Are we all racists?

Dear mom - I love you really.

This is a terrible thing to admit, but I remember as a child always being a bit embarrassed by my mom.

She mostly wears traditional Indian salwaar kameez and she would always take very smelly (but tasty) spicy Indian packed lunches for us to eat. Both these things would draw unfriendly looks from the white locals and it always made me feel self-conscious.

I think I’ll always feel like an outsider. Do you know what I mean?

I’m working on getting some citizen journalism on racism in time for the follow up to the Durban world racism conference. It’s happening in Geneva on April 20th.

Photo by Leonid Dzhepko

I’m hoping that the digital recorder I have just re-sent to my Nigerian guy – Dariya – in Ukraine will finally get there. The Ukrainian postal service has been a little slow (understatement) so I’ve had to try again to send it using an expensive courier service. Fingers crossed it gets there.

Dariya is going to give his perspective on life as a black man living in Ukraine. There have been reports of racially motivated murders there, which he contacted me about.

I know from personal experience that racism is not perpetrated by white people alone of course.  But is racism from black people less of an issue, most people of colour are talking from experience, after all.

This leads me thinking about whether we should look at our own racist attitudes.   Do we all harbour racist thoughts?