don't hate. discriminate.
So I’m sitting down at my desk at work the other day making calls to random people when a few of the telemarketers I work with bring up that ‘thing’. I don’t know, something about her being served last at restaurant or something, either way she’s really upset about it and said,
"its because I’m indian."
or at least that’s what I’ve heard. Either way it’s irrelevant to what came next.
"Man, I hate it when 'they' play that race card." one of my colleague says. At this point, I know this isn’t going anywhere good. Regardless if it was because my friend over here is chinese or not, usually when people pull out that saying, and its usually white or the ‘better’ race, their next sentence starts something like:
"now, I’m not racist or anything buuuut..."
I’m a fairly rational person, but I’m also a fairly opinionated person. Because of the latter I generally keep my thoughts on the world to myself and a few select others. In polite conversation we generally try to stay away from the big three: religion, sex and politics because you never know when you might offend someone. So when conversations like this start, I find it best to just walk away as to not offend anyone with my 'crazy/radical/subversive' rants. But today, I was literally, caught in the middle.
Two of the telemarketers began going back and forth about how they are, "sick of indians blaming everything on their race."
The next thing I heard was, "black people have oprah, why can’t we have someone to stand up for white people?"
I started fuming. I was dialling my numbers as fast as possible because I felt I might just blurt out something and upset all these self-entitled fucks, but it continued.
"yeah, its like you're punished if you're chinese in
I thought to myself about how if you see something wrong and you don’t say anything to stop it, you are just as bad for letting it continue.
And that was it.
I took a breath, turned and said,
"listen, I understand why you feel indians or malays pull that race card, as you say, 'far too often'. But what you have to understand is racism is still alive and thriving in this country and sometimes, yes sometimes, it is warranted."
See, I was calm and collected.
But she just said,
"that’s bullshit. 'Those' people just love to use that as an excuse."
I started to feel hot, like I wanted to strangle this racist motherfucker who was lesbian mind you and should somewhat understand the struggle to be accepted.
I looked at her and said, "you don’t know what its like to NOT be white, and you couldn’t possibly speculate as to what discrimination any person of colour has experienced."
The other one looks at me and says, "What race are you?" referring to my brown complexion.
I said, "malay."
The other one says, "full malay?"
I say, "no, my great great grandfather is indian."
"oh, so you're pretty much malay then, huh?" she says with a smirk as if I’m going to laugh along with her like we're that close.
"no." I say, "was I raised by a malay mother? Yes. Do I know much of my culture? No. But have I felt the discrimination of being malay or being too brown for a malay? Absolutely, and by that alone, regardless of how you or anyone in this world sees me, makes me a malay."
And I walked out of the room.
What’s fucked up is, I’ve been there. I thought about how 'the non-whites' and other minorities (like the malays, which I never thought I would be considered a part of) were taking opportunities away from the ‘white’ man. What I came to realize is that that mentality came from the hate inside me. I wanted to blame everyone else for what was wrong in my life or in my world. Because we never think that WE could possibly be part of the problem.
And that’s the problem.
It’s always them or someone else.
It’s never our own faults.
It’s never anyone WE know.
It’s never anything we've contributed to.
Because no one can take responsibility and say, "ok, I have to be a better person."
("I" being the operative word here)
What I’ve noticed is the people who complain about "pulling the race card" are ALWAYS white. You never hear a black or a indian or a jew or a muslim or homosexual say, "you know, us blacks/jews/muslims never experience racism or discrimination."
It’s only the people in the majority who make that claim for us.
Funny, ask a person from any of these minorities if they have ever felt discrimination for what colour their skin is or what religion they practice.
I guarantee every last one of them will tell you, "yes."
Because if you are not white you don’t know what its like to walk into a place and know that peoples eyes are following you just because of the colour of your skin. You don’t know what it’s like to stand around at the end of a racist joke and pretend to not be offended and laugh just to go along.
You don’t know what its like to not be hired at some restaurant because you are too dark skinned.
You don’t know what it’s like when your girlfriend’s mother doesn’t like the idea of her daughter dating a 'brown boy'. You don’t know what its like to lie there in bed, a confused 15 year old; in love with a girl who you may or may not be able to see again because her father doesn’t like the fact that your skin is brown.
I do.
And for all the people who complain that white people should get their own Oprah.. You got one already.
He’s called the president of the United States.
guest blogger,
zul- keep on li/loving
omgheyzul
likewise, deep muziq's reply posted on zul's space
http://www.bystanderintervention.blogspot.com/
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