Inferiority Complexes
The way it seems today, everybody has an inferiority complex, and for reasons that are very often all their own. I’ve encountered enough of these people often enough to believe that India is a country full of belief in its own inferiority. There are those who believe in their own inherent
Language inferiors:
I dislike this bit very much. My Tamil is abysmal, really. It’s funnily accented, I frequently put the wrong word in the wrong place and often instead of a word coming out there just comes out a garbled mess of noises, but fortunately I can read, write and communicate just barely enough that I wouldn’t be completely lost in a purely Tamil-speaking neighbourhood. Now here’s the bit, a lot of native Tamil speakers find the way I speak hilarious (I do too) and make no attempt to hide it. The problem comes when it goes the other way. I can’t laugh at a person’s bad English (however bad it is, even if it is super hilarious) without that person being offended, and feeling bad about it. What goes around doesn’t seem to come around. Strange. It sucks to have people going all sad because they can’t speak English properly though, so you better not laugh.
Complexion inferiors:
Of all the people I have met who have trouble with dark skinned people, not one person has been fair skinned. You can see the whole affair in bright colours in a newspaper, in
I have to admit, though, it works in my favour. All the dark skinned people who can’t speak English properly give me more respect than I deserve. I’m not complaining, it’s your call.
Disclaimer: Yeah, I know about caste oppression and stuff like that. I’m particularly talking about reasonably well off people.
Posted by roshan.george under Madras, Musings |
For a moment I thought the word ’superiority’ would link to my blog. Too bad.
I have a solution to people laughing at your horrible Tamil. Don’t talk in Tamil. Unless we need a good laugh.
But on a serious note, Indians have zero pride in their country. For good reason too. So they look up to fair skinned foreigners. It is true (sadly) that fair skinned people get treated better.
The men’s fairness creams are totally ridiculous, but I’m sure they’re selling like hot cakes everywhere in the country.
Comment by Marc — November 12, 2007 @ 12:45 am
Ha ha, never struck me. Yeah, that sentence applies to you perfectly.
Do you always solve non-problems? The problem is people getting offended when I laugh at their English.
Sadly? Not sadly, I get treated slightly better :)
No way man, no self respecting dude would buy that crap.
Comment by roshan.george — November 12, 2007 @ 7:59 pm
Not sadly for you. Sadly for everyone else.
And Fog Dude wants to buy that stuff.
Comment by Marc — November 12, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
Ha ha, yeah, sadly for them. Maybe they really are inferior if they actually believe that nonsense.
What?! Fine, he fails the ’self-respecting’ criterion.
Comment by roshan.george — November 12, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
What? I’m fair skinned naturally. People dye their hairs. Why can’t they try to improve their complexion if they want it to? It should be their personal choice.
Comment by Arun — November 12, 2007 @ 11:01 pm
Woah woah, there’s your problem. ‘Improve’?!
Comment by roshan.george — November 12, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
George, you yourself admit you get treated better because you’re fair.
So why shouldn’t someone try to make his skin shade fairer (albeit artificially) to get treated better? No one wants to be treated worse than another guy if they can help it.
Arun, complexion is different from skin tone. Improving complexion means making skin healthier, but I understood what you meant.
Comment by Marc — November 12, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
He said ‘improve’. It’s not improving, it’s changing. It’s changing your skin colour so that you can improve your social status. The improve is in the wrong place. The dark skinned person who thinks that way is the problem.
Comment by roshan.george — November 13, 2007 @ 12:11 am
You are not in a position to argue this point, being fair skinned. It’s like the educated man claiming that the villager’s ignorance is his own fault.
Comment by Marc — November 13, 2007 @ 2:35 am
Inaccurate analogy. No fair skinned person I know treats dark skinned people as inferiors. Many dark skinned people I know treat fair skinned people as superiors.
I could be a green skinned alien and I could still be in a position to argue the point here.
Comment by roshan.george — November 13, 2007 @ 2:47 am
Perhaps you’ve never heard of the caste system. You should look it up.
Comment by Marc — November 13, 2007 @ 2:36 pm
Perhaps you haven’t heard of reading comprehension, too bad asking you to look it up wouldn’t get you anywhere.
For reference: The last line in the original post.
Comment by roshan.george — November 13, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
Right, it should have been ‘change’. George, just because you don’t treat dark skinned people so it doesn’t mean others don’t as well. They have a right to do something about their skin colour if they want to. Accept that we are a bias-ridden society. You can never explain why. Imagine if genetics relating to skin colour change comes to play a major part in the future we can expect ethical issues just as the likes of stem cell research.
Comment by Arun — November 13, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
My mistake, if you meant ‘change’, then there is no argument. I agree with what you say. Let there be peace. Sadly, yes, we are a bias ridden society.
Comment by roshan.george — November 13, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
Silly George, that is what I was saying. You just need to accept that India is a crappy country. Then this would have been explained away by me simply saying “Yeah, India sucks” and you agreeing.
Next time why don’t you put the disclaimer in the background colour of your post?
Comment by Marc — November 13, 2007 @ 11:44 pm
I don’t ever disagree that we’re in a sorry state. The difference between me and you is that I don’t blame everything that happens to me on that :D
You were saying something about the caste system which doesn’t even enter the discussion if you read the post :)
Comment by roshan.george — November 14, 2007 @ 12:01 am