Racism cannot be acceptable in any form or fashion

Going beyond cricket, we need to decode racism. When it is overt, it is easy to spot and there is usually a power imbalance between target and abuser

England cricket has been rocked by a racism row after a Yorkshire player, a Briton of Pakistani descent, blew the lid on what he has called institutional racism at the club. The player claimed he felt suicidal. An investigation was launched about the ‘nicknames’ given to players of Asian descent, the casual comments that cut, and some off the cuff remarks that were not so innocent.

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It has also come to light that the player, the complainant himself, was guilty of some anti-Semitic remarks he exchanged with another cricketer, though those were more than a decade ago. He has claimed he is not the person he was when he made those remarks.

Going beyond cricket, we need to decode racism. When it is overt, it is easy to spot and there is usually a power imbalance between target and abuser.

Racism is very often, covert, the casual remark, deliberate, but couched in mirth. The comment that masquerades deceptively as compliment but isn’t. The joke that slices that intended target into two, but one is supposed to laugh at it, anyway, it is unlikely that the person it is aimed at will ever forget. 

There is ‘reverse racism’ where a ‘majority’ community is never supposed to feel offended because hey, you are the majority and more powerful. The other skin colour, who is usually the ‘abuser’ has been victim too. Complainants themselves may have indulged in racism, in another context from the one where they may have been the victim.

Racism will not disappear through committees and resignations, though these are necessary in a structure. We need to hold a mirror to ourselves, recognise what it is and never indulge in it ourselves. This is simple, because it is wrong, not just because it is socially unacceptable or the fear of being caught or called out.  

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