"I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls." Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream seems a very realistic and well within the means dream. It seems this is a bygone dream, a dream which has taken centuries to realise but has been completely realised now. It seems that apartheid is finally extinct. Really a time to cheer, a time to rejoice that humanity's one of the most dangerous evils has been finally got away with. But is the disease really extinct? Has it's germs really vanished from the veins of the human blood? Do we really see beyond the colour always?
Aibileen, a 50 year old black maid who has been continuously raising children when are own children are out there without care doesn't have the privilege to mourn her son's death. She has to take care of all the domestic help, the proper upbringing of her mistress' child and save her job at all cost. Minny on the other hand is an outspoken maid who gets fired often for her firm and straight-forward nature. But outspoken or introvert, they continue to work meticulously without giving much of a thought to the upliftment of their own lives. They have separate toilets, which have to be used at all costs; even if they need to face nature's fury for that. They have to leave as and when desired, emotional attachments do not have a place in their dictionary nor in their employer's recruitment criteria. The white people expose their delicate offspring's from their very infancy to these black maids but at the same time do not step back in commenting that 'the black have different diseases from the white.' If anyone comes forward to help them and bring them out from distress, those farsighted white people are also subjected to social outcast and looked upon with disgrace.
Racism is a very commonly uncommon disease. The disease dates its origin back to the times when man started dispersing in various countries. It dates back to the times when people started conquering and having slaves. By divine grace or disgrace, the coloured people became subjected to being pawns at the hands of their masters and their life depended on their master's whims and wishes.They began having different cities exclusively for the black people and they had to live in the filthiest of conditions. Slave trade became a robust market. Except for a very few exceptions, the majority of slaves were subjected to all kinds of torture in return of their sacrifice. While in a bus, they had to stand and leave the seat for the white, even if they might be old. Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat when the white section of the bus was filled and she was asked to give up her seat in the coloured section is taken as the revolutionary step for removing this discrimination. Others have taken similar steps and have contributed in their own way. Over the years, there have been laws and acts passed, mentalities of people persuaded to change and coloured people restored to their former glory. 1994 saw a formal ending of racism with South Africa becoming the last nation to ban it and gaining freedom.
But sadly the devil finds a way out of the pit. Informal endings of evil proceedings take long to extinguish because they go uncounted, unnoticed by lawsuits and legal proceedings. Dowry and female infanticide would have been long ago done away with if the laws and acts had being strictly followed. As they say,"Bad habits die hard.", even today people do discriminate on the basis of colour. They don't do it consciously rather subconsciously. "Her face is plain, if only she had been fairer; she would have been beautiful.""She is so black. She seems dirty." Such comments are not uncommon in a school. It stinges to the core to listen to those remarks because you can actually do nothing about it except to digest it. The coloured people have a long way to go before Martin Luther King's dream is actually realised, before Aibileen's son gets justice, before Rose Parks actually wins her battle, before every child growing up in the hands of these black maids actually see beyond the colour and judge to be friends on the basis of whether they have the basic human classification --- a nose, two eyes, a sane mind, a mouth, etc. Beyond all colours, there lies a unicolour of humanity where all live in harmony in peace. In this world, where the thrust for power is more than ever, to save the world the unity of human beings is needed. Discrimination on the basis of colour shall do nothing except create complexities and indulge people to fight over petty issues. The black and white alike are strong enough, competent enough and they should hold hands in hand and work for the betterment of the society and actually abolish racism from its very roots.
As said by Maria Christina Mena,
Aibileen, a 50 year old black maid who has been continuously raising children when are own children are out there without care doesn't have the privilege to mourn her son's death. She has to take care of all the domestic help, the proper upbringing of her mistress' child and save her job at all cost. Minny on the other hand is an outspoken maid who gets fired often for her firm and straight-forward nature. But outspoken or introvert, they continue to work meticulously without giving much of a thought to the upliftment of their own lives. They have separate toilets, which have to be used at all costs; even if they need to face nature's fury for that. They have to leave as and when desired, emotional attachments do not have a place in their dictionary nor in their employer's recruitment criteria. The white people expose their delicate offspring's from their very infancy to these black maids but at the same time do not step back in commenting that 'the black have different diseases from the white.' If anyone comes forward to help them and bring them out from distress, those farsighted white people are also subjected to social outcast and looked upon with disgrace.
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| Raise your Voice And Take a Stance, Collaborate your Intellects In order to Enhance, Systematically Changing Minds that are trapped in a Trance. |
Racism is a very commonly uncommon disease. The disease dates its origin back to the times when man started dispersing in various countries. It dates back to the times when people started conquering and having slaves. By divine grace or disgrace, the coloured people became subjected to being pawns at the hands of their masters and their life depended on their master's whims and wishes.They began having different cities exclusively for the black people and they had to live in the filthiest of conditions. Slave trade became a robust market. Except for a very few exceptions, the majority of slaves were subjected to all kinds of torture in return of their sacrifice. While in a bus, they had to stand and leave the seat for the white, even if they might be old. Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat when the white section of the bus was filled and she was asked to give up her seat in the coloured section is taken as the revolutionary step for removing this discrimination. Others have taken similar steps and have contributed in their own way. Over the years, there have been laws and acts passed, mentalities of people persuaded to change and coloured people restored to their former glory. 1994 saw a formal ending of racism with South Africa becoming the last nation to ban it and gaining freedom.
But sadly the devil finds a way out of the pit. Informal endings of evil proceedings take long to extinguish because they go uncounted, unnoticed by lawsuits and legal proceedings. Dowry and female infanticide would have been long ago done away with if the laws and acts had being strictly followed. As they say,"Bad habits die hard.", even today people do discriminate on the basis of colour. They don't do it consciously rather subconsciously. "Her face is plain, if only she had been fairer; she would have been beautiful.""She is so black. She seems dirty." Such comments are not uncommon in a school. It stinges to the core to listen to those remarks because you can actually do nothing about it except to digest it. The coloured people have a long way to go before Martin Luther King's dream is actually realised, before Aibileen's son gets justice, before Rose Parks actually wins her battle, before every child growing up in the hands of these black maids actually see beyond the colour and judge to be friends on the basis of whether they have the basic human classification --- a nose, two eyes, a sane mind, a mouth, etc. Beyond all colours, there lies a unicolour of humanity where all live in harmony in peace. In this world, where the thrust for power is more than ever, to save the world the unity of human beings is needed. Discrimination on the basis of colour shall do nothing except create complexities and indulge people to fight over petty issues. The black and white alike are strong enough, competent enough and they should hold hands in hand and work for the betterment of the society and actually abolish racism from its very roots.
As said by Maria Christina Mena,
"The piano keys are black and white;
But they sound like a million colours in your mind."
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