Thoughts On Race Relations In The US & Sri Lanka
By Mano Ratwatte –March 6, 2015
Mano Ratwatte
The defining fact for two generations of Sri Lankans (or Ceylonese if you prefer) has been the strife between the island’s two primary ethnic groups since independence from the British. Many erudite scholars, political scientists and historians have examined the causes of this conflict. Some say it all began in 1956 and others say it began well before that. This is 2015. A hellish war, which lasted well over twenty years has ended. But still the barriers between the two major communities still exist; attempts to break those barriers are stymied primarily, in the opinion of this writer, by the lack of a common link language. These are just personal thoughts of an émigré and not views of qualified experts. The writer is also thankful to a brilliant gentleman for helping him edit this opinion column.
The crimes of July 1983 were a watershed for our country | pic by Chandraguptha Amarasingha – A Tamil boy stripped naked and later beaten to death by Sinhala youth in Boralla gustation – 1983 July
Race relations in the USA – some history
Race relations in this writers adopted country, the United States of America, have a darker and much deeper history. Created by the unimaginable horror of “industrial” slavery, divisions and discrimination has survived the emancipation (official freeing of all slaves in the USA) of 1862. The hated “Jim Crow” laws, which ensured that Blacks (the preferred term these days is ‘African American’ but for the purposes of this article we will use the older term) continued to be relegated to a lower place in society, persisted over a hundred years since that date. Finally the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, brought about a significant change that eased the plight of the Black people in the Southern USA considerably.
After decades of post civil rights healing however, race relations in the US have taken a turn for the worse recently. A Federal Department of Justice report released on March 3rd, 2015 on riots in Ferguson Missouri, reveals that African Americans were profiled and targeted by law enforcement authorities for just being black. This is not a surprise. In many corners of the US, Blacks including wealthy ones, are still profiled and targeted for harassment. Unlike in Sri Lanka, both Black and White communities speak the same language, but they are distinct racial groups with a history of systemic discrimination by law. (In the case of Sri Lanka, harassment of innocent Tamils for just being Tamils, was made worse by not having a common language.)
The Southern Sates and Racism
In the southern states of the USA Blacks didn’t have the right to vote until the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. People had to fight for that right; various obstacles were placed to stop them from registering to vote. Under Jim Crow, Blacks were considered “separate but equal” but in practice they were never equal and were viewed culturally as inferior to Whites; such deep seated biases are dissipating but disturbingly are still very prevalent.Read More
