Race Relations Across the World The world is full of distinct races, ethnic groups, and cultures, some closely intertwined, others uniquely different. All of these unique cultures come with their own flair, their own unique backstory, but unfortunately many come with their own dark side. With race relations being brought to the forefront of the world, I wanted to look at race relations and racism across different communities across the world. From the complex racism in Europe to the mixed ancestry in Latin America, to the colorism of South Asia I wanted to take a look at it all with some words from our own classmates.
The same colorism is prevalent across the Muslim world. Muslims are extremely diverse due to the widespread of Islam. From the south Asians of Indonesia, to the Arabs of the Middle East, and the Africans of Somalia, Islam is extremely diverse. This diversity is something to be celebrated and the large majority of Muslims are proud of the diversity within their religion. Many organizations, such as the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, say that the Quran unites them all. While on paper, Islam sees all Muslims as equal unfortunately the culture sees otherwise.
To begin, I wanted to take a look at my own experiences. For some background, my family comes from India but half of my family have been in the country since 1945. Before that, they were natives to what is today Pakistan. Ethnically, I am Punjabi and have become quite well versed in the culture of racism in the Indian world. One thing that is important to understand across all cultures and communities is the effect of colonialism. Colonialism brought with it colorism. Colorism is the discrimination between a race and ethnic group against those with darker skin. Colorism is the most prevalent form of discrimination not only in India, but in South Asia as a whole. Coming from north India, where people tend to have lighter skin tones, I have seen firsthand how casually derogatory remarks are thrown around. Skin lightening creams are widespread and common all across SouthAsia in every supermarket. I know this firsthand as growing up these whitening creams were regularly applied onto my skin. This is especially prevalent in South-India where people are predominantly Dravidian and have darker skin. Colorism towards them is not only widespread but common and unfortunately accepted in many parts of the community. A politician was even caught telling two sisters that, “You look like a south Indian but your sister looks Indian.”
In speaking to people in our class the issue of colorism comes up yet again. This like anything is a byproduct of colonialism and the pushing of the European beauty standard. The same person also said that the culture has a long way to go when it comes to moving forward in regards to race and race-relations, but things are at least progressing and the new generation, especially children of immigrants, are beginning to become more open. One of the more complicated regions when it comes to race is Latin America. Latin America includes countries in the Americas which speak latin-based languages, most notably Spanish and Portugese. The most prevalent countries include Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, etc. In speaking to some people whose families come from Latin America many say that they identify themselves as Latino or, racially, mestizo. The terms Mestizo and Latino encompass a large group of people. Like always, colonialism played a huge part in shaping and forming the society of Latin America.
South Indians are treated as second class citizens in their own country. This divide is only further deepened when the language barrier is taken into account. North Indians are seen as “superior” while south Indians are looked down upon.
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