Racism and Diversity

At the men's wedding celebration in Ibb last weekend, I had a sobering conversation with one of the men at the party. I'm not entirely sure where this topic came from as the guy was chewing a lot of qat and the resulting increasing speed at which he was talking caused me to miss quite a bit of what he said. But I quickly came back around when, from what seemed like out of nowhere, he said the following, and I quote: "The color of a man's face tells you the color of his heart." This was his way of explaining why people of a certain race simply couldn't be trusted. (This may seem a bit off to you given that Yemenis have darker skin themselves, but they don't consider themselves brown. They have a different word for the color of their skin, one that doesn't really translate into English but means essentially a darker shade of white.)

My face must've given me away before my vocal response did because the man stopped toward the end of his sentence and didn't finish. Who knows if it was the fact that a woman was rebuking a man or simple surprise at having this point of view contradicted, but he was increasingly surprised when I vehemently shook my head and insisted that was not the case. He displayed a puzzled expression and then backed up a little and tried this line out: "Sometimes. Maybe sometimes it does." I stubbornly shook my head. "Nope. The color of your skin NEVER determines the color of your heart or what you do." He continued to stare back at me, looking increasingly puzzled.

Racism is a definite problem here, primarily toward those of Asian and especially African descent. This was the most direct conversation I've had about it, but I've listened to or overhead similar ideas from a number of different people. This belief is also reflected in the unofficial caste system of Yemen that is too detailed for me to eleborate upon here in this note. I draw a very, very, VERY small amount of comfort from the fact that this seems to be based on ignorance, not maliciousness. Islam dictates caring for the poor, and Yemenis certainly do that, although it mostly stops at giving money versus implementing any type of societal or programmatic changes that could bring the poor up out of poverty. And the bottom of the economic chain is primarily made up of other races. There simply isn't diversity here, so such ideas are allowed to flourish because no one questions them. Whenever I've voiced dissent to the popular opinions about other races, the response is the same: confusion. Not anger, just confusion.

It makes me thankful for the effort that many people in the U.S. and other areas of the world put into pursuing diversity. When you surround yourself with it, not just racial diversity but diversity in socio-economic status, religion, culture, etc., you are no longer permitted to just make assumptions for which there is no foundation. You are forced to confront your prejudices and incorrect or harmful ideas that have been passed on to you by your culture or your own way of thinking and instead you are forced to learn to love. This doesn't mean you agree with everything or everyone, but you learn quickly the truth in Plato's exhortation, "You are young, my son, and as the years go by, time will change and even reverse some of your present opinions. Refrain therefore a while from setting yourself up as judge of the highest matters." Not only that, but without diversity you just plain miss out on the beauty of so much of the world.