“What a shame it is to stay afloat on the surface of somebody’s soul,
when all their magic transpires underneath” – Jonny Ox
I hope people realise the wisdom of his words. But that seems like an increasingly foolish hope, seeing that we live in a country where acts of violence against people of a certain colour, based on misguided notions and parochial prejudices, are defended, by equally, if not more, racist remarks about how people of colour are tolerated in our country.
“If we were racist, why would we have all the entire south…Tamil, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra…why do we live with them? We have black people around us”,
Well, Mr. Tarun Vijay, if the Aryan Invasion Theory is to be believed, you live with them because like all invaders, your ancestors, fuelled by the glorious sense of entitlement that is common to most colonising usurpers, took what did not belong to them, pushed the rightful heirs of the land to the southernmost corner of what is presently known as India, and then proceeded to make them feel inferior just because they were darker due to their proximity to the Equator.
For those who don’t conform to this school of thought, Mr. Tarun Vijay, you’re not doing them a favour by living with them. You don’t have black people around you. Or white. Or brown. Or people of any colour ,shade or tint from the infinite spectrum. You just have people around you. JUST PEOPLE. Flesh and blood, skin and hair and bones, atoms and molecules. They are all matter. AND THEY ALL MATTER. Perhaps it is time you actually made use of the grey matter in your head.
If he were to ask us, “ Do you bleed?”, we, ‘MADRASIS’ would answer – “ Yes. Yes, we do. We bleed red. The same as you.”
P.S. – I know this Batman quote has been taken out of context and attributing his words to Tarun Vijay is sacrilege, but I’m trying to make a point here.
Also, the point making continues in the following verse :
“White man – Blueblood,
Black man – Mudblood;
White or black, we’ll all be dead;
In the end, we’ll all bleed red,
Why such a hue and cry
Over colour and pigment?
Complexion is but a figment;
The manifestation of a jaundiced eye
Why fight over skin
When we’re destined to become bones?
Colour is not a crime,
Let him who is without sin;
Cast the first stone.”
The write up was submitted by Samyukta Menon from the Second Year.
