Are you a racist?

No, Iam not. Yes, Iam afraid Iam one.

Most of the dictionaries would describe a racist as “A person with a prejudiced belief that one race is superior to others”. After all that we heard from the Mel Gibsons, Jade Goodys, and Michael Richards’ made the world sit up and call them racists.

But, sometimes it makes me wonder, who isn’t?

In my opinion everyone is a racist at some level or the other. It resides in the minds of each and everyone, which is a direct result of the superiority we want to feel over the other person. A white looks down on a black, a black looks down on an Asian, an Asian looks inside and finds someone among them to look down on and so on. So it does make you feel that it might be an irrevocable part of every human.

Lookin’ at this from an Indian perspective, makes you ask, where do we stand? I sincerely feel we are no different from anyone in the world when it comes to racism. It’s just that we do it at different level. A North-Indian looks down on a South-Indian, a Kannadiga looks down on a Tamilian, a Tamilian thinks he is the most superior of all the South-Indians and the ‘looking-down’ chain continues.

We were all very agitated about the Jade “Not-So-Good” Goody’s racial slur on Shilpa Shetty. But come to think of it, it just seems hypocritical to me.

So where does the buck stop?