Xenophobia And Racism

A choice of headlines - take your pick

Some folks think that xenophobia and racism are similar and their usage can be easily interchanged, but this is not necessarily the case.  Xenophobia refers to dislike or fearing the unknown or something that is different from you. Knowing that you can lose your job to an alien is pretty scary. Racism on the other hand is based on the belief that race determines the traits of certain humans and their innate capacity, making one race more superior to another. One stems from the crouching fear of the uncertain, the other is a disdain emanating from smug superiority.

Xenophobia is not only aversion to a person but it is a fear or dislike of other cultures and beliefs. The phobic person knows that he or she is averse to the target group, but they may not accept the fact that they are actually afraid or it is their fear that motivates the hatred for the targeted group.

Racism is best exemplified in history by slavery and colonization in which blacks were treated as inferior races. Hitler upped the ante by "proving" Aryan whites were more superior to other races and that they were superior to the Jews also.

The Philippine Embassy is levying racist charges against a blogger for advocating displeasure with Filipinos in country "without breaking the law". Probably the same officials who chose to stay mum over the attempted take over of Ngee Ann Civic Plaza, when they could have avoided friction by hosting the planned event on embassy grounds. Or alternate venues suggested by the police.

The day after Contemplacion was hanged, Manila television aired a children's program where tiny tots were let loose into a room full of balloons and encouraged to burst them. "Stomp on them, imagine they are Singaporeans," egged on the program host. If our ambassador had filed a report on the festivities in his dispatches, one wonders whether the mainstream media will treat it as xenophobia or racism.