Racism: Beyond Ethnicity And Race

 IIM's only talk to IIM's.

Over the past couple of days, I've been hearing the word "racism" a lot or maybe I started noticing how often we use it. A teacher of mine asked my class what racism is to us, and then said we throw around the word without actually knowing its weight. The more I read about "racism" in the past couple of days the more I realised it was much beyond, race and ethnicity.

Racism is everywhere like it's built into us as part of the package. For example, in a room, some people graduated from IIM, Harvard, and other "non-prestigious" regular universities. In this room, the IIM graduates would only interact with each other and maybe exchange greetings with the Harvard grads, But they wouldn't bat an eye at the graduates from the other universities. Sure, education is the best weapon, something people can't take away from you, but what about equality? Isn't that what we learn in the 12 long years of school? During school, there is no guarantee one will go to a prestigious institution or a regular college, but we still interact, don't we? In this same situation, a friend of mine and I were having a "conversation" about universities. He was saying there is no point going to universities if it isn't one of the big 5 in the UK, or whatever country, eg. Oxford, kings, etc, and said that we wouldn't get a job if we went to a "no name" university. Mind you he's the grades topper and has been for a while, and the people from these "no name" universities have great jobs, sometimes even better than the ones from these prestigious institutions. And in my opinion, I strongly believe, let me stress on strongly believe, this is real racism.

In a more real situation, in the case of friends, there are two friends, who grew up together, spent every minute together, yada yada. One was an average student while the other was smart until the time you stepped foot into your respective universities you were bestest of friends. Then boom one day you don't talk anymore. Why? you may wonder. It's simply that they think they're too good for you, not on the same level anymore, ok, maybe they don't mean it but somewhere deep-deep down that sense of superiority has sprouted. This is the cold truth.

But obviously, some friends don't let anything affect their friendship. They're just a conceit-free breed. Also, sometimes our parents tell us to make friends with a specific group of people and avoid some of them. They might be right. I'm totally for you have to have all kinds of friends but sometimes it can get tiring, exhausting even. Sometimes it is easier to feel at ease with people like you, individuals who grew up in the same environment, etc. Though this concept is rubbish and is definitely racism, maybe over time it'll just make sense. 

The most shocking thing I've heard in the past few days is that economics is deeply rooted in racism, what might that be now? "examines how racism, both individual and systemic, impacts economic outcomes, leading to disparities in wealth, income, and opportunity, ultimately hindering economic growth and development." Ok, so basically like the other examples I stated above, let's assume Radha and Sita work in ABC company, they started around the same time, and they do the same work, but Sita gets paid more than Radha, just because she's favoured by your boss. Or for example, you want to take a loan from a loanshark, but he refuses to lend you money to you because you aren't from the same caste or religion. This way racism has an effect on the economy too, and comes with a ton of negative effects on the economy, Reduced economic potential, Wealth and income gaps, Limited access to resources, etc.

This my friends, I believe is racism.