After a dreadful murder of George Floyd by police officers in the USA, the debate around the lives of black people, questions over systemic exploitation and discrimination based on race in nearly every sphere of lives has intensified across the world.
Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara has raised pertinent points on the prevalence of societal malaise like racism and talked about the importance of bridging the gap in the education system.
“Once you understand what real history is, I think you will find lots of attitude changes,” Sangakkara said in a chat with Cricbuzz.
“We are all taught to love our country. But sometimes we follow that blindly and that stops us from appreciating other cultures, other countries, other people, other races, other religions.”
“So educate yourself, open your mind, but more importantly open your eyes, because without that change won’t happen and change isn’t going to be overnight.”
However, besides skin colour, a person can also face discrimination based on her caste, nationality, religion and gender. Former Sri Lanka understands these facets very well and talked about the importance of teaching history in the purest form, without any adulteration, to children.
“Skin colour isn’t the only basis of discrimination. There are various ways of racism and discrimination. Some historically and some in a certain context, skin colour isn’t the only basis for discrimination.”
“If you take Black Lives Matter if you take racism and discrimination in the world, I think one of the most important things is to teach our children history as it should be, and not the sanitised version of it, so you only see the positives,” Sangakkara added.
