In Sanskrit – the oldest and most pure language on this earth- the term Hapshi is used to describe a person without any cultural refinement whatsoever. A Hapshi is a person who has no control on their base instincts. For instance: If they begin to eat, they cannot stop eating. The same goes for uncontrolled sex or other human instincts. These instincts are kept in check through the process of culture and civilization. Today, Hapsi or Hapshi has grown to mean a person of black skin, NOT because of the skin, but because of the behavior of the person. Often, in India, the sentence ” those people are Hapsi.” Or “All these Hapshi coming in are creating a big problem “is a sentence in use. However, in the culture and scriptural texts of India, the color of the skin has no prejudice, good or bad. All of the ancient statutes representing god-heads are jet black in color because they ABSORB all sorrow, all negativities. “Jaganatha,” from which the English word ‘ juggernaut’ was derived, is jet black with two white eyes, like stars. ‘That is the cosmos’, you are told should you question to ask why the statue is black. ‘The cosmos is jet black and absorbs all’ you are told. The Black Madonna of Eastern Europe has great significance, with of large following, but is kept hidden because of the color of the image-icon. One rarely sees her image elsewhere in the world and even more rarely in America. How did this all occur? What is the path of this aspect of human study of the Human? The French, in their colonization, tried to categorize people by defining humans according to skin color and physical attributes. Anthropologists studied the human structure and characteristics of the various people of the world. This was an attempt to categorize them. They put humans in three categories: Caucasians, Negroid and Mongoloid. This was early in the colonization of the previous century. These were merely Anthropological categories when first studied. Or so it was projected. However, I suspect that, even at the outset, it was tied up with colonization and control of land and its people. You can see this with the development or race since its first French Anthropological identification. Over the years, Anthropology merged into Culture merged into Prejudice, merged into discrimination, till, in countries like America, it had to be corrected by an Act of Congress by adding an Amendment onto its Constitution. Discrimination that is based on skin color is far, far removed from the basic component of Humanity, the Human Being and what it means it be Human. Despite the attempts of law and literature to see humans as Human, regardless of the skin pigmentation, the situation of Race in America has grown into a nightmare. This three-race formula has already crippled human society by its misapplication. But further, it went from the 3 race formula to the 7 race formula, to the 12 race formula, ridiculous as it sounds. Forms for applications and governmental assistance programs
2 to this day insist on discrimination or ‘counting ‘by physical categories, using the 7 or 12 race category division, in spite of the fact that today, in our modern culture people are in the habit of birthing children in and out of wedlock and across any physical racial division. Therefore, none of these race category divisions are accurate. Nor do they apply. I propose we begin defining a person according to behavior. Oh, wait. Martin Luther King tried that, and he got shot. Right after his famous speech where the spoke the iconic line: ”I have a dream” But his take was for the Negro to be treated as equal to the Caucasian. He was still seeing only the skin color, limited by it. What if we take a different approach of using different words to define human behavior, regardless of skin pigmentation? For example: use of the word Hapshi. By using this defining word Hapshi, Bernie Madoff, who made-off with our money, would be a Hapshi, although he was not from the Negro race. It’s not the color of the skin, it’s the behavior, that matters. Let us follow this thought for a while: Words are coined, borrowed, and adopted all the time. It’s a mark of a Living language. Specially in the American Language, one of the most vibrant and alive languages in the world today. Languages that are dying out in the world today are categorized by three facts: a) there are no new words introduced, b) there is no pop ‘growing’ culture reflecting the young and creative people in the language, no new poetry or rock music or songs, and no expression of emotion that is new, no cuss words, no new expression of rage, or love making or other such emotions expressed with new words, and 3) no new literatures or art expressed in the language. Classical languages don’t change. They continue to use the words that had been used when the language came into being originally, often centuries ago. Spoken languages are constantly changing. We all know how, in our high schools in America, children find it ‘cool’ to invent new words almost every two weeks. It’s the cutting edge of speech and communication. Partly, I believe, to culturally keep their parents out of the loop, as it were, since the parents have no clue what these new words mean. Partly, to be very, very ‘ cool’ ‘hip’, fashionable using an ‘inner’ language of power and one-upmanship. This is the 21st C of the Gregorian calendar, and we are still arguing about the black and white skin color prejudice. It stands to reason that, had we wanted to, we would have come up with a term to denote sub-standard behavior. Outside of ‘illegal’ of
3 course. There has got to be another reason. The anthropological divisions of the original French categories are not an explanation any longer. Sure, Martin Luther King has his famous concept about a world seeing character over color of the skin. As have others before and after him. But there is no WORD in the colloquial lingo that refers to substandard behavior. We have the word ‘ Nigger’ , now outlawed. And the word ‘ Negro’ now, almost outlawed and replaced, impossibly, with the word ‘black’ which is, in effect, the exact same word as Negro. Or, even worse, the euphemism African, which is a different way of saying Black. This is truly baseless, since there are many in Africa who are Caucasians, or Mongoloid, much like there are in America. Therefore, replacing the word Negro with African does not work under any circumstances, least of all in an attempt to replace the unwanted reference to the color of the skin. Words are invented to reflect the underlying prejudice. To this day the original people of America are called Indians. This is because of the error of the Spanish discoverer Christopher Columbus, who, on order of his queen, the Spanish Queen Isabella, was to discover a new route to India to buy spices from India. They had not known about the lands now called America. When he discovered land, after many days at sea, he thought he had reached India, and called the people on this new land whom he met “Indians”. Except they were not. They were the Iroquois people. That mistake has never been rectified. After the REAL Indians immigrated to America, the word ‘East –Indians” was coined. No attempt was made to rectify the original mistake over 400 years ago. East -Indians really means people from Bangladesh or Assam, or Orissa, al on the east coast of India. The term reflects the underlying prejudice of keeping the Indians at an arm’s length, in a state of separateness. People in India refer to the ‘Indians’ of America as ‘ red Indians’ which was the term used by Christopher Columbus. The ridiculousness of these terms and words all reflect the underlying prejudice which is barely concealed. Law enforcement in America is now coining a new race called “Hispanic” in America along the Southern border. Do you see how the racial prejudice is perpetuated to reflect control and colonial attitudes still prevalent in the post-colonial era? My explanation about the persistent use of the words black and white, in reference to human beings despite the obvious advance of language and civilization, does not show a pretty picture: I believe: It is to the financial advantage of some in power to keep categories split between white and black, from BOTH Caucasian and Negro races structures. It is, additionally, to a certain political advantage: Vote bank changes by race. Joe Biden will never live down his comment: “If you are voting for Trump, you ain’t Black”. He did
4 not realize he said this, till after it was out of his mouth. But right there you can see, as an inverted pyramid, the entire race nightmare, kept alive, for political reasons. Other countries have other groups being used and abused and exploited for political ends. India has its ‘Dalits’, for example. F.A. Hayek, in his ” Road to Serfdom” talks extensively about the danger of a “common enemy” in the process of dictatorship or for developing fascism. This danger is calculated and enforced by the ones who want to see the dictatorship develop. This developing of a ‘common enemy’ is the undercurrent force which I highlight in this essay. However, being solution oriented, let us follow the thought of slicing human society by adopting a word, already in use, to define exactly what it was coined to define: Is it possible to adapt the word ‘Hapshi’ to refer to sub-human behavior? There are words in American that refer to sub-human behavior, but most of them are slang or cuss words, not for formal use socially or in formal writing. By the way: this ‘black and white’ thinking in reference to human and their skin color, as an expression of culture, as a mind-set and as a reflection of thought, is very occidental – to use an old-fashioned term for a region and culture: This line of thinking is a product of British, German, French and Spanish culture. It did NOT exist in the indigenous culture of the Americas. Today: It still does not exist in the culture of the original Americans or the indigenous people. Unfortunately, though predictably, this line of thinking is spreading into cultures which previously never had it. Why does this race hatred and war persist so incessantly? One aspect has been ignored: The scriptures followed by Christian thought in which the story of Cain and Abel is often repeated. Two brothers, one dark skinned, the other light skinned. One killed the other in a fit of hatred and rage. It really does not matter who killed who. The separation of hate and resultant violence is what matters. That legacy, if you will, has not ended. It cannot end since it is based in scriptural text. Indians, the people of India, never used words to discriminate against skin color until the last couple of decades. Now a new word has been adopted from the Indian diaspora in the UK. The word is ‘Gora’ meaning white. The opposite ‘Kala’ meaning black, is never used in this context. The times when it is used is not pleasant to see. It goes against my sensibilities, making me cringe. I call this ‘black and white’ thinking the “Victor–Vanquished” psychology. Everything of the culture of the Victor is MADE to be superior by design and pre-meditated thought and action. The Vanquished are the people who were defeated by the Victor. They imitate everything the Victor does and speaks. This includes their prejudices, for and against. The colonial era was, after all, tied up with missionaries and conversions into Christianity.
5 I have a challenge to you, Dear Reader: Can you spend ONE day without using the word black and /or white while defining people? This is not an original thought of mine. In his famous interview with Ted Koppel a talk show host, Morgan Freeman, a renowned American actor, director and narrator. expressed his disappointment with the creation of ‘Black History Month’ he clearly said in response to how to solve the ‘race problem. “Stop talking about it” He asked Ted Koppel what his religion is. Ted Koppel said” I am Jewish” Morgan Freeman responded: “Do you have a Jewish month?” He is right. There is no Jewish History Month. There is only Black History Month. This creation of a ‘Black History Month” is one more step in blocking the assimilation of the Negro race into American social structure.
Eliminate this special category and place the Negro at par with all Americans. Shift the focus, instead, to discriminate against people of low, sub-standard behavior. Should you accept the challenge, then slowly, the one day will turn to two days and the days will extend. And you, as a member of a refined society, will begin to call a person by their name, and not by the color of their skin. Should this happen, that would be our individual and personal step forward in breaking skin color prejudice. One step at a time. Each drop makes an ocean. It is such a delicious thought: To cut human society is a totally different way: by behavior and intent; and not by skin color. I do believe it is possible. Of course, I am being influenced by Sikh thought in this perspective. The Sikh Gurus only spoke of behavior and intent in separating the ‘koordh’ or inferior people from the ‘Gurmukh’ or superior people. Can this be achieved in the world outside Sikhism