Two days ago, legendary West Indian cricketer Michael Holding delivered a powerful message on the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter movement which has taken the United States of America by storm and has started a global conversation on racism, in particular with respect to the stereotypes associated with members of the African community in predominantly White countries. While there are several relevant threads from an Indian perspective to pull from Holding’s heartfelt and deeply emotional message, following are the excerpts which this author wishes to focus on for the purpose of this piece:
“I hear people talking about brainwashing. I didn’t quite understand as a young man what brainwashing meant. I now understand what brainwashing means. We have been brainwashed, and not just Black people, White people have been brainwashed in different ways. I go back many years, think about religion. You and I are supposed to be Christians. I am not really a very holy person, not a very religious person. That’s what we were taught. Look at Jesus Christ, the image that they give you of Jesus Christ- Pale skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, where Jesus came from, who in that part of the world looks that way? But again, that’s brainwashing to show you this is what perfection is, this is what the image of perfection is. If you look at the plays of those days, Judas who betrayed Jesus is a black man. Again, brainwashing people to think “oh he is a black man! He is the bad man!”. Go through history…
