The Ethnic Conspiracy

In my search for peace, I have long pondered the role of ethnicity, culture and religion. Do ethnicity, culture and religion work to bring us together to achieve a common goal or do they have the opposite effect in dividing us even further? Below is an abbreviated version of an essay that I wrote for a recent graduate school application. I didn't get into this particular school but I loved the essay. This is my own personal journey in coming to terms with my identity and I have chosen the title "the ethnic conspiracy."

THE ETHNIC CONSPIRACY

Throughout the world ethnicity has been viewed as a dividing rather than a unifying factor. Differences in skin color and hair texture have been used as justifications for slavery, murder and rape. Ethnicity, along with politics and economics, has been categorized as a main cause for genocides and holocausts occurring in the twenty-first century.

My most poignant memory of reports of the ongoing Sudanese genocide is that of a young boy with brown hair and grey eyes, who had been classified in government lists as an African Sudanese. He begged his killers for his life pleading “please don’t kill me, I promise I won’t be African anymore.” Why has ethnicity been used as a tool of war and what is the mystery behind the racial divide?

As a constructivist, I believe that ethnicity is not real but is instead a social construction. It has been been developed by man over millenia and has transformed through social practices. Scientists have proven that genetically we are all 98% exactly alike. The race theory which divides the globe’s population into three main categories: negroids, mongoloids and caucasoids, has never been validated by science and therefore, it remains only a theory.

Why then, if race is not a real phenomenon, does my reality look so different? Why do I feel that my life is affected by the color of my skin? Is it just a personal discomfort that I experience or is racism real? Too many times I have heard friends say, "that is politically incorrect" or "let's not talk about race." Why does this race taboo exist and why do people shy away from engaging in the conversation on race?

I think of ethnic conflicts and racial divides in today's world and I feel sad, angry, hurt and disappointed. In my beautiful island of Trinidad and Tobago, my island paradise where “every race and creed finds and equal place,” racism is now more rampant than it has ever been in the history of the country. The “race card” is inherent in party politics and inflation, violence and crime is on the rise. Yet no one wants to talk about race. Why the silence? Will talking about rae end up hurting us? Must I forever live with the legacy of colonialism in my life?

Growing up in Trinidad and Tobago I have had a very unusual upbringing. I have embraced different ethnicities and religions as my own. I would often boast to friends that Trinidad and Tobago is like no other place in the world. As a Trinbagonian, my heritage is African, Indian, Chinese, Syrian and European all melted into one. When I describe this to my international friends... it is sometimes difficult for them to understand. Even though, physically, I may be considered Indian (my grandparents on both sides are Indian), I have never felt any more Indian than I have felt African. For me, both Africa and India are my lands of ancestry. My definition of my own identity demonstrates that ethnicity can be socially constructed and socially transformed. It is often influenced more by our environments than our blood line.

To create peace, we must engage in the conversation on race. But how can I (or we) address this problem on a global scale, or can we? If Gandhi's philosophy on change is right, then how do I (or you, the reader) represent the racial, ethnic and religious change that you want to see in the world? Perhaps I could work on starting an inter-racial dialogue among young people in my university to discuss race? Do you have any ideas on how you can contribute to the conversation on race?

Please feel free to post comments and suggestions! I would love to hear your opinion on this piece!

La Paz

For so long, I've heard the word "peace" mentioned. Naturally, I do hold a Bachelors degree in International Relations with a minor in Peace Studies... so hearing the word "peace" is a part of my everyday life. But what does peace really mean and how does it translate into our every day life?

As young professionals, most of us go to work do our best and if we aren't enrolled in graduate programs, we find some avenue of getting involved and engaging ourselves. Yet it's quite clear that many of us feel dis-empowered. We feel that change is an illusion that crumbles when tested in the real world. The recent election of Barack Obama as the presidential nominee for the Democratic party, however, destroyed the idea that peace and change are merely illusions. He made the issues very real and refused to be undermined by the status quo.

What can my generation do? How do we create peace within our own lives and then spread these ideas to our family, communities and societies?

The definition of peace is as follows:

1. The absence of war or other hostilities.
2. An agreement or a treaty to end hostilities.
3. Freedom from quarrels and disagreement; harmonious relations: roommates living in peace with each other.
4. Public security and order: was arrested for disturbing the peace.
5. Inner contentment; serenity: peace of mind.

So how do we achieve peace and is it just an inevitable dream that we all harbor somewhere deep within us?