Road to racism and more : Part 2

Now, in continuation of my( if you did not read it, you should read it first) Part 1 of this controversial and undoubtedly delicate topic, I assume the post from where I left the previous one. I embedded a link in the blog so that you could see what the Americans really think of the N-word. So I thought over the issue, but you know if you try and tackle the issue in one go you are sure to end messed up, dazzled, tired and surely still confused. I read this article in the newspapers some months back as how the Africans who now seem to be everywhere in Mumbai complained of being subjects of racism. I wonder though, what exactly is it that defines a racist act? I mean, as I said before calling someone a monkey, whether the person actually looks like one or not, is not (to my mind) an act of racism. But then we had the whole deal of the Australian media taking digs at Harbhajan, accusing him of being a racist and what not. That was a bit too much. I mean, no one made a hue over when Hogg called some Indian players as basta**ds.

I cannot seem to understand as to how a country can actually accept the usage of a word as derogatory as basta**d--- a word that questions the relationship between someones parents; ridicules it, tarnishes it and insults the oldest institution by slam-dunking it--- yet fret, cry foul and condemn a person for calling one of their own a monkey! Now, did the Australians find Harbajan at fault because he was not one of their own? I guess only an Aussie can answer that one. But, in all honesty, this incident and then the kinda reactions the two incidents drew does make me feel that, in my quest towards racism, i should not give much importance to the reactions that these incidents drew. I mean after-all, it does seem a little skewed in the favour of one of their own. But I shall take one thing from this episode though. Thats the cultural perception.


The cultural take & identification

That one thing, which has been common in all racism accusations, calling some a black (at times the N-word), calling the guy a monkey, or addressing a customer as a jew by a waiter at the diner. That one thing is identification. This to me is a very crucial element of this whole saga of being a racist, and one small act by a man, one huge act by mankind towards racism. Surely the use of the N-word, the F-word, the C-word, well they are all considered bad, but then, one has got to understand that the way racism is looked at in different parts of the world is different. I mean, its hip to use the F-word these days, I did that on this blog, but then with time the usage of words once considered as very offensive does tend to not be offensive as before anymore. That has been the general trend. The youth today uses the F-word to denote a sign of frustration, something that was used to actually derogate somebody years back. This tells you that the way in which we use our words are surely but a matter and should always be viewed in context to the situation. So, when Harbhajan called Symonds a monkey, what should have first been seen was the baggage attached to word in the culture of the person who spoke it. In this case, Harbhajan. I mean, in India calling someone a monkey is surely not racist. May be down there it is. But the Australian media did its best to make Harbhajan look like a serial racist. That was bad. How they almost forgot about the words used by Hogg, words that are derogatory anywhere on this planet, and thought that they were less derogatory than a "monkey", a word that is not racist all over the world! For someone in the media and the Australian media as a whole it just showed exactly what they were wanting to achieve. You cannot adjudge a person as a racist just because he said something which is racist in your community, your culture. To be racist, the person has got to be aware of the fact that the word he used is racist and also necessary is that the use of such word is frowned upon in his cultural, even though the word might not be racist in his culture. Monkey is not racist in India, not even frowned upon, and for someone to take cover and shelter of that word and accuse a person as racist is surely in much worse taste because it undermines the real issues of racism and dilutes racist acts elsewhere.

As I started this "cultural take", with the whole issue of identification, I mean, with all this hue and cry over the identification of race one really wonders whether all that is required to be a racist is to be an identifier? What if you were walking down the road and spotted a black man and called him black? There, right there at that very time on that very spot did you become a racist? To my mind, HELL NO! When someone identifies some person as a black, or a jew or some other race, no racism is being initiated. Even the Oxford Dictionary defines racism as belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this; antagonism towards other races. Then how exactly does identification of race mean racism? It does not, it surely does not. Its arguably without a shred of doubt the first step in the schema of things that could be considered racist, but the act of identification on a standalone basis does not amount to racism and thus labeling someone a racist just because he distinguished between two people based on their origins and physical appearance is premature and ill-thought. Also for those who say that identification a racial difference amounts to racism, a question, a thought worries me. If someone says that calling a black man black amounts to racism, then I wanna know, how? Now, if a black man is called black whats the harm in that? How else would you describe his physical appearance. Besides, whoever believes that identification of race is racism, does that mean, that all but the white race are bad?

I mean, does that mean that you belong to a race that is so bad, that you would not even want to be identified with it? Now, Im not talking about the use of N-word, Im talking about the use of black, or calling someone a jew at the diner. Really, just because the waiter was able to identify your race and wrote it down on your bill (for reasons best known to him) he became racist? Is being a jew so bad, or any other race for that matter, that the very instance of people acknowledging your links with that race make you feel pathetic about yourself and give you a sense of injustice? If you feel so, then are you not actually saying something like,

"hey! look fellas, Im a jew (black, or whatever) and I would not like to be even reminded of where I come from and I don't even care whether you gonna be bad to me after knowing that fact. I am an equal, just like you, God created me, just that he placed me in a race that has been subject of injustice (or something that actually amounts to racism) and Im really fed up of this. All my life Ive tried to work as hard as I can to get to a point where I can be considered as an equal or one among the very limited tenants of the accepted race, and so if you identify my race of origin (doesnt really matter what you do to me after itand also something that I could not have controlled), the very instance of identifying me as a different race person Im gonna label you a racist! Whew! So, dare you call me a jew (black, or whatever). AND OH YES! I take pride in being a jew(black, or whatever)."


(will be continued in Part 3.

Drop your comments. I need to know what you people think.)

Road to racism and more : Part 1

Now I know that I'm not a social doctor, or a Phd. in social sciences, but I've got a mind. A mind that wanders here and there, every brief while. I've been thinking of racism for quite sometime now, and really wanna know what exactly it is. So, I thought that if I pen my words down, well, not exactly, but pretty much that though, I may be able to get somewhere (rather than get lost).

They say that its in really bad taste to call someone a nigger. But, then again, its not everyday that we get outta our house and let the N-word flow out. (Man its a hell of a job to keep count of, I mean, theres the F-word, the C-word...its an ever-growing family we got down there!) But, what exactly amounts to racism? I mean, if I did call you a black man (Id stay away from using the N-word, till I reach some conclusion) would that amount to racism? Those who followed the tour down under, well, the Andrew Symonds incident. I mean, to be honest, he does look like a monkey, so there it is. I just said that. Am I racist now? Does me calling a man, who in all honesty does look like a monkey, make me racist beyond the consideration of what Ive made of myself up till this day. All the deeds that Ive done, and all the good that was to come to me once I reached THERE, have I relinquished that just because I said that some guy resembles a monkey? The jury is still out on that one, ask Harbhajan Singh!

But again, they say that you cant use the N-word, to tell you honestly check out the lyrics of this song and you tell me what you think. Again there is this one thing that I came across. If you do read it closely, or well enough, you'll find a link which will take you here. Okay, so now we know (err, me thinks it should be read as "think") that not all the americans are down with it, but you gotta definitely see this one. And once you are done with, and clicking all the links I provided you with, just wait for the next part in this series which I have decided to call....Road to racism and more : Part 1

Breaking news : The great Indian disaster show

Good Morning India! Its about time you woke up. Its been a little late, but as they say, better late than never! Its approx. 6:30 am that i wake up every morning and i cant help but switch on the television so early. I just hope that somewhere across the hundreds of frequencies that ive got access to, they are airing some classic football match, or a movie that wont kill me! (You gotta admit, some movies stink, stink so bad, even worse than akshoo chobby's wide opened up jaw!). I try and avoid the media channels. They claim to be an Indian's passage to India. Exposing scams, educating the "common man", helping India and Indians in building a more aware, open society, and the breaking news part is just fabulous!! I mean, the way the India media just keeps the viewers abreast with the latest developments is fantastic!

Kudos, kudos indeed on such a massive achievement. After all, its not easy to quench the thirst of a nation with a billion people, and to do that for 6years straight as Aaj Tak claims to have done. Really brilliant. But you know somewhere amidst all the accolades, all the prizes and all the never-ending claims to glory and hurrah that these media (news) channels have claimed, some of the most disgusting and "getting-on-my-nerve" moments have also been possible due to the Indian media alone. I mean, after all, who can forget the coverage (kinda ironical term o describe her!) that Rakhi Sawant got when she dumped her "boyfriend" on air. Again, wasn't it this same female who walked out of a show 'cos she lost! Man, and the media, the Indian media, afforded her, more than 15 mins of fame that Andy Warhol thought everyone deserved!!

Is it just me or is really everyone bored, infuriated at times, of the unnecessary "coverage" the media does? I mean, really, do you really wanna know what colour shirt, or pant some "superstar" is wearing? But turn on any channel (no pun intended) and thats what you'll get. We then, or rather earlier, also had to undergo the torture of being told the colour of saree one Mrs. Bachchan was wearing on her honeymoon, where she went for her honeymoon. To tell you honestly, even if my too hot to handle neighbour got married, I still wont give a damn as to where she's going for her honeymoon!! I mean, c'mon, do you really wanna know that? And what exactly do you plan on accomplishing with the use of such secretive (for as long as it was) information? Again, one had to sit through and hope that one day, maybe one day, the media will realise that a "commoner" like me does not and wont give a damn what happens to relations between Aamir Khan and his brother. I've got my problems to worry about, my issues that this (as was the case with the previous) govt. had promised to solve, but did not. I wanna know the status of that, rather than switch on the Tv and have some guy, whose closest relatives have now dismembered him, host a Tv news show about what pissed off Salman! I don't wanna see how scores of young women, in their twenties or thirties (or forties or even fifties at times), have assembled outside of SRKs, or Hrithik's bungalow just to get a glimpse and listen to the lame ass narrator boast how well they've got the situation covered from all angles! Jesus, I'm sure there are more important things for which we need the media, but more definitively, not for such a preposterous, filthy, ill-thought and prematurely conceived and showering of iconic status on our "heroes" and "heroines".

The most unfortunate part of the whole saga is that in all of this the media has ensured diversion of truth, not by lying, but by not telling. The real heroes are left unsung, the real tragedies are never mentioned. The truth is buried under the debris of an attitude, sell what sells! I remember watching on Star News recap of Hindi serials!! Goodness me! I mean, you know what I mean right? It seems that with the burgeoning revenues and fat bottom lines that the Tv media has got accustomed to see, it has somewhere lost the track. Its not derailed though, not as yet. Thanks to the likes of Rajdeep Sardesai, Barkha Dutt. but surely not 'cos of "The RKB Show". (Dear Lord, invitees on that show were not even recognised by their neighbours!). Now is the time when some clear leadership is established in this field. There needs to be someone who takes the truth by the scruff of its neck and present it to us, in as crude, rough, real for as it is. The media, one would do well to acknowledge, is a medium of seeing things. It must be ensured that this medium is as clear so as to give a distort-less view of the ground zero. We don't want someone to draw conclusions for us, give us the news, let us draw the inference ourselves.

One hopes with each passing day, the media would get even more mature and take up the responsibility. But no, all such hopes are laid to rest when you have a channel that has been the "best" for six consecutive years and it airs what is the only pic in this blog. Need I say more?



(Drop in your comments for this blog. Very thankful indeed.)

Strangers

I hate it. I must admit. I hate the fact that some jackass/jenny is lying somewhere (pun intended..this is for you, the one who asked me today) in his house and then using the internet or orkut more synonymously to project himself/herself as(s) the king/queen of the world. I just hate it. I'm sure you do too. But then, come to think of it, maybe thats what I & u do as well. I mean, we write about ourselves in the "about me" of orkut and claim ourselves to be the alpha-male, eternal beauty of the universe. But, thats what orkut, or more so the net is all about. Its about a fat-ass claiming to have washboards, its about a never-been-asked-out claiming to be Miss Universe! Worse, its about fakies.

Its about the ones we could never be, so why not be someone in this world (the net) who we can never be in real world, the real world where flesh sweats, our voice is coarse and face ugly? All this comes from being a part of orkut for the last 2 yrs (almost) now. This sheer frustration of reading profiles where girls have got "no friend requests" and boys have got "i'm cool" templates! Ah, enough is enough. I think its time these sons of bitches and bitches themselves (yes, I said that!) woke up, smelt the coffee and had a nice look in the mirror and saw what everyone else around them sees, nothing!

I hate the way people act so cool on the net. Maybe you think, I'm trying to be one right now, well i don't give a FUCK about what you think. I look like a nice boy. A nice boy I am, but get on my wrong side and Ill brush you tougher than Symonds brushed that streaker! I'm really pissed. I don't know about what. Maybe its about the fact that my friend is delaying my next blog feed....maybe its about having a lot to do, but yet not having the mood to. Maybe its about just being stuck up the whole week, the same routines, an ennui. But, Ill tell you what, stop being a net-dude. Stop the bullshit, or you'll be in it one day! I was not born to be nice to you, neither were you. But as you grow up you realise that you've gotta give everyone their fair chance, even the latest stranger. We grow up and we build friends, orkut is just a place where strangers meet, your closest friends were once strangers, be nice to the newer ones.

Step out of the net-addiction. Step into the real world. Spend time with the ones who care for you, rather than try be super-cool in front of strangers, who are most definitely trying to do the same. Who are we kidding? We're all so different in our real lives. Are we?

Tattoo mE!!

Ever sine the first time i saw a heavy metal video, Robbie Williams, and other crazy people, ive always wanted a taboo tattoo. But I never have had that kind of money chance. But boy o' boy, does Pauly Unstoppable make me feel like a lousy excuse grunting ass lesser man.

Im currently working on a blog, till then hopefully this will suffice ur appetite that has become so dependent on my blogworks!!

I want a tattoo!!