Are you a racist?

Of what value is the colour of one's skin or one’s physical attributes? Should one's ancestry and bloodline dictate one's sense of belonging?

COMMENT

By Shahrin Shahrulzaman

That is a claim that many, myself included, would immediately and sternly deny. But given the hypothetical situation where you absolutely must choose between two equally credible leaders, one of the same racial ethnicity as yours, and the other of a different ethnicity, with all other attributes and factors equal, political parties included, whom will you choose to be your representative?

This is a scenario that will rarely ever happen as there would almost certainly be other differentiating factors. However, in such a situation where you absolutely must make a choice, it seems almost logical that you would of course nominate the representative of the ethnicity of your preference, most commonly that of your own.

But after pondering long and hard, I have come to the inevitable conclusion that, my best answer is to flip a coin.

As a software engineer, I am of the opinion that would be the most practical way to resolve the issue in a situation where it shouldn’t matter which option you choose. In such a situation, you make a random choice. Because racial ethnicity should never be a factor in such decisions, or in almost any decision for that matter.

Of what value is the colour of one’s skin or one’s physical attributes? Should one’s ancestry and bloodline dictate one’s sense of belonging? More importantly should they matter at all as compared to one’s intelligence, passion, beliefs, national allegiance, or one’s love for their culture and community?

After peeling the onion, down to the core, underneath it all, the true reason we have the tendency to prefer one of the same ethnicity, is that we actually seek someone who understands, and has strong principles to uphold and defend the needs of our religion and culture, our rights and interests, as if it were their own.

But shouldn’t that be our responsibility as members of the community anyway? As a collective, we should all not just embrace, but encourage diversity, to both understand and be understood.

We should adventure, seek out others from different walks of life, from all ethnicities and cultures, and not just to see, but to be involved; to participate when applicable; to make an impact; to make our presence felt. We must seek not only to influence others’ views and perceptions, but also to broaden ours.

If we desire unity, we need to realize that mere tolerance is no longer enough. We must actively support each other as this builds relationships that weave tighter bonds in the fabric of society.

We should inculcate in our young the idea that our multi-religious and multi-cultural environment and community is part of our identity. It is part of who we are. This is the true meaning of being Malaysian.

Racism by definition, is the delusion that some races are superior to others in any way whatsoever. And in the extreme, this leads to hatred. But at the very least, racism is a form of prejudice and discrimination. And if you have a preference, you have prejudice.

Nobody likes being called a racist. But I believe, that until we reach the state where we would willingly flip that coin, we must admit that, by definition, that even ever so slightly, some of us are still a little bit racist.

So … Are you a racist?

Shahrin Shahrulzaman , a software engineer is an FMT reader.