How long more are we going to pretend that we are “shocked” by racism?

The conditions in Malaysia are just too conducive for racism to occur for us to ever be free from it. At best, what you can do is be vigilant and prevent a regular outbreak. Otherwise, you will just have to learn to live with it.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

Everybody I know is racist. My friends. Family. Colleagues. Clients. Even me. Everybody I know is racist. Even people who are in mixed marriages can be racist against the race of their spouse. Being racist is so habitual to our mindset, that when we have no one else to be racist against, it is not even uncommon for us to be racist against our own race.

One of the main reasons that I can accept that I can be racist is because by my estimate, I am amongst the least racist person in the country. In other words, although when I look at myself, I can see my shortcomings, when I look around, I realise that I am not exactly walking amongst giants either.

The major reason as to why I see myself as being in the top 1 percent of the least racist people in the country lies in the fact that by nature, I am a very solitary person. I am alone 90 percent of the time. You can’t be racist when you are alone, at least not for long. To indulge in racism, you need at least one other person to be racist with or racist against. You can be racist for a while, while you are alone, but that is just because you are carrying the residual racism you felt when you were with at least one other person. Solitude is to racism what the rain is to a forest fire. If it rains for long enough, the forest fire will have to give way.

The minor reason why I consider myself to be amongst the least racist people in the country is because by appearance, I don’t look like the race that I identify with. Instead, by appearance, I look like I belong to the race that is racist towards the race I identify with or the race that the race I identify with is racist towards. When the race you feel internally and the race you look like externally have a history of being racist against each other, you tend to not enjoy being racist as much as the other person, because every time you feel racist, you can’t help but feel that half of you is taking sides against the other half.

When I say that I can be quite racist, what I mean is that when I am frustrated, angry, ambitious or disappointed, I am given to attach a quality that has no connection whatsoever with a person’s race – like how greedy, selfish, violent, lazy or lecherous, they are – not only to a person, but to an entire group, solely on the basis of their race.

Sometimes I can be racist by attaching a positive quality to a race, but most of the time when I am racist, I will be attaching a negative quality to a race.

I remember a period of time when I was racist against a race for a period of at least a year. I used to work in a place that was dominated by a particular race. I quit working there because I thought the place was racist, and after I quit, I was quite racist against a particular race for at least a year. I was so racist against them that as a matter of fact, when Malaysia came close to winning the gold medal at the Olympics around that time, I remember hoping that Malaysia wouldn’t win, simply because I did not want the race that I was racist against to be happy if we won the gold medal.

It was only after a year later, when my best friend, who is of the same race as the race I was racist against and who was also working in the same company that I had earlier quit, also quit the company, that my racism against that race abated. My best friend only told me the reason he quit after he quit and the reason he quit was more or less the same reason I quit. It was then that I realised that people that I worked with were probably not racist – they were probably just lousy people, who behaved horribly to everyone, even to people of their own race.

Now at this point you might be wondering how I managed to have a best friend who is of the same race as the race that I am racist against, but I am not going to answer you, because I am pretty sure you already know the answer. You already know the answer, because you too most definitely have friends, peers, colleagues, teachers, relatives, business associates, neighbours or even a spouse from another race who you admire and appreciate, while at the same time having negative feelings towards everybody else from their race.

As a person who has a lot of direct experience in being racist, I have come to realise that racism is an irrational and irregular sentiment. You can feel racist against a race while admiring some of the members of their race and appreciating things like their friendship, the business they offer, their movies, music, companionship or the delicacy of their food. Your racism, like the flu, is also an on and off experience. Sometimes you feel racist, at other times you won’t feel racist, at other times you might even be against racism. But even when you are against racism, like an ex-alcoholic who hasn’t taken a drink for years, you shouldn’t assume that you are not a racist. Just like how one drink can end 10 years of being sober, one episode can end your non-racist state of mind faster than Thanos can snap his finger.

I think a big part of the reason why racism is so prevalent in Malaysia is because we tend to imagine that Malaysians are nice people. No Malaysian believes that this is true by the way. Every Malaysian I know, including myself, actually have a low opinion of our fellow Malaysians. You can test this for yourself by asking the people close to you about their true opinion about Malaysians in a confidential setting. Although we have a low opinion about our fellows, we just don’t say it out loud, because being a communally inclined people, we are afraid that we will be ostracised if others were to come to know about our views. Not only do we not say it out loud, we don’t like any of us saying it either, because when someone other than ourselves were to say that Malaysians are a lousy people, it will stop sounding like the truth, and instead start sounding like others are being judgmental and accusative against us.

I actually think that one of the quickest and most effective ways to make racism go away, is to just stop believing that Malaysians are such nice and wonderful people. Once you become more accustomed to believing that Malaysians are actually quite a lousy bunch of people, you won’t think that they are racist anymore. Whenever they do something that you feel is racist, instead of attributing it to racism, you will just attribute it to the fact that they are just a lousy bunch of people, and leave it at that.

Despite racism being universal in Malaysia, I have rarely met a Malaysian who is systemically racist. You are systematically racist when you maintain your racism even when you have received very good treatment from the race that you are racist against. Most Malaysians I know are just natural racists, not systemic racists. Even the most hardcore racists in the country are probably just racist against a particular race because they have little good experience and many bad experiences with that race. When their experience changes, meaning that if the number of good experiences they have with that race increases while the number of bad experiences they have with that race decreases, the hardcore racism that they feel against that race will abate.

But no matter how much our racism abates, the racism that we feel against another race will never fully be eradicated, because if you depend on others to give you a good experience, you will always come up short. Expecting others to give you a good experience is like betting against the house. You might win for a while, but in the end, the house always wins. If you receive a stretch of good treatment from another race, racist views will be so absent from your heart and mind, that you might feel that you have eradicated racism from your system, but don’t fool yourself. Just like how you will always lose against the house if you gamble for long enough, you will also always lose out if you depend on others to give you a good experience in life.  As a matter of fact, the worst racists in our country tend to be people who suddenly experienced a bad experience with a particular race after a long stretch of good experience. When that happens, they will start feeling that they have been made a fool of or betrayed, and this feeling that they have been made a fool of or betrayed, will fuel their racism to a high burning point.

Racism to our country is like dengue. Just because there has not been a dengue outbreak for a long time, it doesn’t mean that we have freed ourselves from dengue once and for all. When you live in a tropical country like ours, you will never be free from dengue. The conditions in Malaysia are just too conducive for dengue to occur for you to ever be free from it. In the same way, the conditions in Malaysia are just too conducive for racism to occur for us to ever be free from it. At best, what you can do is be vigilant and prevent a regular outbreak. Otherwise, you will just have to learn to live with it.

I know some people seem to have an idea that in order to eradicate racism, we should combat racism with a passion or attack any signs of racism in the country, in the hopes that if we don’t see any public display of racism, we will all believe that racism has disappeared from the country, and if we all believe that racism has disappeared from the country, what we believe will come true.

I have never been a fan of these “if you believe in something with strength for long enough, it will come true” theories.

I tend to believe that everything exists because of conditions, and for as long as the conditions for a thing to exist is existent, it will exist.

I believe that our country has very fertile grounds for such things like racism to exist. The fertile grounds for racism was created in our country during colonial times by the actions of the colonial powers. The colonial powers created a condition for racism to occur when multiple races were thrust into the same space and time, with the view that these races will somehow or other be able to treat each other as one over time.  This is of course a foolish idea that even the Western nations, who are the descendants of these colonial powers, are failing to recreate in their own countries today.

Rather than fight the symptoms of racism while being ignorant of the conditions, I think it is better to be aware of the conditions and realise that we will just have to accept the symptoms for as long as the conditions remain.

If we develop awareness of the conditions, we will then develop higher acceptance and better ways to deal with the symptoms.

If we develop higher acceptance and better ways to deal with the symptoms, then one day, we might even decide to confront the conditions itself, and it is when we confront the condition of racism from a state of high tolerance, skill and experience, that we might have a chance of eradicating racism from its very root.

 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysia-Today