Sensitive in creating a multiracial world

Assalammualaikum and good day I bid to my beloved readers. Before I continue my path of writing this entry, I would like to remind all of you to look deep into your hearts and take what I'm about to say in this journal and of course in my future entries as a pinch of salt, and not as a base where one could point fingers and play the blaming game. To God, I'm thankful for making people of different races and skin colours as I believe these are the spices of life.

About two weeks ago, I was viewing a very contorversial yet motivating film, directed by Yasmin Ahmad, entitled Sepet ( I know that it's soooo yesterday but my first time watching would surely not be my last... and if I might add, Yasmin Ahmad you rock...) and may I say, this movie have really opened my eyes. Multiracial, a term lost in today's 'civilised' society, is portrayed clearly in this movie. Though the main theme is of a love story between two people of different races, the concept is somewhat intriguing and should be pondered upon.

Upon watching this movie, I started to look upon myself and what have become of me. I wonder what happened to the days when I was still young and making jokes among friends was never called racism. Then I try to look upon our civilization today and my conclusion would be, we are just too sensitive when it comes to certain topics and one in particular is about race. Some might hate me for this and some might not, but as I've said before don't let yourself be intimidated by your own comfort zone and try to let your mind wonder to new horizons. Let me give you this example of a very short narration. When you get together in a small group, consisting of various people, have you ever thought that this group of people are just like you? No matter what skin colour they have or how weird their accent is, they are just human beings like you and me. Their blood is red, and they breath the same air that you and I breathe. They love and they yearn to be loved, they laugh when something is funny, and they feel just as angry when they feel insulted.

"To God, I'm thankful for making people of different races and skin colours as I believe these are the spices of life"

Talking about insults, some people just don't understand what the term really means. For example, you are a malay in a group of malay friends and one of them voice out that the trouble with malays are, most are just a lazy group of people and they should change to better themselves. What would you then say? You would probably say yes, that's true and you would then ponder how to better yourself and other malays so that they wouldn't be label such things again. Now let's try to turn the table. In this particular group there is a chinese guy and he was the one who voiced out such a thing... Let me guess, as a malay, you would feel insulted and start to play the blaming game, as you feel such remark is an insult and in defense you tend to voice out a seriously racist remark which would probably end up in a battle of insults and the outcome would totally be the furious gap between races.

Why does this happen? In this world today, we still haven't learned from our past histories. Pride is important, I admit, but the trouble with pride is that, too much of it creates a sensitive and barbaric society. Too much pride, turns people into such monsters that they can never differentiate the right from the wrong. A building remark turns to insults, a casual back slap turns into fist fights and the list goes on. The question is now, how do we cure such a disease?

There is an old saying that goes 'Prevention is better than cure' which is of course the best way to handle this problem. As human, we are responsible in educating the future generations so that they have the chance to lead a much better lives than ours. Teach them about racism, and how ugly it is when such remarks are told, and tell them how to differentiate between racist remarks and a building comment. Even if racist comments are thrown into their faces, tell them to resolve such a remark with dignity ( which ironically is positive pride =P ) and prove to that other person how worng they are.

Of course it is best that we ourselves mirror our own believes before trying to guide our children. As been said times and times before, sometimes things needs to be seen through another perspective and in this particular occasion I would like to suggest that one sees it through the eyes of an innocent child, where skin colours or different backgrounds are just mere unique characteristics which makes the opposite races intresting. As irony as it sounds, respect is only earned after being given by oneselves.

Learn to respect and not judge while trying to better ourselves are the best solutions here. Cure our own intimidation, face the problems heads on and let not too much pride overcome us in creating a much better multiracial society.