism in one sentence and within the same breath talk about people who are “the other”.
Not that we human beings can’t get rid of racism. Human beings have faced hate before and been victorious against it so there is no doubt we can do it again. Our challenges still lie in divisions and the economics of racism but I will talk more about the divisions in this article.
Divisions, however well-meaning, are filled with a lot of biases that aren’t very constructive and most of which still block our progress in getting rid of racism. After living in India for more than 5 years, I realized that it is really hard to live amicably with someone who still looks at you and sees you differently from them.
Besides having unconstructive biases, divisions have also created preferences on what is acceptable or desirable in various races. In some of them, skin tone is one of the symbols of beauty.
Is just one variable and there are many other unusual beauty standards of races across the world. Particularly from my experience as a black man, as uncomfortable as it may seem, it's hard not to notice that there is a common theme in our societies whereby the darker your skin, the less…
