Racism Abound.

Toronto, ON-  Two men were recently having a conversation about marriage prospects for their children. One of the fathers was explaining the expectations and hopes he had for his son. The second gentleman asked the father in question whether he had any preferences about the nationality, race or ethnicity of his son's potential spouse. He replied that he did. Being from a specific cultural community in India, he expressed to the second man that he wanted his son's future spouse to be from the same community as his family. Naturally, people will have preferences regarding their children’s spouse. Preferring a spouse of a similar cultural background seems reasonable enough. But, what was the basis of his preference?

Well...when the father was asked whether he would have any objection to his son marrying a woman from the Madras (Chennai) area of India, his response was that he would be opposed to it. His reasoning was that Madrasi people have 'too close for comfort' relations and interactions with the Tamil people of South India! Can you imagine?

Now, the first issue I have with this is obviously the negative characterization of the Tamil people. The second is his belief that for whatever reasons all Madrasi people are somehow ‘tainted’ by association, by virtue of their geographic/physical nearness to the Tamil people. As if daily interactions and relations would have lessened the character or damaged the values of Madrasi Indians. What bullshit.

Why this story should matter to you: The specific cultural communities here are irrelevant- and simply interchangeable with any other race, ethnicity, socioeconomic group, etc. This is not an Indian or South Asian-specific issue. Prejudices that lead to outward exclusion and discrimination are something we ALL need to be concerned about. Challenging narrow-minded, tribalistic tendencies and expressions is essential. We need to remind people of the common humanity of humanity, dammit! 'Cause there's ONLY one race and it's the HUMAN race!

(Artwork courtesy of One Race Human & artist John S. Dykes)