Hue, us and them

    There is no point in teaching darkness a lesson or two in racism. It won't understand. In any case, almost every little thing under the sun has a grey shade. Unless you are in Antartica. Moreover, only penguins have the right to see things in black and white. That's also why they choose not to fly and play chess all day. No kidding. But what recently happened in Wisconsin and what's currently going on in Assam as well as Myanmar tells us that we are NOT living in a colorful age. Those on social media might beg to differ thanks to their over-dependence on Photoshop but lame jokes apart, racism is a grievous human shortcoming. Taking into account the way our stupidity appears now, our species may never rise above this narrow mindset. 

     Of course, there are moments when we get hope. For instance, when Usain Bolt stretches mankind's limits on the track and is loved by everyone, irrespective of their skin tone. No wonder he is the greatest racist of all time. Errrrr, i mean he wins race and all? OK, chuck it. On a serious note, how about Mario Balotelli hugging his foster Italian mother after winning the match? And there are many more examples—especially from the world of football because UEFA may have discarded the B&W patched footballs but Europeans are still mired in racism—where tears jerk and colors turn into celebration. Wish i was talking about Holi here but I'm not!

     As a Liverpool-loving adult, i think there are very few openly-racist players who play as good as Suárez! YNWA. As a cricket-loving kid, i was ignorant as well as racist (lethal combination) as i felt all black people lived in a faraway nation called West Indies. But to compensate this notion, i used to discriminate against red ants and adored black ones. My grandma played a small but significant role in developing this psyche. She told me that black ants are good omen. I guess that's why i keep seeing these tiny creatures today even when they are not around. 

      Being from a country which literally gave birth to racism, i don't know what is politically correct. Because a majority of my country(wo)men wish to be fair. What they don't acknowledge is the fact that despite all their lightening products, they'll still be black folks with brown skin and whiter-than-Anushka's armpit. This is also the reason why irony dies a painful death when Indians accuse others of racism. But let's get real for a minute. Humankind is inherently racist. A few words, said or unsaid, won't change that. 

     On a more serious note, black isn’t the color of hopelessness. Hopelessness is too hopeless to have a color of its own. And Wimbledon is white whereas the term 'blackmail' isn't. Fortuitously, unlike racism, racial jokes are always colorful. Having said that, it's difficult to figure out where exactly inclusion ends and segregation begins. While we are at it, shouldn't we ask ourselves whether Coldplay's Yellow was a special tribute to their Mongoloid fans? Ergo, everything is not fair in racism.