Is this real, or is this an exaggeration? ... 2020

 

A close friend asked an almost rhetorical question triggered by an eye-opening article Arundhati Roy: Two Conspiracies and a Cremation. This motivated the title of this blog-post, "Is this real, or is this an exaggeration?" Arundhati Roy's article addresses situations of religious extremism and sexual violence in India, using some shameful examples from the recent past.

While most of us despair about the societal degeneration that manifests in such barbaric incidents of violence, I find it more sad that the real answer to this question is "It depends on who you ask".

Such despicable behaviors and thinking is not limited to the largest democracy in the world. It is as prevalent in the most prosperous democracy in the world. Ask the leaders in today's USA, "Is there systemic racism/ white supremacy in the country?" As witnessed by recent events, the President and the Attorney General have claimed not to know what the question means. Ask the same question to Rev. Al Sharpton, or Van Jones or Martin Luther King III, or the families of African Americans asphyxiated or shot down by Caucasian police, you'll get a very different answer.

We do want to solve the problem, but we first need to acknowledge the problem. Living in denial of the problem is no less criminal than the problem itself.