A few of the yogis came last Sunday to make rakhis together for Shri Krishna Puja. Seetha brought her daughter, Nira, 3 years old.
While we were making rakhis, Little Nira did her drawing and colouring. I drew a face for her and she started to colour in blue. So, without thinking, I told her, no don't use blue colour. Use skin colour, I said. She doesn't understand what I was saying, and I took out beige colour for her. Little did I realise, that the so-called skin colour is actually for oriental people and whites. Little Nira is an Indian mixed with Romanian, so her skin colour is brown. Much later I realised I was being racist, without meaning to do so.
From young, I was taught to colour faces with beige colour because that is the skin colour as I was told. Although I live in Malaysia, where there are Indians and Malays, all my drawings of human beings are coloured in beige. I didn't think to colour with brown or black at all.
So, Little Nira has made me realised that I was being racist, and she did her colouring in blue, in which Shri Krishna and Shri Rama is coloured in comic books.
How ignorant one can be!!!
While we were making rakhis, Little Nira did her drawing and colouring. I drew a face for her and she started to colour in blue. So, without thinking, I told her, no don't use blue colour. Use skin colour, I said. She doesn't understand what I was saying, and I took out beige colour for her. Little did I realise, that the so-called skin colour is actually for oriental people and whites. Little Nira is an Indian mixed with Romanian, so her skin colour is brown. Much later I realised I was being racist, without meaning to do so.
From young, I was taught to colour faces with beige colour because that is the skin colour as I was told. Although I live in Malaysia, where there are Indians and Malays, all my drawings of human beings are coloured in beige. I didn't think to colour with brown or black at all.
So, Little Nira has made me realised that I was being racist, and she did her colouring in blue, in which Shri Krishna and Shri Rama is coloured in comic books.
How ignorant one can be!!!
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