The composition of the police force, armed services and other professions has the focus of debate in several fora and media recently.The debate is still ongoing and one suspects, given the short national attention span combined with the penchant to sweep difficult issues under the carpet, there would be a lull to be followed by the same debate again.The treating of diversity is an issue that occupies attention throughout the world and every country that is democratic in nature would have to develop policies for so doing. It behooves us as a nation then to come to terms with our deep diversity.Ethnicity, religion and politics on their own are very touchy topics. When they intersect, as is the case, it can be explosive; thankfully here, only an explosion of words and opinions. We should build on this platform and seek to obtain some reasonable framework to guide the discussions and subsequent national diversity policy. For this to happen, an objective approach must be adopted.
The first issue to be tackled is that of ethnic stereotyping. Stereotyping results in erroneous perception. The saying "perception is reality" kicks in and stupid statements and practices emanate. Education is the only light that would dispel the darkness of stereotyping.The perception that citizens of East Indian origin cannot stand the rigours of physical training required for the police and armed services is based on profound delusion.If that were the case then imagine the troubling thoughts that must be swirling through the minds of the Minister of Defence and the head of the Police Service of India, both very large institutions. If they were to subscribe to the above mentioned perception, then they would be very worried people.
Respectively, they would be grappling with the following question: Are our services populated by foreigners since, according to the rumoured perception in Trinidad and Tobago, the people of East Indian origin are not suitable for the physical demand required?Of course, rational people would just shake their heads in utter disbelief and dismay at the incredible stupidity of those who subscribe to and/or propagate such perceptions.It is worth informing and reminding those who are prone to stereotyping that the top cardiologist and haematologist in T&T are people of African descent and to suggest that medicine is the domain of any particular ethnicity is just not consistent with the evidence on the ground.
Boxing in the heavyweight division was for many years dominated by Afro-Americans. Today the champions are of Caucasian descent. Prior to the division being dominated by people of African descent, it was the Caucasians that dominated.A similar story exists for basketball and if the Yao Ming (the tallest basketball player in the NBA) effect is powerful enough then soon the Chinese may dominate the sport. The tallest wrestler is the Indian King Kali who stands at seven feet four inches and is a vegetarian. Asians are also tall and vegetarians are not weak. The world's most fearsome warriors are the Hindu Gurkhas from Nepal.
In the case of cricket, Caucasian-based English and Australian teams were blown away by the West Indian teams for two decades, followed by a return of the Australians. The number one Test team is the Indian team, which is also the One-Day champion. The two Caucasian fast bowlers of South African cricket are the fastest bowlers of the team and not so long ago the world's fastest bowler was a Pakistani.
The above examples amply demonstrate that one cannot and should not ascribe to the perception that some ethnicities are somehow genetically superior to others in any particular domain or field of endeavour. Such perceptions do not reflect reality and, further, can cause real social damage if such perceptions are used as the basis for policy and law.Perceptions based on stereotyping led to the inhumanity of the slave trade and indentureship, the extinction of many native peoples and discrimination against lesbians and gays and in some cases women.The evidence has shown that nurture is at least as powerful as nature. Emphasising the former may very well lead to a more peaceful, fair and productive world.