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Globalization, inter-racial exposure and multi-culture environment all lead to modern thinking which in turn paves way for modernization. With the internet and new developing technology slowly reducing this World into a Global Village, the denizens of this World are also slowly fusing into one hybrid race of people.

Among the developed Nations, anti-miscegenation laws are now more or less nonexistent. Gone are the days of “Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre” (Protection of German Blood and German Honor Act) under Hitler’s “Nuremberg Laws” (1935). South Africa’s “Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act” (1949) and “Immortality Act” (1950) under its Apartheid regime were repealed a couple of years ago. Even in the United States, around the 18th, 19th, and early 20th century, many American states passed anti-miscegenation laws. These laws were based on controversial interpretations of The Bible. Quote Virginia trial court Judge Leon Bazile who sentenced to jail an inter-ethnic couple in 1965: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”

However, as time moved on, the way people think gradually changed. This may be termed as modernization. Slavery was abolished, Man walked on the moon, the Soviet Union crumbled and Mizoram became a State. Yet nobody can hide the stains left behind by racism in our history. It will always be there as a reminder of our dark past. Even today, there still exist various controversial issues: Zionism is considered as a racist movement by many people, so are the multitude caste-based discriminations here in India. Not to forget the Arab nations and their policies against non-Arabs.

I agree we live in a racist World. Many renowned thinkers and writers have openly agreed that all of us are racists, atleast a little bit. And I would definitely go by that theory. It all depends upon the level of racism within you. You may be tolerant of other races, but that does not necessarily mean you aren’t skeptical of them. (If you haven’t seen the movie “Crash” yet, you are missing something. That’s definitely the best movie I’ve seen this year).

Racial bias has always been ingrained within many of our cultures. To be a victim of stereotyping is atrocious, if not humiliating and degrading. I know this because I have been on the receiving end almost every single day of my life. Yet it is extremely difficult not to stereotype other people. No matter how open I try to be, if I see a boxing match and I don’t know either of the boxers and one of them is white while the other is black, I will definitely put my money on the black dude. If I see an Arabic speaking nervous man with a mean look in his eyes carrying a parcel and acting suspiciously inside an airplane, a part of me will definitely start panicking no matter how much I try to convince myself not to stereotype him. Stereotyping is the reason why we say “a sual hmel”, “a phakar hmel” etc when we see somebody we don’t even know personally. Trust me, trying to convince yourself that you don’t stereotype other people will almost be a futile attempt. John Dovidio, a professor of psychology said that even those of us who believe that we don’t stereotype, actually do. Various tests have proved this. According to psychologist Joshua Correll, the more a test-taker tries to not appear biased, the more bias shows up in the test results. John Stossel and Kristina Kendall in their article “The psychology of stereotypes” said that it is normal for people to stereotype other people, and that the biases in our head are harmful only if we act on them.

This brings us back to the topic of our discussion. We often speak of “Hnamdang pasal neih loh tur”. Could this be termed as a racist propaganda? I have even seen and heard many of our women say that we, the Mizo men, are racists and seem to dwell in the Stone Age days, while others claim we are xenophobic. Where do we draw the line between being xenophobic and being a segregationist?

In my honest opinion, I feel that being a segregationist need not necessarily be about xenophobia. And this issue of an inter-racial marriage frowned upon by many Mizos is not just about anti-miscegenation or racism. It’s also not about radicalism or right-wing conservatism. And by all means, it definitely does not mean we are anti-progress, anti-development, anti-modernization, anti-whatever.

As we all know, we fall under the Scheduled Tribe category in the Indian Constitution. The Scheduled Tribes in turn falls under the category of “Indigenous Peoples” of the World. This means that we are among one of the most minority groups of the World. Some sources equate us to just under 6% of the total world population. That would include atleast 5000 distinct “peoples” in over 72 countries.

Quote Agency sources:

“The interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous societies throughout history has been a complex one, ranging from outright conflict and subjugation to some degree of mutual benefit and cultural transfer.”

The main reason why indigenous peoples like us are over protective of our women and oppose interracial marriages is because of the fear that we may soon indeed be a really lost tribe (pun not intended). There is no fear greater than the fear of total annihilation. On various discussion boards, I have seen some Mizo guys make statements like “Hnamdang neih loh tur a ni ringawt mai a ni” and “Hnamdang nei chu ka ngaisang lo. Zolanu tan chuan Zo val ngei.” etc. It is exactly because of statements like these that make our Mizo women label us as Racists. However, I would advice people not to jump to any conclusions just like that. In my theory, I believe that although statements like that indeed sound hard-lined ethnocentric, that is only just the outer shell. The real reason for such statements may come from within, oblivious to the person making that statement. Deep within, we are an insecure lot, insecure of our very existence because of our dwindling population. And we feel that our ethnic group is dying slowly with every incident of a Mizo marrying outside our community.

There is a very interesting article by Emily Monroy called “Left wing Anti-miscegenism”, where she brought out the differences between left-wing miscegenists and White supremacists. Even though that article revolves around the American society, it can easily be related to our community. When we talk about Anti-miscegenation, it is more about survival rather than racism. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions of racism some people have (Fingers not necessarily pointing towards some of our womenfolk).

Ethnocentrism has always been associated with selfishness. Yet, it prevails among every society and culture in the World. As long as we are closely bonded to our culture and tradition, we will always be proud of our ethnic group. Cultural relativism will definitely exist in such a situation. Many anthropologists have stated that in such a highly ethnic-centered society like ours, transaction costs will always be high. The fewer we are, the more threatened we will always feel.

Ever since I was a young boy, I always used to be in a diverse multi-cultured group of friends. And as adolescence kicked in, I ofcourse started noticing the opposite sex. The women I used to go around with were all from different parts of India. Racial and cultural backgrounds never used to be a criterion then. I was young, spirited and reckless those days. But as one grows older and becomes more mature and responsible, I guess the importance of culture and community are two factors that cannot be swept aside and ignored. As you grow older, you soon start thinking about your future, and your children’s future. I have already pointed out this factor in my previous article “Inter-racial relationship part1” where I talked about the importance of identity especially under the prevailing Indian society. Wherever one goes, we always carry our identity tag along with us. This is how things are in India, and like it or not, we will always maintain this status quo as long as there are caste-based discriminations and segregation within our Indian society.

Apart from a case of identity, there is another cause of grave concern arising from this issue. Interracial relationship gives rise to a new social phenomenon known as the “marriage squeeze”. In America, the marriage squeeze refers to the belief that the most eligible and desirable African American men are marrying non-African American women, leaving African American women wishing to marry African American men with fewer partnering options. To put it bluntly, African American women wishing to marry within their own race feel that the best men are already taken. Similarly, within our community, although there are no surveys to prove my point, I can vouch for it that most of the Mizo women marrying outside our community have much better qualifications and educational backgrounds, and are more financially secure, independent and economically stable than most Mizo women who do not wish to marry outside our community. In a way, these leads to a marriage squeeze for most Mizo men wishing to practice endogamy.

Eventually, this could contribute to the diminution of one’s own community. Size and number play a very important role. If a white man vehemently opposes interracial relationships, it can be termed as a racist attitude. But in our case, because of our miniscule size in terms of population, opposing interracial relationship is more about preventing one’s ethnic group from becoming extinct. And as we are in a patriarchal society, we men will always feel it is our responsibility to ensure that our community does not disappear from the face of this Earth. Hence to sum this up, two of the main reasons for such a high degree of anti-miscegenism within our community is because of self-preservation and survival, and this should not be mistaken as racism or xenophobia.

[ Disclaimer: The views that I have pointed out are truly my own and does not necessarily reflect upon the views of other Mizos. I am neither a researcher nor an anthropologist and I speak purely from my experiences from a multi-cultured background. This article is just an analysis of the issue of an interracial relationship under a kaleidoscope using ethnicity as one of its lenses. Last but not the least, this article has neither addressed the reasons of interracial relationships like why some Mizos prefer non-Mizos, nor has it looked upon issues like whether there is something wrong with the Mizo male. I sincerely feel that we cannot just discuss about this issue using all the existing factors on one single ground. We must take every factor and discuss them one at a time separately and try to look at this issue from all possible angles. This is a much bigger issue than we think it is and indeed a serious cause of concern. Hence, as the topic of my article says, this article is about the issue of interracial relationship purely from a racial perspective. ]

Ps. Most of the articles I have referred to are Racism issues all based in America. I felt that those were the best places to start because of the history the Country had. This should not be mistaken as American fetishism!

Peace.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 8:27 pm and is filed under More than words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.