Of race, language, religion, colour and politics

Of my travels, I reserve a special place for Africa. Our family trip to Kenya included Nairobi, Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara. The energy of the Kenyan dancers, the sprawling grasslands of the Mara, and the diversity of the wildlife are all experiences to treasure.

The Maasai of the Mara live by simple rules. As an example, they believe that all the cattle, all over the world, belong to them and the Maasai have the right to take them back! Their God, Engai, is the Lord of all cattle; who is sometimes black and good, and, sometimes red and vengeful; who can be masculine or feminine; who lives in his mountain abode when not on duty. Like the Maasai, there are thousands of tribes with a diversity of languages and cultures. While it seems astounding, modern humans, irrespective of race, language, religion, color, and politics, can all call Africa their homeland.

By most scientific accounts, Africa was home to all modern humans until some 50,000 years ago. It has been argued that when humans migrated out of Africa, they already possessed the gift of speech and communication. Some 30,000 years ago, mutations produced lighter-coloured skin in some humans, before the divergence of the European and East Asian populations. Modern humans, for all their existence, have had some form of religion. Of course, politics probably pre-dates even the tribes. Though not supported completely by biology, people who want to assert their racial superiority might cite the acquisition of Neanderthal DNA after the migration out of Africa as a basis for racial differentiation and superiority. Race, language, religion and politics are more social constructs than biological and have no basis for measuring superiority. Colour is a biological mutation but, again, does not offer a measure for superiority.

Everyone in this world wants to feel special. Racial superiority is a crutch used by individuals and groups who, due to lack of skills and confidence in themselves, fall back on an imagined past that they think makes them special. There is insufficient genetic difference between human populations to make geographic groups more, or less, intelligent than others, and certainly not by the colour of the skin. Certain geographic groups have indulged in more widespread aggression and mindless violence than others at some point of time in their history, which has resulted in the economic division of the world into the global north and the global south. This economic divide, hence, is no basis for racial superiority.

The killing of George Floyd and continued police violence in the US against black Americans is probably due to mistrust and fear rather than feelings of racial superiority anymore. When you forcibly dislocate from their homes and lands more than 12 million people over more than 300 years and transport them to a distant continent, maybe you cannot repair the damage caused by just giving the victims freedom and affirmative action. Also, segregation was outlawed only as recently as 1964, and segregation of residential areas and school districts continues by virtue of affordability and colour affinity in residential preferences. This results in continued differences in socio-economic status, and subsequent difference in crime rates which are confounded by biased law enforcement.

In this environment, it is fantastic that the US elected their first African American president, Barack Obama, in 2008, and Kamala Harris has become the first African American to run for vice president this time. It is also fantastic that both Obama and Harris accept their identities in totality. Kamala Harris proudly mentions her Indian roots from her mother’s side, too.

In India, our equivalent of the racial superiority problem has been packaged into castes. A place to easily find the continued presence of discrimination is in matrimonial columns, which include requirements of colour and ‘bridge noses’ for suitable brides. A sentence of spoken language can be used to identify the sub-caste and region of the individual even within the same language fold. The use of ‘Ch’ and ‘Sh’ vs ‘Sa’, as an example, can discriminate castes and economic identities. Honour killings and religious bigotry span across economic and education ranks. India has come a long way, though, with many of our respected politicians, artists, technologists and corporate leaders coming from the traditionally discriminated sections of our society.

The Maasai say, “there is no gecko that does not claim to possess the longest tail!” The diversity of cultures and the pride in one’s own culture is what makes for a beautiful tapestry of human existence. The differences are to be celebrated and commonalities understood. How do you solve for a post-race world, though, remains a dilemma and a known unknown.