Hidden Racism

©  Aishah Ho

One winter, my colleagues and I had a discussion after a guest speaker had spoken about his life experiences.  I was in a unique situation as everyone in my class was all white with various shades of blond and came from the upper to middle class families, except for one person who was from the working class.  The guest speaker also came from the middle class.
         Everyone thought the speaker was great and praised him.  On the other hand, I did not like him as I sensed some racist undertone in his speech.  Fortunately, I was not alone in my feeling, the colleague from the working class also sensed it too.  When he voiced his opinion, he was greeted with comments such as ‘maybe you’re a bit paranoid’ or ‘you’re over-reacting’.
         I pointed out that we were not paranoid.  Both of us had been exposed to racism and we could sense it when someone was being racist.  Our colleagues, however, had never experienced racism and, consequently, could not know.
         This episode made me realised that if we are unaware of racism then we would not know it if it was in front of us.  But by being conscious of it, we could stop ourselves from being racists.  Take an example from the school setting.  A teacher has different pupils in her class.  She has been taught to treat all her pupils with equity and she morally holds this view.  Yet, unconsciously, she is drawn to and gives favour to the cute little girl with big round eyes and shiny hair while the slightly unkempt girl with irregular features gets ignored.  Though this situation may  not be blatant racism it illustrates the inability to detect certain behaviours and attitudes in ourselves.  To be able to do so requires constant reflection on what we feel, do and say; and a sensitivity to how others feel.  But how many of us make a conscious effort to think before and after we do anything?
         Yet, in spite of some of us experiencing racism, we feel a need to foist the same thing onto others.  Perhaps one reason is that by being oppressed we need to oppress those we deemed as inferior in order to raise our self-esteem or self worth.  Hence, the victim becomes the perpetrator who victimises others who, in turn, will also victimise others in a viscous downward spiral.  Where does it end?
        Here is a story to reflect on.  A while ago, I was sitting among a group of sisters who masha Allah, are all practising Muslims.  A few of them were complaining of racial comments whenever there are troubles in the Middle East.  One sister said that alhamdulillah she was spare of this.  From my observation of these sisters.  I noticed that the sisters who were suffering from racial remarks were often unconsciously making racist comments about other Muslims.  On the other hand, that one sister is a type of  person who always think before saying anything in case she might hurt someone's feeling.