Heart to Heart What Colour is God's Skin? by A Mother
What colour is God�s skin
I start this article with the words of a song I was taught as a child. (I don�t know who wrote this song and I mean no offence against agnostics or atheists and those who do not believe that God has a form.) The other night as I put my son to bed he asked me �Am I Indian?� I wondered briefly about an academic answer on whether to go into the details of one set of grandparents sailing over from India and another set of grandparents having American-Dutch-Scottish ancestry but I settled for �yes � part of you is, but you are really Malaysian�. I explained that he was born here in Malaysia and so was Malaysian.
He had tears in his eyes when he told me his best friend (A) in kindergarten told him that his mother said that Indians were dirty. I cringed inwardly as I knew that at some point he would come up against these racist sort of remarks as I did when I was in school but I had not expected it to start so early. He was four and a half at this point. I asked him what his teacher said and he replied that his teacher had told his friend not to talk nonsense.
We then had a little chat about the outside and the inside of a person and what was important was really what was on the inside of a person i.e. whether or not a person was good, honest, kind, helpful etc. It didn�t really matter what the outside looked like (or where the person came from) as long as the inside was good. We talked a little bit about different people and cultures all around the world. We explored similarities between people. I told him that we had a special world because of all the similarities and differences and that we could learn from one another and enjoy each other�s cultures if we chose to do so. He accepted my words with total trust and went to sleep.
I am deeply worried about the narrowness in thinking of our future generation. How can we say we are educating our children if they continue to spout bigoted ideas or exhibit racist attitudes? How many of us actually talk to our children about respecting other ethnic groups? How much tolerance and respect towards other cultures do our children see us practise? It is so sad to see racist attitudes in schools, universities, work places - and what makes it even more ingrained is that even our politics is geared along communal lines. We all know how terrible ethnic or religious or cultural conflicts can be. There are enough examples, past and on-going, in the world which show us how much anguish is suffered by all concerned.
Non-governmental organisations have been encouraged to hold forums on this. In Malaysia some of the non-governmental organisations have been planning for the National Consultation Meeting on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance. We would do well to publicise and attend these forums and work out a plan to combat racial polarisation and intolerance in our country. Perhaps we could incorporate cultural/religious understanding in our schools as part of the education syllabus with implementers being properly trained and the curriculum sensitively prepared.
There really needs to be concerted effort and action from everyone (the government, non-governmental organisations, religious organisations, schools and individuals in their various capacities) if we truly want to combat racism, racial discrimination and intolerance in our country. We need to change the way we think and this includes eradicating the practise of politics along communal/religious lines.
One can be proud of one�s cultural background without being arrogant about it, without imposing it on others or dismissing others who have different cultural heritages. There needs to be a certain amount of understanding of and respect for other existing cultures and practices, more so when different cultural groups co-exist. What a special world we have because of all the similarities and differences. We could learn from, share and enjoy each other�s cultures if we choose to do so.
|
|||||||||||||||
The UN General Assembly designated three decades (between 1973 and 2003) for action to combat racism and racial discrimination and to ensure support for people struggling for racial equality. In 1997 the United Nations General Assembly decided to convene a World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance. This will take place in South Africa in August/September 2001.