Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Of cyberspace racism

While checking the stats in Google Analytics I found out one of the keywords used to find my blog in search engines was "i hate mallus"

Hmm.

If you've been reading my blog faithfully you will know what "mallu" means. If you don't here's a rundown: "mallu" is a term used to call a Keralite, IE someone from Kerala. Well in my previous post I blogged about how Keralites were discriminated and racially abused. So it wasn't much of a surprise when I saw that particular keyword.

They probably do hate mallus ... but some thing's odd, don't you think ? They hate us enough to google the hate, but when they come upon a Keralite blog, they spend some time on it and just leave. Just like that. No hate speech, no racist abuse, no nothing.

Heh. Fricking cowards.

Anyhoo, I see this keyword everyday on my stats. Finally yesterday I Google it myself, just to see what's out there. Sure enough my blog is on the front page; sixth link. I check around and see that most of the links are to other blogs which have a lot of "mallu jokes" and the "i hate mallus" come in the comments. I spend some time around reading and smiling at the jokes.

Then I click on this site.

Now, as most people know everyone seems to get offended very easily these days. I have to agree with Chelle on that. People are waaaay too sensitive these days. Something said in jest or something said without understanding the culture should be forgiven. We all make mistakes in our lives. We shouldn't get too riled up on stuff like that.

But then again, there's also the intentional. This site was intentional. The authors do not make a joke about it. In fact they're material is pure hate speech and almost propaganda. And they are all directed at me and my community.

Needless to say I was fuming. I've been through other offensive sites but nothing lit the spark like this did, since they were abusing me personally. You never know how bad and ugly racism is until it touches you.

Now ... fuming as I were, I always look at things with a broad mind. I have always refused to think down a one-way street. I've always believed no one is born into what they are ... life molds them that way. So apparently these people were molded into hating the likes of me ... and I was curious. Angry and pissed, yes, but still curious.

I'll be the first to tell you Keralite's have their problems and believe me we have some mighty big problems. But then, who doesn't ? Before we rebuke a particular community or religion or whatever we really should look at ourselves first.

Anyhoo ... I decided to go through the blog,unthinkable as it might have seemed, to find a root cause. I like that ... behavioural analysis and stuff like that. Kinda cool.

So here we go : lets analyze a racist, shall we ?

1) The Authors:

Apparently it's a team blog. The user names range from normal one's like KK to some high fly one's like Dr.Evil and HellBlogger.

Meh. What's in a name ?

2) The Subject

The subject is the United Indian School (UIS) in Kuwait. I have never heard of this school but it surely must exist. There are a lot of Indian schools in the Middle East.

The blog states that it wants to expose the corruption and incompetence of the UIS.

Wait, wait ... lets backtrack here. United Indian School ?? These are school kids. Teenagers at best. Probably around 15 or 16. Pre-college stuff.

Oh.

So, it's a couple of kids who don't like their school. Fair enough.

A couple of kids who don't like their faculty and make it known to the world, in their own way. Fair enough.

A couple of kids who think Keralites are an evil cancer. Hmm. Something wrong there.

3)The Readers.

Very little comments on this particular blog. That actually made me feel better until I saw the feedburner. 169 subscribers.

Oh boy.

I was surprised to see no comments favoring the Keralites. I tried sending a comment ... and found out that it was moderated. Well, that would explain the lack of retaliation. Seemed pretty lame to me though ... if you want to say something to the world you have to prepared for debate. It's kinda cowardly when you don't want to accept criticism.

But then again ... all racists are cowards.

4)The Racism.

Pretty harsh language in the random posts I read. Apparently we are fit for nothing but slavery, have a language that should be used for torture and we sleep with our mothers.

Surprised ? Shocked ? That's racism for you. :)

I've also noticed some of the posts that seem to paint a very unflattering picture of the girls in this particular school. Male superority? Maybe. In fact ... very probable.

There are posts written by young ladies and they, of course, attack the Keralite guys. Yawn. That's nothing new.

Actually, hold that thought. Most of the posts written are actually by a young girl (hellblogger). Ahh. Now that's interesting.

5) The design.

It's a normal blogger blog with a three pane template. The title has a picture of the school on it and the panes are filled with anti Keralite badges and widgets. Oddly there's a badge which advocates support for tigers and a badge for Greenpeace. Heh, a weird place to find that!

6) The writing.

Is actually pretty good. I have to admit it. It's really good. These are written by people with a talent for words.

Sorry loss though that they squander they're talent on meaningless hate speech.

7) Random posts.

This is very very interesting.

The first few posts are by the girl named HellBlogger and they target specific boys of the school calling them either gay or really really stupid. The next posts target the faculty .... and then she targets the girls (ugly and whores) in the school.

After all this, she runs into her tirade about Keralite's.

Huh. Interesting.

8) The conclusion.

Here we have a group of kids who feel that they have been discriminated against by a school run pre-dominantly by Keralites. They're kids ... and so they vent their anger that is supposed to be directed towards the faculty at an entire community.

Why ? Because that's what you do when you have a very narrow mind and your thinking space constitutes a 2 x 2 wooden cube.

It is now clear that the girl named HellBlogger is the one who started the blog. Her case is different. From what I can deduce ... it seems like she might actually have had a crush on one of the guys of her school. She gets rejected. The guy falls for another girl. The cycle repeats itself.

So heartbroken and angry she starts a blog and attacks the guys first (along with their pics which is very very immature) and the girls later. Along the way she attacks the faculty which she clearly dislikes.

So why the hatred for Keralites. My best guess ? The guys she liked and the girls who stole them were Keralites.

:D

HellBlogger ... you might read this. If you've been discriminated by a Keralite, I'm sorry. But that does not justify you going up against an entire community. You're attitude is more like a sulking little rejected girl rather than a scarred life. You're inability to see the world for what it is is your biggest drawback. You'd might want to look at that first before you go along with your hate speech.

I wanted to give you a long sarcastic feedback filled with expletives but I decided against it. Why ? Because you're just a kid and maybe you'll grow to be more wiser in the future.

Besides, the best you'd do is call me gay.

**UPDATE 01/06/08**

The guys over at UIS have responded which I expected them to. A note of thanks to the anonymous commentor on this post for giving me the heads up. I had a good laugh out of it.

What ? Did you think I'd get all flushed up and pissed ? No, I expected the retaliation. And yes, the best you did was call me gay and a tuna among others. I'm not going to respond because I've got better things to do and this post was for my readers. You're post is for yours.

And anyways, responding to you would just be a recurring headache.

11 comments:

Even Angels Fall said...

Alex, I'm yet to encounter cyber racism, but i have encountered it so many times, even in my own country.

Would like to share something i went through in London last month..

http://darkangelme.blogspot.com/2008/04/journey-to-home-of-stars.html

Miss Shirl said...

I don't know what it is about racism. I posted a story about my white neighbor calling her black child the "n" word. Stating how calling your own child these things is just wrong. That word is in the title of my post and it gets hit at least once or twice a day.

Alex Mcone said...

@ darkangel - I know a lot about being racially abused in my own country. In fact the site that I linked is made and run by Indians.

Sorry to hear about you in London but just shrug it off. You're way more precious than them.

@ ssb - That woman is not racist. That woman is crazy. If she cant stand a black child why did she sleep with a black man ??

Anonymous said...

Ha! Fantastic post, investigation work, and deductions. You are probably right in your assessment. I still think that it is sad to see kids grow up with these types of attitudes!

Alex Mcone said...

What's sadder is that I'm pretty sure they're parents are turning a blind eye.

Ian Thal said...

This is ironic given Kerala's reputation for tolerance. There has been a Jewish community in Kerala that for over 26 centuries has not suffered the persecutions and violence so common in other nations where Jews live as a minority. In fact, the only recorded pogroms, were initiated not by the Jew's neighbors but by Portuguese colonists-- who were outraged by the degree of religious co-existence they witnessed.

Chelle Blögger said...

That is just utter crap and I almost clicked on the link to see how bad it was, but you did a fine job of describing it. I'm glad you did, because I don't want to give them any traffic.

There is definitely a difference in poking fun at certain people and being blatantly hateful toward an entire group of people of any color, creed or background.

I guess that is the point of my own blog, to help people to see that you have to strike a balance because going to either extreme is very bad.

I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this sort of nonsense. :(

Alex Mcone said...

Yes and you've done a fine job in defining the thread that divides humor and offensive.

The site didnt bother me much after a while ... if I keep being disturbed by them then they will have won. Because that's what they want in the first place.

Anonymous said...

you may be interested in the last 2 posts on the uis blog

Happy Kitten said...

You have dealt the subject well..

Even I always wonder why the mallus create so much hue and cry. One reason could be that they are too many everywhere. One gets to see them in every light. But this blog on UIS is the extreme. The blogger writes well, but why is he so obsessive abt mallus and wasting his talents? and who gave him the permission to post pictures of students on his blog?

Happy Kitten said...

Hedge: that is another food for thought.

If you look at Kerala, it is a state in India which has been influenzed by many cultures over the years. The Jews, the Portuguese, the Arabs, Brits etc.. So I guess the keralites (mallus as they are fondly(!) called) have seen them all in one way or the other (live or via their ancestors). As for Christianity, a small part of the Keralites became Christians even before the west. The Keralites have learned over the years to be tolerant (hence they seem to easily able to fit into other cultures) and they might have adopted a bit from other cultures too. Whatever good and bad you see in them is the result of this uniqueness which no other state can claim. (my assumption).