Following on from my last article, just over 15 years ago, from my UK office, we were looking at a major engineering project in a South East Asian country that has a lot of its people in the UK – many are second generation Brits – and we thought it would be an excellent idea to get some of those Brits with heritage from that country (they speak the native language, look very much like the folks over there etc.) to lead our proposed engineering team and head back to their country of heritage as it were, to lead such an exiting project. Shockingly, the head of the project in the said South East Asian country told us they will only pay high rates if we sent white engineers. We explained to him that the non-white engineers we proposed are British, born in the UK, attended the same universities as the white engineers, have the same years of experience and have achieved the same levels of distinction and then, on top of all that, they already speak the local language, have relatives there – so, are happy to be relocated for the duration of the project – he said, that’s all well and good, but I will only pay the top hourly rates to white engineers, so, if you want to charge the highest rates, give me white engineers.
That, in a nutshell, is where the problem lies. Hoping white people will solve racism and begin loving non-whites more than themselves is an idiotic notion and isn’t right anyway (after all, they were at each other’s throat for decades, two recent world wars, countless wars in Europe over several centuries etc. There’s not such thing as unconditional love between nations or peoples, regardless of colour – we are naturally adversarial). The best the world can and should hope for, is for everyone to love themselves first and then quit hating on others for their differences – not necessarily love them more – that is too much to ask
In my example above, what was the conclusion? of course I gave them a bunch of less experienced white engineers for very high rates, which they were happy to pay and the experienced non-white engineers stayed on my UK projects where they were paid at the same hourly rates as their white colleagues as I simply couldn’t put them through that horrible experience of heading to a country they see as where their descendants came from, but they were about to be handed second class treatment.
We are looking in the wrong places in search of a solution to racism.
People protest and drag statues down: how dare they? Animals we say…
Then they take a knee: how dare they?
What on earth should they do? I know…..: society expect them to do what they have done for centuries: shut up and take it
The most popular phrase of 2021 will be: ….”and I don’t care what colour he or she is…”. Well, you clearly do, or that statement wouldn’t be uttered.
Personally, I couldn’t give a hoot. Racial abuse is not worse or more potent than any other kind of abuse and non-whites just need to see it that way. A white guy calls you a black bastard, you call him a white bastard. He makes monkey noises (funny really) and sends you monkey emojis, well, you can make piggy noise back at him and send him piggy emojis. YES, numbers are on the side of racists and usually that’s how bullying works, but continuing to show a bully they are hurting you will never deter them. When the rest of us CASUAL OBSERVERS finally decide to step up and step in, that is when bullies see they are up against it, and that is when things will change
We have seen the aftermath of the recent England v Italy footie match. I would like to ask why on earth we took 3 awful penalty kicks but I can’t, as the discourse has been taken over by the moronic behaviour of idiots who hurled online racist abuse at the penalty takers. Mad world!!
Knowledge can improve the world we live in 