Cucumber City

HOW FAR ARE WE FROM RACISM, ACTUALLY???

I'm sure many of you watched the recent taping of the Oprah Winfrey show in Chicago where her guest was Tommy Hilfiger. On the show, she asked him if the statements about race he was accused of saying were true. Statements like "If I'd known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish and Asians would buy my clothes, I WOULD NOT have made them so nice. I wish these people would *NOT* buy my clothes, as they are made for upper class white people." His answer to Oprah was a simple "YES", where after she immediately asked him to leave her show. A suggestion! Don't buy your next shirt or perfume from Tommy Hilfiger. Let him get what he asked for. Let's not buy his clothes, let's put him in a financial state where he himself will not be able to afford the ridiculous prices he puts on his clothes. BOYCOTT. PLEASE SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW. If we are small, then send it to the whole community and see the result. We have to see the result of unity.

This was a forwarded message I got on Orkut.

Now, personally, I think racism is rather delicate an issue. Some people use it for gain, some for contempt and some merely for the pleasure of superiority. We all saw how Ms Shilpa Shetty scored (rather high, that too) on the Big Brother show, thanks to those racist remarks she 'suffered-without-complaint' from fellow competitors. And finally who won? She did. And not just marginally, but with a good 63% votes in her favour! So what's the verdict here? Didn't racism move in her favour, gifting her 1,00,000 pounds?? I am not, by any chance, favouring Tommy Hilfiger, but I guess, we ought to at least hand it over to him for being outright honest…that too in a show which would be aired the world over! But I'd say that I think the racism angle to things pop up more or less ONLY when there is a celebrity involved. Ever thought about the hundreds of students or employees who suffer this when they migrate to various other nations for their higher studies or job prospects? Why doesn't that ever come up in the media?? Why don't the respective Governments hold discussions on that?? Why doesn't such issues move or aggravate the public, while a crass reality show involving a Ms Shetty or a Tommy Hilfiger does???

Why say more? Just take a household scenario in our own nation. Most of us, who can afford it, have a servant at home, who belongs to some sub-caste or the other. Unarguably, we all show some sort of revulsion to them. If not in all matters, surely in many that would require more than 5 fingers to count it on. Most often than not, the lady-of-the-house keeps apart a plate and glass for the servant's use. Now how many of them would entertain their kid using that plate to eat from? The word we are looking for is NONE! No, its not 'good culture' to use a plate or glass 'which the servant uses'. So, what's the dig here? Wouldn't a PRIL dish-wash bar cleanse the plate off any bacteria? Yes it would, but obviously, it's not the bacteria that matters here, is it? It's that feeling of 'caste difference' (and occupational status???) that prevents us from using it. Ok, so this isn't exactly racism, its just casteism. Ha! But isn't it still far away from being totally secular? So in effect, does racism and this differ much ?