Racism. – A Personal truth that cannot be unspoken anymore.
There is guilt, social injustice, fear, anger, stress, and broken relationships, whenever we enter into conversations based on ethnicity. Shining example of supposed conversations of “what color would Archie be when he’s born.”
I am no expert on racism, I am neither black nor white; but of the yellowish spectrum; somewhere between golden yellow to canary yellow. I do have Caucasian blood swimming through my Asian veins. Highly controversial in 1880’s, when my great grandfather on my mother's side, was the color of Hitler’s preferred fellow German, fell in love with a Burmese Mon beauty, while commissioned to dredge the river-beds of Siam.
They produced my Grandmama Lek, one of the first bio-racial beauty of that era. A devout Catholic, Grandmama Lek spread her beauty to a total of nine children, four daughters and five sons. My mother being the eldest, grabbed the dominant DNA. Her melanin composition leant towards the Canary bird color. Caucasian cranial and nasal bone structure with precise jaw line that held exceptional teeth framework which placed her smile to perfection. Her Asian genes went to her small frame, beautiful hands, and feet.
The dominant conversation as I was growing up was my mother’s beautiful skin color. Left unsaid was how to protect us from the sun, against different shades of our household staff particularly the gardener, whose daily work alongside ultraviolet rays signified cultural class differences. All the while forgetting that Grandmama had a green thumb. If not in the house, Grandmama was always discovered in the garden planting or talking to her plants. She would praise her abundant lime tree, then turned around loudly admonishing her slow-growing chilies; chatting to them as if they were human. She had a great sense of humor. I always found her amusing. Her days out in the sun far exceeded our gardener, yet she remained white.
The human logic is a fascinating element of behavior. It stems from early childhood that surfaces to deeper levels of judgement in adulthood. How unconsciously we view black (as negative) vs white (as positive). How discrimination weaves its way around color association.
I took to bed with me, for comfort, a teddy bear, named Teddy and a Golliwog named Sammy. Even the names represented the era - Teddy represented something loving and cuddly and safe, while Sammy was the funny gatekeeper, his black shadow to scare off night-time predators.
Growing up in London I was fed the typical British breakfast of pork sausages, bacon, black-pudding, eggs, and beans. For those unaware, black-pudding is a type of blood-sausage, the outer skin being black. It was always left untouched, too scary, and uninviting to swallow. Reintroduced again at a later stage in life, it was the most delicious part of the breakfast combo.
Taking piano lessons as a child, I disliked the Ebony keys because it was a stretch for my little fingers in music beats, in time to return to the Ivory keys. Admonished by the music teacher, that all keys must be played to make melody, the young mind was left with the typical association of what was preferred.
Only sixteen, a handsome Sri Lankan male contender harboring a flirtatious adventure with me….his dark tone was purple-black. The first close-up unveiling the dark creases of his neck unfolded, small beads of perspiration on tight black skin were unlike the globs of sweaty English boys to which I was accustomed. And I'm ashamed to say that I recoiled because of the color.
Muhamed Ali, the world’s greatest boxer on one of his BBC TV interviews with Michael Parkinson in 1974 expressed the way we have been forced fed, from nursery rhymes to representations of beauty. What is bitingly true are these words that represent how we are taught to think.
Tarzan was the King of the jungle in Africa – but he was white
Angel food cake was the white cake.
Devil’s food cake was the chocolate cake.
If I threaten you, it’s blackmail.
The black cat was the bad luck.
America known for its racism through its history of black slaves brought over from Africa, unwilling and unrewarded, played a major role in laying the economic foundations of the United States. It took many a brave souls like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and many more activists to restructure the civil rights movements to eventually elect a Black President for two terms in 2009 to 2017 living in The White House.
Thailand has its own peculiar racism: The term Farang in Thai means a Western foreigner from a white ethnicity, exempt from any disparaging intent,.The term ‘Khaek’, means a guest, or more often as a derogatory description for an Indian or Arab. In 1950’s Indians from humble beginnings were selling fabric, bicycling from house to house As Thais, the second and third generation of ‘Khaek’s” reached their pinnacles of success through acquiring land, building skyscrapers for rent and now own many businesses from famous restaurants to shipping. Not integrated into Thai society, the Indian sector’s choice of a civil-servant career was never an option The term ‘I-mude’, an insulting moniker of “you dark”
We thought we had arrived with sophistication and thoughtfulness until the Markle effect – “the unconscious bias.” Etiquette demands politically correct usage, to show our education and mindfulness and thoughtfulness to our fellow humans
If you want color specifics, here is my version:
The canary-yellow woman, married a white-man, produced Mediterranean olive children.
My question is what happens in the next 20 years when applying for the required passport of whichever nationality, how many boxes are required to have on the form in order to tick the correct ethnicity in today's mixed world?
My grandchildren, have a unique ethnic combination of White Australian, Canary Chinese Singaporean, White Yorkshireman and Siamese yellow; which box would they have to tick?
CMYK
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