With great movies like Black Panther and Moonlight being produced in this decade, the dark-skinned community is now being embraced and respected more than ever before; which is great of course, but we can’t deny the fact that in some parts of the world, racism still prevails, and that includes Malaysia. Oh no!
According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), a Nigerian expatriate in Malaysia, Faisal Ibrahim, said that he was harassed by local police due to the colour of his skin. C’mon Malaysia, we can do better than that, being a multiracial country!
“I felt like a criminal even though I had done nothing wrong. I was just walking. I wasn’t even jaywalking. There was nothing,” he said. They had told him that it was a regular check but he said he had experienced it more than once.
Faisal Ibrahim | Source: South China Morning Post
Upon realising that he wasn’t at fault, Faisal decided to lodge a police report about the incident, which the police initially hesitated to take on. However, days after the report was made, Faisal still hadn’t received an update.
That’s disheartening.
Following this incident, Free Malaysia Today (FMT) reported that a Malaysian sociologist, Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria, had criticised Malaysians for exhibiting prejudice towards Africans, stating that we’ve failed to understand the concept of a unified human identity.
Denison, who is also a research fellow at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), also said that an incident like that is known as “dislike for the Other” in the world of sociology.
Source: The Star
“The dislike for someone who is different stems from a weak understanding of humanity and of the fact that we are all people,” he told FMT.
Not only that, the report by SCMP stated that this prejudice towards darker-skinned people may have stemmed from the European colonialism. It had conditioned Asians to think lowly of dark-skinned people as dark skin was an indicator of low socio-economic class and considered unattractive.
Denison seconded this report, stating that colonialism had promoted the ridiculous idea of light-skin superiority, along with other factors that contributed to the problem.
“A lot of blame also falls on ignorance and lack of exposure,” he further explained.
His argument makes sense since we fear what we don’t understand.
He also added that awareness campaigns could help curb the problem. Besides that, he also explained that those who face racial discrimination should be encouraged to lodge a complaint to punish the offender.
Thus, Denison recommends setting up a “good complaints mechanism” and also the enactment of tough anti-discrimination laws.
With that said, we’ve definitely come a long way from what we once used to be; but instead of being kind selectively, let’s be nice to everyone regardless of their race and background!
Let’s all be more open-minded people! It’s the new age!
Also read: Woman Complains About Indian Tutor Teaching Her Kid, Gets Chased Out with a Broom
