The “K” word controversy in Malaysia

Yes, I admit, we were brought up to become racists. Hollywood indoctrinated us to believe that white is good and black is bad. I mean, do we not use words such as blacklist, black market, blackmail, black book, black hole, black area, and many more? Black is negative, white is positive.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I do not wish to dwell too much on the issue involving the matter of the racial slur of a certain Malaysian of Indian descent (you all know which case I am talking about). That “K” word can no longer be used even if we still have the Masjid Kampung Kling (Melaka), Kapitan Keling Mosque (Penang), and so on.

Even in the most racist country in the world, America, they now use ‘African American’, ‘Native American’, etc., and no longer terms that John Wayne used to use in his western movies. Today, you do not hear any Hollywood actor saying, “The only good Injun is a dead Injun” like back in our school days in the 1950s and 1960s.

Yes, I admit, we were brought up to become racists. Hollywood indoctrinated us to believe that white is good and black is bad. I mean, do we not use words such as blacklist, black market, blackmail, black book, black hole, black area, and many more. Black is negative, white is positive.

We used to cheer when Lawrence of Arabia kicked the Arabs, John Wayne shot dead 20 Injuns with just one shot, or whatever. White people must win in the end for it to be a good movie. And whether they are Native Americans, Arabs, or Africans, they are all savages.

Did we cheer for the Indians when they put those British in the Black Hole of Calcutta? No, we cheered for the whites. And why ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’? Why not ‘White Hole of Calcutta’, since the whites were the ones put in that hole?

Anyway, that is all I want to talk about this matter lest I, too, suffer attacks for so-called disrespecting Malaysians of Indian descent. The point I want to make is, we were not born racists, we were educated to become racists.