Diversity and discrimination hindu article
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A common subject of conversation among Indians who have travelled to the U.S. is about what their airport security calls a ‘random search’. We see in this some sort of racial profiling. Ever so often, an Indian celebrity appears on television complaining about the ‘treatment’. For that matter I have myself narrated stories of what I have perceived as rank discrimination while travelling in that country. There is no denying that because of the racial stereotyping of the terrorist the world over, people with certain features are more randomly checked than others. But somewhere behind this lies something intrinsic, a deep-seated suspicion, discomfiture, even a sense of superiority. This neither starts nor stops at U.S. airports. Sections of the ‘whites’ in certain states are clearly colour-phobic.
But are we, ‘tanned’ Indians, any different? No. We have our own ‘traditions’ of racism. People of African descent studying or working in India routinely face our version of racism. Let us be honest enough to admit that we stare and snigger at them and say the rudest imaginable thing about their looks. This low is our sense of humour! Watching the government’s Atithi Devo Bhavacampaign, I strongly felt that in our perception the atithi is almost always a white or far eastern male.