Why write race on diseased bodies?
26 Aug 2014 7:30 PM IST
Ebola has spread enough havoc all across the world. With the number of causalities now pegged at more than 1,500, the virus is still not showing any signs of retraction. Almost the entire of West Africa is now affected and victims with their kith and kin look clueless for want of any cure. However, misgivings of the situation do not end here as the western world seems to have taken an exception to profile anyone who is from Africa.
So, if your skin colour is black, have just returned from a trip to Africa and you faint at a business meeting in Berlin, the German police is sure to send some 60 policemen along with fire-fighters who will come hurtling down and isolate you from the rest of the 600 people who work in the office space.
They are so paranoid about the state of affairs, that even if they are told that you went to Kenya, an east African nation they will not relent in taking all precautionary measures. Perhaps, in your semi-comatose state it may not dawn on you the manner in which you were racially profiled. Maybe the colour of your skin is still vexatious for people who are fairer than you.
There is no denying the fact that Ebola has compounded maladies in Africa – a continent that has already been bogged down with unsparing predicaments of poverty, hunger and desperation. But isn’t singling out people based on their skin colour tantamount to instilling a medical apartheid? Shouldn’t we be forced to question ourselves about global reactions had the same endemic like situation erupted in a developed nation? Perhaps, international responses may not have looked as discriminatory and incriminatory then. Africans haven’t spread Ebola. West mustn’t compound the existing crisis with its same old alarmist attitude.
So, if your skin colour is black, have just returned from a trip to Africa and you faint at a business meeting in Berlin, the German police is sure to send some 60 policemen along with fire-fighters who will come hurtling down and isolate you from the rest of the 600 people who work in the office space.
They are so paranoid about the state of affairs, that even if they are told that you went to Kenya, an east African nation they will not relent in taking all precautionary measures. Perhaps, in your semi-comatose state it may not dawn on you the manner in which you were racially profiled. Maybe the colour of your skin is still vexatious for people who are fairer than you.
There is no denying the fact that Ebola has compounded maladies in Africa – a continent that has already been bogged down with unsparing predicaments of poverty, hunger and desperation. But isn’t singling out people based on their skin colour tantamount to instilling a medical apartheid? Shouldn’t we be forced to question ourselves about global reactions had the same endemic like situation erupted in a developed nation? Perhaps, international responses may not have looked as discriminatory and incriminatory then. Africans haven’t spread Ebola. West mustn’t compound the existing crisis with its same old alarmist attitude.
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