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#BlackLivesMatter: A Hashtag Trend or a Pre-existing Notion?

Pic courtesy: weforum.org   

When asked about your favourite colour, most will answer ‘Black’, but in terms of skin colour nobody would like to opt this. Ironical!

Recently, the death of ‘George Floyd’ shook the world as such that a hashtag or protests took up the internet on fire. The conflict between fair and dark in the world is definitely a pre-existing notion which has become a trend this year. 

According to the BBC, more than 1,000 deaths by police occur in America every year and the figures of deaths disproportionately state the highest numbers of Black Americans. Therefore, with the same brutal incident happening on 25th May this year, outraged the public at large. 

In order to support the Blacks and demand justice for G. Floyd, many people including celebs posted hashtag notes on social media. But let me remind you, India has always been a part of this conflict. Isn’t it?

When our society has to give a solution to a successful marriage or career, fairness creams ads endorsed by the celebs like Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Disha Patani and others appear, and now they are posting their sorrow in support of Blacks on social media!

Moreover, you must have often heard a typical Indian family saying to their daughters that nobody will accept them because of their dark colour. But the same family offers worship to ‘Kaali - The Hindu Goddess’. 

How hypocrite society is! 

Furthermore, many of us install filter apps or beauty cameras in our phone to filter their skin colour, but have you ever noticed that these apps somehow or the other make us believe that we are ugly. I mean what’s the need of hiding the reality? Why could we not accept ourselves as we are by birth? Why did this social conception make a place in our mind? Let’s answer this with the beginning. 

At schools, you must have read the opposite words, and have found that beautiful is the opposite of ugly. But have you ever observed that the picture given in those English or Hindi books, describes a fair woman as beautiful and a woman with dark skin and blemishes as ugly? This is where the mindset of differences between beautiful and ugly develops in our society. And thereby, the term ‘racism’ evolves. 

Racism, a prejudice or discrimination makes the other race believes that the discriminated are a smear to our society. But they forget that the discriminated are not a stain (Kalank) to the society, rather their inferior mindset is. 

People in India are going gaga over speaking up on social media these days on the issue #BlackLivesMatter, but why they were taciturn on other important issues as well which is affecting India, since early. Why did those celebs keep quiet earlier on the prevailing racist issues in India?

Bringing up the issue is extremely fine, but not following its solution is definitely an act of humbugging. 

So, in my opinion, not only Blacks, but All Lives Matter. Because the colour of the skin differs, not the colour of the blood. 

And the need of the hour in order to put an end to this preexisting notion is to change our own mindset towards discrimination, which is only possible with the unity. 

Remember, “United we stand, Divided we fall.”