Are we racist?

I read this blog entry from Coffee With Muaz and I could not agree more on what he said in his blog. As much as we try to think that we tolerate other races, we actually do not. It is a sad fact, but something that we have to face. Muaz's lecturer rightly said, i.e. “it’s a very good point, but racism is inevitable, wherever you go, you’re bound to hear something about it”.

I remember reading an blog entry on this well-known Brunei blog on the segregation of toilets in a school here in Bandar. The school put up such signs that basically allowed only certain race to use a particular toilet. This is bordering apartheid, don't you think so? If this school 'openly' practices racism, I cannot imagine the sort of things that the students learn just from the simple act of labelling the toilets for use by certain race only.

How many times can you remember saying a particular race smells just because they use a lot of onions in their cooking? How many times can you remember mocking a particular race's accent, complete with shaking head? How many times can you remember saying a particular race's hand writing looks like bean sprouts? How many times can you remember saying degratory remarks about a certain race just because they are in the minority here? How many times can you remember labelling a certain race with a degratory word just because of the colour of their skin? How many times can you remember associating a certain job to a certain race just because they want to do it to feed their families at home, while we choose to remain unemployed?

We now live in a modern world, where we need each other to progress and develop. The United States of America did not make so much progress in the past century by not abolishing the segregation of races. Dr. Martin Luther King did not say he had a dream, only for the dream to remain a dream.

Lets wake up from our own dreams and kick racism out from our country!