Racism: Why is there such a controversy over the racism (it is really pigmentism* - discrimination on the basis of skin colour) issue in picking cheerleaders (or in asking some of them to leave)? There is already discrimination (let's call it sizeism) in cheerleader selection - why is it that you don't find a fat cheerleader? If your sales item is a body - let's be frank about this - then you have to accommodate the fact that a majority of the people have a certain taste there. In the west, people think thin is sexy. In India, we think white is sexy. Why is one necessarily worse than the other? 'Equal opportunity' does not work everywhere.
I'm not saying that pigmentism or racism is OK in any domain. I'm only making the point that when you are selling beauty, you can't blame people for having a particular taste and for your marketers to cater to it. I've seen casteism and pigmentism at work in my previous company, and believe me, it sucks, even if you are not at the receiving end of it.
Communalism: You may recall how Manmoron lost his sleep when he came to know Indians were involved in the Glasgow blasts, and how (correctly) his 'secular' government fought tooth and nail to get him acquitted. Now, Indian cab drivers are being attacked in Australia, and these are racist attacks, why is the moron silent? Which cat has got his tongue? Why isn't there at least a demarche issued to the Australian mission in India? Well, if you didn't guess it already, it is because the victims are Hindus. If Muslim Indians were targetted, our secular government would have jumped into the fray - now, if a few dozen Hindus are killed out of the 850 million or so around the world, why bother?
* Thanks to a journalist friend for coining the word.
4 comments:
yeah, for a country which calls itself secular, Hindus are always on the receiving end of things. Im really glad BJP is going to take power in Karnataka, their view of Hindutva is right. Hindus are the oppressed race!!
:)
I totally agree. When you are selling beauty, it really depends on what your customers want. I was reading in some hair-cut shop magazine (you know what I am referring to) that men prefer fairer women because white stands for subconscious purity, and get this - women prefer dark men because its sexy. But anyway coming back, you could'nt make a horrible looking product and claim discrimination when your customers wont buy it. Incidentally however the product here is a human body. Using the n-word is rascist in much of the west, so that probably caused the outrage.
On a different note, do you think the league matches (with cheerleaders and all) have made cricket any more passionate? I dont even know who plays for what team anymore, and the 20-20 seems like the game is losing its charm...
Karthi,
Nope, there is no evidence that the cheerleaders have made a difference. However, the matches have been a big success, particularly amongst the younger generation...
Another thing that has happened is that as the tournament progressed, the bowlers (McGrath, Piyush, Sreesanth, Gony, Warne) started getting their game right, and that has made some matches really interesting.
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