Racism - A Reality, But Must We Put Up With It?

"The mainly Indian protesters say a spate of attacks in recent days – one of which left an Indian student with serious injuries after being stabbed with a screwdriver – are racially motivated." (An excerpt from 'Clashes at Melbourne Racism Protest' - Al Jazeera)

Racism is a global epidemic. Wherever there is human, there is racism. While racism mostly involves race-based prejudice, violence, discrimination or oppression, the term can also have varying and hotly contested definitions (Source: Wikipedia). The United Nation has a very thorough definition for racial discrimination, which is:

"the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life." (Source: ^ UN International Convention on the Elimination of All of Racial Discrimination, NEW YORK 7 March 1966)

Racism is arguably the most hated word in this world. This is the very word that had caused:

1. more than six millions of Jews being exterminated by the German during WWII
   
2. more than sixteen millions of Chinese being murdered by the Japanese during WWII
3. the blacks of South Africa being discriminated under the gruesome Apartheid system for almost 50 years
4. ten of thousands of Bosnian being murdered by Serbian in 1991
5. the New Economic Policy designed to favor the Malays while sidelining all other races
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The list can go on and on.

Racism is a reality, no matter how hard we seek to cover it, even in the most civilized society on earth. A government may enact law to outlaw racial discrimination, which most of the time only cosmetically effective, it can't stop discrimination from the heart. As long as in government policies do not openly condone racial discrimination or certain races do not openly discriminate, people are willing to open and close one eye to racism, although they know from inside their heart that racism exists.

As a human being, we need to learn to live and tolerate with racism as long as it does not result in open discrimination and violence. In the event of open discrimination that often leads to violence, we however must not sit quietly to be bullied or slaughtered. On the contrary, from the very beginning we must fight for our rights and our descendants' rights, even though it may result in bloodshed. We must learn from the history, especially from WWII where the Jews were being led into gas chamber because they had not put up a good fight from the beginning of the discrimination and let the situation aggravated into the worst calamity of human history.

Jewish people were being discriminated against since the day of Moses by the Egyptians. When Christianity flourished during the reign of Constantine - the Rome Emperor, Jewish people who did not believe in Christ were persecuted. Jewish people were also being persecuted during the rise of Islam for not believing Muhammad. In 19th century, the Jews were being forced to wear a yellow ribbon around their arm for identification. Thousand of years of persecution has made their spirit completely ran down. They came to a conclusion that as long as they were allowed to make a living and to keep their lives, they were willing to endure the discrimination leveled against them. They were so used to persecuted life, knowing little that the action of the German of confiscating their belonging, forcing them into ghettos and subsequently concentration camp will become a horrible life threatening event for them.

Therefore, those who under constant open racial discrimination and have put up with it should not be complacent. What had happened in the past will happen in the future. Fight for your rights where it's due. Reject open & violent racial discrimination even if you need to face off with the authority, just like the Indian nationals in the news above.