okay bear with me....this is going to be the last post for a while (most probably!)...i'm intrigued by
dr. m's quirky and thought-provoking blog...his blog is very simple...his words are very simple...his messages are not...but one thing that grabbed my attention, this time particularly, is related to
racism...coming from malaysia and living in auckland for almost 4 years, i've come to appreciate the differences between different ethnicities...
it is indeed very difficult to say we are impartial and we are against racism...truly...we are
partial to our own root, even subconciously...root meaning that in whatever culture we are brought up in, to which we feel belonged to and most identified with...it doesn't necessarily means out race...race is the herediatry genetic make up we are born with, something that cannot be erased no matter how thin our blood is (no matter how many times removed u are from one race, u are still partially that race if u have ancestor who is)....
what truly makes a whole lot of difference is our
ethnicity...that's what i've learned over and over again in my population health and psychology classes here in auckland...this point never fails to impress me...i am a malay, race-wise...no doubt about it...my baba and mama are pure malay (may have lots of mixed heritage like chinese and some others)...i may have some ancestors who are chinese or some other races but i've lived like a malay...i speak malay...i eat malay food...i live like an average malay (okay citified, crazy version of malay culture)...i identify myself with the rest of malays...but i am also a malaysian...i live like a malaysian...i go out karaoke-ing and eat at mamak restaurants and tapau food (have doggy-bag for leftovers).... for that i am also a malaysian., not just a malay..i have a friend, stacey who is half samoan and half chinese...she identify herself as such as she is brought up in a typical samoan culture but she is also taught some chinese culture by her parent...i have another friend christina...she is a chinese but since she's lived here in nz for so long, she identifies herself as a kiwi...so there u have it, race and ethnicity are different....
my point here, we can't escape who we are...and to some degrees, we may have thoughts of how our race or ethicity in general is better or worse than others...and we may accept or reject our backgrounds, but we still who we are...we can be more than our race, we can belong to more eth nicity....clinging to our race and believing that we are the very best, that's where racisim is born...sometimes, we think that our race or ethnicity is better and we vehemently reject others...the difference is how tolerant we are and how we
try to understand other cultures and accept the fact that they are different people out there...that's what make u a racist or not...
it's not possible to be 100% blindly accepting of other cultures and disregard our own after 20 years of upbringing...if u hate other cultures, sight unseen nor understood, and without deeper knowledge of how relatively different and similar they are to our own, then u are clearly a racist...if u do have deep knowledge and still hate them and show it too, u are clearly a major racist and in trouble...it means u never even try to put urself in their shoes and be
tolerant (and that is degrees lower than understanding, means u don't even try to tolerate, let alone understand)....
i admit as a malay malaysian in auckland, i have a fair number of non malay and non malaysian close friends...i hang out with them, eat with them, talk to them...and try to understand them...i love our differences and similarities (similarities do exist across cultures, we just have to pay attention)...i may not sing my cultural song to reflect what i am feeling in formal occasions like graduation ceremony or walk barefoot along the street in summer, but i do understand their meanings and logic behind it...sometimes
culture has no logic...it is just is...something passed over through generations, a relic of a past....
my whole point of this long winded rambling is, we
can't erase our identity and try to be another race altogether...that takes time...a very long time...probably forever...and i don't even want to be another race...i'm comfortable where i am, being who i am...i am a malay and i am also a malaysian...one doesn't preclude the other...i admit my race's failings and triumphs...we have our share of them...but to deny my heritage and be a whole new other person, that's something that i would never choose...kiwi, asian, chinese, malay, caucasian, tongan, samoan, maori and any other races, we are born as what race we belong to and brought up as what ethnicity we feel close to...
things like white supremacy still reigns (noticed this especially after some lecturers accidently slipped, making statements like 'yes, the whites are more cleverer' and then behaving as if apologetic and thinks that the rest of us are stupid and doesn't actually understand that)...no matter where u go, even to a peaceful (relatively) countries like america, malaysia, new zealand and australia,
racism still exists and will probably exist until the world ends...acccept this and we will all be better off....the main difference is how we handle this...eradicating our own race is not the way to deal with this issue...of that, i am convinced...
