(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The tragedy at the Wisconsin Gurdwara was unspeakable madness all over again.
The gunman Wade Michael Page was associated with a self-described white power group called the Hammerskins - a hate group that includes disgruntled military veterans who decided to murder non-white people with head gear and facial hair that clearly indicated that they came from another country and were black (well, blackish) ex-aliens-turned-Americans.
And here we are looking to find friends on Mars. Martians stay away please. This planet is killing off people who are a different colour, wear a different dress and know other languages than English. There's no hope for you Marties. Don't pay for a one-way flight to earth; you won't like it here.
Yes, that tiresome colour coding that people do in the States, encompasses everyone. My partner John who is rather coffee coloured has many tales to tell - both bad and good. Good because some people think he looks like Bill Cosby and even call him handsome as a movie star. Others tag him as Black erm" African American and quickly turn off the charm.
Me, I'm Anglo Indian, so about the same colour as my Governor Nikki Haley, who is born of Sikh parents and was utterly saddened by the Wisconsin Gurdwara killings. Yes, me too, I sometimes get taken for a Hispanic, and you know the Latinos aren't terribly popular in the some States. But then, I open my mouth to speak, and my British accent confuses the poor wide-eyed ignoramuses. In my mind I think Gotcha!!
I love black. I wear lots of black, especially Chanel's little black dress. I love the French word 'noir'. It has a lovely seductive whisper to it. But it is not politically correct to call anyone Black anymore. They are African Americans.
Ay yay yay" we're all Brit Americans, Irish Americans, Indian Americans, Filipina Americans, Polish Americans, and so on. In fact the native Americans formerly known as Red Indians, in fact came over to this part of the globe before the continents moved, from of all places â€" Siberia. Yes it's true I read it on a great know-it-all search site.
Now then, white is lovely in and of itself, and technically is not a colour, but a mix of light beams that combine to make it milky. White is pure; it's worn at weddings; it's the colour of teeth, well mostly, and snow on mountain peaks, pearls (the royalty must-haves) from oysters, and so much else.
But, and that's a big but. The battle of the parties looking to win the next presidential position here, are playing the colour card. Obama is Black. He's not by the way, he's mixed - kinda like me, since I am an Anglo Indian or half-breed, as I was sometimes called during my school years in India.
If you think I have a point that you share, watch this remarkable lady on American TV. Her name is Rachael Maddow. She's brave, unfaltering and in my opinion would make a peach of a Vice President.
Sadly colour prejudice is everywhere. Remember Ukraine and the monkey sounds during the World Cup Soccer? And the discrimination against the Dalits in India?
Well, I love black coffee, and café au lait. And milk can make you lactose intolerant. Now that's a thought. Tee hee.
And I love my Sikh friends and South African-Anglo Indian nephews, and my Brit-Indian niece and my white-American ex-daughters-in-law, oh and my mixed breed dogs, and the beautiful black and white logo of my ex-company and the one I work with now. Sigh.
Pinky Daniels is a freelance writer based in South Carolina
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