Firstly, I’ll rant a bit.

I can’t help but think that those that proclaim racist so readily, and so quickly, before understanding the subject on which they do so, have not really been out very much, or have travelled inside safe ‘communities’, or are simply blinkered.

A fair few folk, including several on this forum, appear to associate recognising skin colour as a clear sign of racism, and jump at the chance to point fingers and accuse



as if there is some shame in not doing so.
Isn’t being blind to colour just as flawed as recognising colour. Skin colours tend to follow race, and different races have tendencies towards certain medical ailments. Does that make all the doctors who specialise in such medical conditions racists?

It’s a curious topic, skin colour. One that SWMBO asks questions about frequently. She’s a quite dark skinned Khmer, and goes intensely dark when spending any time in the sun, in the same way that nosferatu might rapidly ignite.

Why do white folk like darker skin so much? That is, the white folk who aren’t still fighting the civil war and lamenting the loss of their cotton, on behalf of their great-great-grandfolks. Conversely, why do so many darker skinned folk covet fair skin?
There’s tanning products to help you tan, appear tanned, and ripen out of season like a fake strawberry, along with whitening products to help those blessed look as cadaverous as some of the trash that visit themselves on places like Cambodia and shove their ideals down others throats.

A good friend of mine in Dhaka, about a decade ago, was being gently pressured by her mother to marry a white- European/American, even an Australian, whatever, such that she would eventually have fairer skinned babies. Very dark skins are seen as inferior in many parts of the Indian subcontinent, and that is something that has been around for a long time. Likewise, there’s plenty of evidence of the same in Africa.

It’s strangely forgotten that there were existing slave trades in Africa that were then further exploited by white traders when the aforementioned cotton need sorting.
I do wonder if those who shout racist as soon as someone mentions colour have ever taken the time actually look closely at the facial features and other traits, of the people they are leaping to defend.

We had this absolutely stunning local engineer in India who awaited our arrival. She was tallish, quite dark skinned, a fantastic demeanour about her. Clearly, she was an anomaly on so many levels- a female in a very male oriented industry, in a very male dominated country. Dark skinned, rather like the lower ‘caste?’ Baggage handlers, and shit pump operators doing the dirty work around the aircraft. She wasn’t one bit as shrill and unpleasant as the ramp agent who was clearly from a very different line of genetic makeup- paler skinned, plump and wobbly.
I was flying for an Arab airline then, and to watch how our Arab cabin crew treated everyone below them was simply disgusting.

So this whole racist thing is something of a tenuous subject in my opinion.

However, were I to be nailed down to a statement or two (as opposed to being nailed to a cross) Some of the worst examples I’ve seen of racism have been from

White trash thinking they are better than anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their broad strokes of bigotry.
Ultra-orthodox jews when dealing with anyone not from that branch, including other Jews.
Likewise, the fundamentalist Muslims.
Indians over other Indians.
Some Africans over other Africans, and I’m not talking about apartheid.
Apartheid itself.
The list goes on, and frequently an underlying factor is because people have been taught to think that way, based on deep seated resentments some of which started so long ago that the original schism is barely remembered.

Am I a racist? Generally, no. But I have little respect for most Arabs. However, that’s based on personal experience over many years, not an opinion I’ve been asked to maintain.