I have a distant acquaintance. We never had close contact because she doesn't live nearby. Still I'm often reading her status posts. And therefore I started to ponder.
Her parents come from Sri Lanka and you can notice this by her skin colour. I never really thought about it, it just wasn't important to me, (just now it is important to understand my thoughts). She is a nice woman, the rare times we met, we always got on well. She is sympathetic, nice, helpful, intelligent...
About a year ago she startet posting comments, articles and book covers concerning racial discrimination. For me it was really interesting seeing this topic from her point of view and I even started listening to an audio book from her recommendations. But while listening to it, my mind changed. The i-narrator presented several situations in such an extreme way that I could no longer feel sorry, unterstanding or maybe even pity, I became angry. Angry not about the white people's wrong behaviour but about the people of colour, in this case represented by a young woman giving any fault to the whites. Of course she also said a lot of things that are true and that cannot be accepted. But if it's hard for her to draw a line between what is discrimination and what is just ignorance or maybe unfamiliarity, not at all meant to be discriminating, she is no way better than a racist.
I don't see myself as a racist. I never judged anybody by his skin colour, accent or culture. I lived with a fellow student who grew up in turkey, two of my best friends have their roots in Poland and Vietnam, one of my favourite colleagues comes from Ivory Coast. To me there is no difference between them and other friends. But I have one fixed opinion: If you live in a country and want to stay in this country, you must respect and tolerate our culture. This applies to everyone , no matter where he/she, his/her parents or grandparents come from.
Why is it okay that we are called "white", but you must not name others "black" or "yellow"? Their skin is not really black or yellow, okay, but my skin is not really white either. On Christmas Eve I went to church with my family and I noticed a family with two little children. Later I was told by a friend who knows them personally, that they are muslims. At first I thought it was nice that they are interested in our religion but I changed my mind very fast. The adults did not take off their caps, the children ran around the whole church, the parents cried after them but did not bother to catch them, even after the holy mass had started, they continued walking around. This was really disturbing. What would they say, if I came to visit their mosque, refused to take off my shoes and disturb them?
What I was getting at with all of this, this acquaintance I talked about at the beginning made me feel discriminated for being white. I don't know what she is going through every day and maybe it would help to a bit of understanding if we would sit together and talk. But only seeing these posts of hers makes me feel she hates all whites and blames anyone of us for everything. And then after all, my final question: If she should really feel this way, that every white person is to be blamed, why does she stay here in central europe?
I know that every person is different, in every nation, every religion, every gender there are always "good" people as well as "bad" people however you want do define these phrases. Sure there are white people who discriminate people of colour, but in my opinion it's far from the majority. And blaming the whites and making them feel discriminated as well is no solution.