Racism…

By Srishti Satsangi

They say, you can't be stranded in dark,

Look around, and get into a bright spot.

Uncertainly, just by a glance, it can't be assumed

if this can take us to a place, right,

We don't see, but this dark is the reason why

we see the white light."

- Srishti Satsangi

Today, I was scrolling over my Internet and suddenly I met with this term Racism. I started to ponder, how so many people have to go through a lot of criticism and after all this, there are many others who are just unaware of what exactly is Racism! What is Racism? Well in fact, it's not any kind of a gracious term, but a fiendish term fraught with intolerant behaviour and discrimination. You may neglect it, may think if we don't know about it, what difference does it make?

From the day we came on this earth, we tend to observe people residing in our vicinity. We learn what the society want us to learn because they patronize us in such a way that we feel like they are the most perfect, benevolent and knowledgeable human beings on this Earth. Even if it’s about your dressing sense or looks or your choices etc. Sometimes, we choose to agree with what others have to say rather than saying out what we think, and put it on, the way people do. Why do we do that? Why some stranger's outlook, his opinion, his belief, all of a sudden seems more vital than our own beliefs? Why?

It is largely, because the one time you were disparate, they make you feel like being different is falsely being deviant and if you want to look like a normal person you got to be like others.

That's what almost all of the people do, they judge you for who you are and indoctrinate you to their own ways. If they find you to be quite indifferent then what they are, what they wear, what or how they eat or how they behave, you'll be inevitably compelled to be alike, in order to stay alive, rather than sitting inside the hole of solitude. How atrocious, isn't it? You must be thinking, seriously, how hard could it be to choose solitude and be brave enough to say no? Willingly, innumerable people end making a choice to blend in with the crowd seeing how frightening it would be to grapple when you're alone. They utterly change their choices, their beliefs, their habits and everything, just so people could accept them. Would you call them coward just because they didn't fight?

No, I would still call them brave. How can someone live in solitude, when you are utterly aware its nothing less in a tenebrous hole, where you can't see anything other than darkness? And even if they agree to change themselves, that road is also nothing less than an ordeal. It's too easy for some to say "coward", but we can't even imagine the grapple for what it takes to change yourself, going from who you were to who you are asked to be.

They turned over to the left road, cause with their wide-open eyes they saw that the right side maybe minimal with criticism but there is no one standing to support them. There's no one to say "Don't you worry, we are here for you." All they see is an empty road to walk all alone. Even if some people want to support, they don't because they are scared that they are the only ones and others may criticize them for taking the stand and some don't even know or care about Racism.

It's not easy to play this game by yourself. You can only play if you have someone to play it with or you have to act like everyone else.

For instance, this is a very well-known case that we all have seen. A large number of people treat dark skin toned ones in a way they shouldn't be treated or shouldn't be criticized for having such traits. This is a very common case that takes place in almost all of the countries. For now, it’s like a tradition, that when a fair toned sees a dark toned, he starts criticizing him and the dark toned one has nothing to do except walk with his head down in distressing pain. It is utterly disrespectful to insult what God has made just because it's different than us. Such a mystifying fact it is, if some people are being discourteous, then others, maybe their own children or their neighbor or their friends are highly swayed by them and start imitating the same qualities towards the lower line ones and this diabolical train keeps going on and on.

Fair skin toned get numerous benefits just because of their colour as compared to the dark skin toned. They feel superior in their own skin and make others feel inferior. It is what they are taught, to be proud of what they have. But what about the dark-skinned ones? Have they ever been taught how to be proud of their own colour and their beliefs, no matter what others say, and not to feel remorseful?

Never, they are all alone and helpless. They only have themselves to get through it. And this is not "just the case", there are multifarious cases that we come across every day. You also may have observed while watching any face cream advertisement, how they sell their products by highlighting this false statement that "it lightens up the colour and makes you look fair". As a true fact, a face cream only removes your tan and brings out some glow on your face but it can never change your natural colour. These products have kept everyone in dark with an opaque cloth over their eyes and have made them believe how having a fair skin can increase your importance.

Even after running over the same track like the others, doesn't mean the victims just have to stand there frightened and do nothing. If we open our eyes towards this situation, it has a very drastic and a distressing impact over the them. There's a whole lot of grapples for them even if they agree to live according to other people's opinion.

Being criticized for their colour, it drives them insane to look fairer by any way possible, even it means buying any cosmetic or any chemical fraught cream that states it would make you look fairer. They think that maybe, maybe propitiously, maybe for a moment, while wearing those chemicals, people would accept them. They would treat them, just like how they treat fair skinned people. They would include them in their conversations, would invite them for balls and their parties, would respect them just for once. They feel that being black means you’re not beautiful and appealing. This way of pondering, eventually leads to a decrepit mental health which is doubly dangerous. It makes them mentally feeble and their thinking gets fraught with pessimism. They are ready to exceed each and every limit, ready to use any chemical product for as many times they can, till they get their desired result, without even caring about the consequences for using it recklessly. This is how toxic sometimes sitches can be, how they make you desperately crazy for something impossible.

The wholesome truth is that they are not the ones at fault here, they are not responsible for being criticized, they are not liable to change themselves just because what others say, but the people who criticize are the ones who need to change the way they see them. Being black isn't bad, it isn't unpropitious. In fact, having dark colour has much more benefits than having a light colour. Having dark coloured skin means that your skin contains melanin pigments in it, that are not harmful, but are beneficial, as they provide protection against the harmful effects of Ultraviolet (UV) rays, which are unpropitiously, less involved in light colour.

Even being educated enough to be aware of the benefits, still tons of people criticize dark coloured people for their colour, and tons of people become a victim of racism much like every day, either on the basis of their caste, colour, religion they were born with.

It doesn't just happen in one specific country, but almost all of the countries on a regular basis, for some, it's like revelling swimming in the same ocean every day.

It might be easy to just read about this but doubly distressing to understand the whole atrociousness behind this topic. There are so many of them around us that we are unaware of, have gone through this. It would be very compassionate if we as a good person make them feel good about themselves, we provide them the support they are in need of, is the best thing we could do for these victims. We need to make them know that, they don't need anything to be beautiful, they don't need any cream or any make up to prove that. Anyone with any skin or hair colour, any caste, religion or any gender is beautiful from inside and out, people who criticize them should know, they are flawless.

By Srishti Satsangi