Why Racism Still Matters in Today’s World

There is no gainsaying the fact that racism has been a part of human history since time immemorial. It often stems out of a tendency to create stereotypes on the basis of race, colour, nationality, religion and other factors. The theme of racism got a renewed attention recently with the viral picture of the English Under-20 football team that showed the players sharply divided across colour lines in their mid-day meal (Picture below).

As if that was not enough, other pictures emerged of the split in swimming practices etc. of the same team. While some have criticized some media houses of making a mountain out of a molehill, others have wondered how we are breeding a generation to further sharpen the divisions and some few have been given a rude reminder that we are still far from uhuru as far as the fight against racism is concerned.

Without attempting to revisit the obvious, several media houses were agog recently with coverage of what seems to be a witch-hunting of the blacks in America. The rider that should follow is that this is the United States of America whose history of independence was hinged upon the quest for a free world and liberal state. It appears that the dummy the rest of the world have bought into is that a black man in Barack Obama has been elected, thus, dealing a fatal blow to the subject. However, the statistics shows that the abuse along racial lines have skyrocketed over the past few years in the last decade. There are those who have blamed President Barack Obama for not doing enough on the subject given his strategic position. The criticism might be founded but not properly situated. The truth is that a black president championing the racism battle is a profound error. However, the misdeeds are not just limited to the United States or the United Kingdom, the rest of the world has simply not done enough.

The recent cases of racial abuse in America and the rest of the world are too numerous to rehash here. However, what these events reminded us of is that the divisions of racism have taken new dimensions. While the days of rampant verbal abuse or gruesome genocide killings tied to race might have been put behind us, the manifestations have taken some dangerous forms that if not given the needed attention, might snowball into a major trouble. To insist that we should all move on and not open old wounds is the crux of the problem. Without stretching the truth, most of the efforts that have been adduced to eliminating the cankerworm have been largely lip-service. It is the kind of reaction that pretends to be doing something by putting it in our faces via sporting events and hashtags but with the fundamentals unattended to. The divisions across religious, political and economic lines in today’s society have further compounded the subject. It is fitting to note here that the challenges of racism in today’s world are not peculiar but must be attacked head-on with renewed vigour.

Race still matters in today’s world and that is majorly because the real questions to be addressed remain elusive from public discourse. The fundamental question is what will make a man dislike another man because of his decent, habits or way of life? It is that seat of thought that more than anything else, needs fixing. While skin colour is a major part of the race discourse, it is by no means restricted to it. It cuts across several factors. However, history tells us that skin colour and nationality differences have been the crux of the subject. From the Holocaust to the Apartheid, nothing aptly tells the story than this. Racism is worse than being tagged a second class citizen. It is deeper than a mere public debate, but we must revisit the conversation with a measure of sheer honesty and be ready to place no barrier on the discourse boundaries. We might never reach Eldorado on the subject but we can gain traction and genuine mileage beyond just rhetoric.