Racism is the mindless attribution of negative traits to a whole group and the attitudes/behavior resulting from such attribution. – V. V. Raman
Racism has a long and painful history, but it has come to the fore for hot debates and protests in recent decades. A good deal of scholarly work has been published on this topic. The notion of race developed in the nineteenth century as an unfortunately (in retrospect), misguided classification in anthropology. Its initial intention was to categorize geographically separated groups of humans on the basis of their appearance. It did not suggest that intelligence and other faculties are functions of race.
But that classification led to a mindset which is generally called racism. [The term was first used only in the early 20th century.] But this mindset has been implicit in human societies since ancient times. It led to the ill-treatment of minority subgroups within societies. This practice is now publicly condemned and legally forbidden in most enlightened nations. It is totally unacceptable to awakened individuals all over the world.
Yet racism continues in camouflaged modes in many societies and in the minds of many individuals. There are intellectuals who refuse to grant that such practices were ever part of their culture. Unless intellectuals as well as religious and political leaders recognize the flaws in their societies, there can be no positive changes.
In this context I use the Greek-derived word ratsismosism to describe the mindset which, besides giving special importance to one’s own group (language, religion, nation, political party, sexual preference…) and its members, overtly or subtly looks down upon members of other groups. The word is derived from the Greek Ratsismos: Race. Ratsismosism is of two types: passive and active. In its passive mode, it is a fairly harmless illusion. At best, it is a consequence of the innate urge to feel proud of one’s own group: an urge that has morphed into the conviction that others have neither the right nor the resources to feel likewise. At worst, ratsismosism is an unfortunate state of mind arising from ignorance, limited visions, and complete lack of empathy.
Passive ratsismosism is a dormant virus infecting the minds of millions, sometimes without their being even aware of it. Active ratsismosism is ugly in its degradation of others, causing injury and insults to members of other groups. Active ratsismosism is condemned as morally wrong and socially unacceptable in societies that are trying to evolve from that muddled mindset.
Ratsismosism finds expression in a variety of contexts. Gender ratsismosism regards one gender (the male) as superior to the other. In its active mode, it dictates what dress women should wear and how many women a man can marry. It compensates women less for the same job that a man does. At one time, it denied women voting rights and membership in prestigious academies and golf-clubs.
Linguistic ratsismosism has ranged from regarding one’s own language as the language of the gods, like Sanskrit and Hebrew in medieval thinking (passive), to banning the languages of minorities in a nation. At one time, France banned Breton, the U.S. banned Hawaiian in Hawaii, Singapore banned Cantonese, Scandinavia banned Finnish, New Zealand banned Maori, and Japan banned Korean in South Korea, Russia banned Ukrainian and Polish.
Spiritual ratsismosism says that God chose one group to communicate, as in traditional Judaism (passive); and denying people of lower castes spiritual initiation as in Hinduism (active). Religious ratsismosism is the conviction that one’s own religion is the only pathway to the Divine, as in the Abrahamic framework (passive) and the persecution and killing of unbelievers (active). Ethnic ratsismosism says that one’s own ethnic group is unique (passive) and that one should ill-treat people of other skin colors, lower castes, ethnicity (active).
The word Gweilos (Cantonese for Westerners), Aravudh (Hebrew for Arabs), Banana (Malaysian for non-Westerners who have assimilated into the West), Bog (one of low Irish ancestry), Bougnoule (French for Arabs), Chankoro (Japanese for a Chinese), Frog (French Canadian), and Pakis (for Pakistanis) are some of the scores of ethnic slurs that are still current in many parts of the world. All of these are instances of passive ratsismosism.
We read and hear regularly about racism in the United States. But if one probes into the matter in other countries, such as China, South Korea, Nigeria, India, and France, passive and active racism of the worst sort are still present there.
Slavery, the worst form of racism, existed in ancient Greece (prisoners of war), in Roman times (from colonies), and in the Islamic world (the first African slaves were Bantus). Extending the meaning of slavery to include bonded labor, child labor, forced begging and human trafficking, the Walk Free Foundation reported that some 4 million people all over the world were subject to slavery in 201. Humanity is not fully free in the 21st century.
European colonialism from the 15th to 20th centuries was economically exploitative and politically oppressive. It also functioned in a racist framework: one that took for granted that its victims were intrinsically inferior and deserved the scornful treatment given to them. But it was in the West that the injustice in racism was first publicly condemned and proclaimed as unconscionable. The West first called racism a bad word and a filthy practice. Ours is a world with tensions between parochialism and universalism, nationalism and internationalism, emphasis on ethnicity and emphasis on humanity. Both sets of these opposing forces are essential: one set for our cultural safety, security, and sanity; and the other for the broader and more enlightened vision of being part of the same human family, sharing the same needs and concerns, longings and ideals. Our choice is not one over the other, but the meaningful exercise of both, without harm and hurt to a fellow group.
Spurts of Thought 