Respecting Everyone

Thinking about Black Lives Matter, I almost sank after realizing that the whole world is very discriminatory. What made me feel even worse is that probably I have some role to play in even endorsing much of the discrimination either on me or over against others be it based on complexion, gender, power, caste, religion, etc. In my mind, I have never been so ashamed about and regretted myself for having had such repressive thoughts. This blog is a naked expression of my discriminatory thoughts and my pledge to be a better human.

Complexion

Long ago, I used to believe that dark-skinned people are very violent. As I grew up, I started joking among my friends that even if a darker girl would come nearer to me, I would probably not get a boner. I was the one to crack lame phrases such as “kaali-maii”, “kaala-kaloota” phrases at my classmates. I still feel disgusted when I think of my views back then. To all the people who would have suffered because of this, I would just say sorry and promise to not let this happen again around me.

Gender

Society automatically embeds into us all its dogmas and believes in the name of culture. It took almost my half-life to realize that the role of women is not just to cook at home and only go out when something needs to be done and I am feeling lazy to do the same. I had started to see women starting my sisters and my ants as people who are destined to sit at home and be married off. It took my sisters to make me realize that ladies are no less in any field be it earning the bread and butter to the family or being the emotional pillar for the family in case of emergency.

Power

Although this comes from a degree of subversion in the head, I used to believe that we should be fearful of powerful people and even when there is oppression going on in front of our eyes we should ignore it as it does not concern me. At an instance, I have witnessed a person blatantly beating another person in the insobriety of their power and position. I did not intervene to stop that injustice because it could bring me to unnecessary problems. Similar is an issue when I did not stop the car when a person was injured on the road. Although it was driven out of safety concern, helping a human-looking obviously in need could never be lower in priority than preserving my perception of safety.

Caste

All my life, I have witnessed people of lower caste sit only on the floor in my home while others sit on the sofa and chair. This feels as sad as bad as slavery itself. I promise to never entertain discrimination based on caste. I have stopped people telling my caste because they typically judge me by the caste designation which is nothing but a community of people I am born into.

Religion

Maybe fuelled by politics around me, but I had started to feel very bad about certain communities as enemies of my nation especially Muslims. It took a great amount of reading and a Muslim friend to live with me as my flatmate to change my views. Now I understand that my political views had occluded my world view and pushed me towards discriminating and hold toxic views about my countrymen.

I took a pledge, that I would do as little as possible to hurt others. Not so consciously and never so willingly - Vishwaraj Anand

My Pledge

As I pondered my thoughts in solitude and started to heed to lesser voices around my immediate vicinity, I felt more composed. That was the time, I got much time to reflect upon my actions on others. I realized that one should treat others how I want to be treated!