Why we’re terrified of ‘Other’ people

It was an online poetry forum 3D avatars of reallife poets sat in a virtual garden on virtual chairs and read out poetry in their real voices There were about seven including the host Sabretooth and his partner Janice Others were Gianno Wallflower Merrimac and Wordsmith I was nervous as I read out my poems but all went wellA text message from Janice reached me ldquoWhat a delightful accent Where are you fromrdquoItrsquos not the first time Irsquove been asked this question and I donrsquot take offence any more When I hear a playback of myself I know Irsquom a little more singsong than a Londoner or an AmericanI answered Janicersquos private question in public ldquoJanice about my delightful accent I currently live in Thailand but mdashrdquoldquoThat explains itrdquo she interrupted Clearly Thailand or any country in that region was exotic enough for her I had confirmed that I was from a nonEnglish speaking place hence my accent but wrote interesting poetry nonetheless DelightfulI let the rest of my sentence die I could have pointed out that Gianno had a northern highland accent Sabretooth had cockney moments Wallflower seemed straight out of old New England and Janice herself had a posh lilt But only mine stood out to her mdash as differentMy question was Janice being racistA Canadian friend told me kindly that I was being a bit too woke and oversensitive to Janicersquos harmless even affectionate remark Shersquod probably meant no harm by it Irsquod agree mdash Janice had sounded genuinely warm and likeable Neither the Canadian nor Janice would have described themselves as racistAnd this was when I began really reflecting on racismYou could forgive me for thinking that for a word thatrsquos used so freely these days people would have a pretty clear idea what racism means But a quick poll will reveal that racism is whatever you want it to mean Take the following lsquoracistrsquo statements any of which could lead to a barroom brawl mdashBlacks take drugs and commit crimesMuslims are dangerousCatholic girls love sexWhite people are smarterIndians are arrogant rapistsJews are ruthlessly shrewdHutus are better than TutsisChinese hate IndiansTherersquos a problem with all those statements mdash none of them refers to a race Black is a skin colour Catholicism and Islam are religions Indian and Chinese are nationalities and Hutus and Tutsis are tribes of RwandaIt turns out race means nearly nothing which should disturb you considering how many millions have been killed for it All human beings together make up just one species Your DNA is 99937 similar to any other human being on the planet The scientist Michael Yudell said ldquoGenetic methods do not support the classification of humans into discrete racesrdquoWhat about skin colour then Arenrsquot white and black people racesWe were all black once because hot Africa is where it all started The first humans to reach Europe 40000 years ago were black Even 8500 years ago dark skin seems to have been the norm there Then from bodies found at a 7700yearold dig at Motala Sweden they found two genes that lighten the skin SLC24A5 and SLC45A2 They also found the HERC2OCA2 gene believed to bestow blue eyes and lighter hairThese gene mutations helped the skin continue producing vitamin D even in low sunlightWhites became white it seems because thatrsquos how they could survive in cold climes How disappointingSo why was I so upset by Janicersquos question and even more by my Canadian friendrsquos dismissal of the episode At that moment I felt that in some subtle innocuous way I had been tagged as not quite like the rest of that group I was different I was the lsquoOtherrsquo Competence in English or poetry was a pleasant surprise not expected Oh of course they still loved me because wersquore all for diversity and I did receive a genuine patter of applause Nothing to see hereIdentifying otherness alas seems to be an instinctive and automatic human habit We flock towards those who feel similar mdash and demonise those who differ sometimes even in small waysDeclaring Jews as lsquoOthersrsquo and giving them identifying armbands was Hitlerrsquos very first step towards the Final Solution Around me I see a thousand ways in which otherness is noted and scorched rather than oneness celebrated The word racism catches that moment with its pants down with all its brutal unspoken implicationsYoursquore not racist Let me puncture your balloonLetrsquos say you are an eligible person asked to choose from five stunning candidates identical in brains looks biology and raw sex appeal Therersquos a white American a Bihari a black Nigerian a Pakistani and a Thai They all want to marry youChoose one of the five Then ask yourself why you rejected the other fourHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcom Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper