Race is on…

Racism is a serious term in the United States. To my surprise, race was not the dominating factor for bringing Senator Obama to Presidency, though I can still feel something in the air. While I see this ongoing debate in a city like New York, where you can see almost all kind of races that exist in this livable planet, making it somewhat difficult to separate from the normal life, I tend to compare situation with back home in India. When I looked up for dictionary meaning of ‘Racism’ in different dictionaries, it nowhere came close to the way we define racism, for us it’s always, ‘color does matter’. So, let me take you over to India for a while…

Are Indians racist? Are you kidding me? We are worse. Look no further than TV commercials…or my home for that matter, where my mom still gets that twinkle in her eyes while describing me in front of others, “our Vineet is very fair!!” Black is definitely not beautiful in our country. Never has been. Light skin is a woman’s ticket to fame and glory, never mind other shortcomings. "Yeh gorey gorey se chhorey (meaning: all these fair guys),’’ goes a Bollywood (musical) movie song. Nothing has changed, except that even men have jumped into the fairness bandwagon. There’s blatant color discrimination in the world of glamour, where the words are clear: fair or forget it! Ditto for front office receptionists in five-star hotels, airline cabin crew, sales girls and virtually any high-visibility job in the service sector. The situation is not far from this in Indian community abroad. It remains to be seen whether all this will change during Barack Obama regime in the White House.

While we are in India, it makes sense to talk about Cricket, the pseudo religion of every Indian…almost! Last year’s Indian team’s tour of Australia, when I was fortunate enough to be stationed right where the action was, Harbhajan Singh, alias Bhajji, (Indian spinner for the uninitiated), had unleashed something far bigger than a mere cricket controversy when he said something to Andrew Symonds (Australian all-rounder). By dragging race and racial abuse out of the closet, Aussies have extended things well beyond slurs and sledging in sport. Recent test series loss in India saw (Australian opener) Hayden referring ‘third world’ conditions as a deterrent to their victory. Team Australia, by their recent reactions and media comments, has inadvertently opened a can of worms.

It’s time now to look beyond India, and shift your focus down under to Australia. The racism in Australia is no different. I remember when I was driven by a Caucasian taxi driver in Melbourne; he lowered his voice while pointing to a group of African men, "Five years ago, there wasn't a single Black person in this part of Australia. Unfortunately, the immigration policy has changed, and now these people are everywhere!" Other than that, we have aboriginals as example. It would be interesting to find out from Symonds himself, whether or not he has experienced racial abuse at the hands of his own countrymen, and Bhajji was not the first one, if at all.

Throwing accusations that are ridiculous and well beyond the boundary line (or ballpark, for baseball followers), is not cricket. We know about the famous killer instinct that has made the Aussies world leaders in the game. But to use the dirty tricks department to score a victory or blame the loss on some bizarre factor, is the last resort of bad losers. Bhajji may have used some slur, but hey, slang is slang. Slam Bhajji. Slam slow over rate. But for heaven's sake, play the game. Watch that dodgy catch, walk when you have to, and accept when you have lost. Last two series have put us ahead. Watch out mate, the race is on…