Date: Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:27:31 -0400 From: "RGrootendorst" <[email protected]>
Everywhere I go I see discontent and resentment working both ways. The hateful-racism in the western world which did so much damage to the psyche of India Mario asks: Rita, You write, "The hateful racism in the western world which did so much damage to the psyche of India?" Excuse me? Am I missing something here? The last time I checked it was India which invented racism, wrote the manual on precisely how to mercilessly discriminate against each other, and enshrined it in the caste system some 5,000 years ago. This is so deep seated that many Christians in Goa, Mangalore and Kerala, ignoring the fundamental tenets of their faith, still seriously harbor the delusion that they belong to one or other Hindu caste and are thereby superior or inferior to others as the case may be. Indians are so color conscious, 62 years after the British left after apparently permanently damaging the Indian psyche, that skin lightening creams are shamelessly advertised. Does any other country have skin lightening creams? While Freida Pinto, with her brown complexion, was described by western critics as "absolutely stunning" and "drop-dead gorgeous", that too in head-to-head comparisons with some of the most glamorous Hollywood stars at the Oscars, she is not quite so popular in the color conscious Bollywood film and modeling industries. I know Indian-Goan-American girls who are similarly considered stunning and exquisite by white Americans while being considered "too dark" by some Goans for their sons - who, amusingly, are as brown as bark:-)) Rita wrote: (I read while in Goa that eight young Indians had been shot dead in various incidents in US). Mario asks: I suggest we be more careful when making such snide insinuations. What makes you think that any of these killings were racially motivated? Besides, do we know how many young Indians were killed in the same time period in various incidents in India? If I'm not mistaken, far more than eight firangis were killed just in Goa in the last couple of years. Rita wrote: England prefers, just like the Arabs, etc, white skin, even if those blond Eastern Europeans take jobs from both black & native British. England is doing the same as Australia, black & Indians are demonised, and subjected to covert & overt discrimination, especially by institutions. Mario responds: Aren't the English and Australians allowed to prefer whomever they want in their own countries without being accused with a broad brush of racism? Couldn't other aspects of an individual's background and experience and ability to communicate factor into these decisions? In the USA, where I have heard some Indians make the same facile charge when some decision goes against them, I remind them that if racism is how these decisions are made then they - white Americans - are not doing a very good job in their discrimination. Why? Because Indians as a community are among the top three ethnic communities in this most competitive of countries when ranked by family income. The other two are Japanese and Filipinos, who don't have white skins either. In the US most of the Indians I know don't even care what white people as a stereotyped group may think. For every white American who may think along racial lines there are several who don't. When hiring, the question is, "What is your skill set and what value will you bring to our company?" This is what makes educated and qualified Indians attractive as employees because they invariably work hard as well. The point is that Indians in Britain, Canada, Australia and America in general seem to be doing fine as a community whose members voluntarily chose to go to these countries, and are perhaps treated far better than in countries where brown skins predominate - like in the middle-east for example.
