Selfishness or Racism?

by Les May

I’M just back from a stroll with my wife in Rochdale’s Springfield Park.  As well as a golf course and running track there’s a length of a synthetic material which forms an all weather wicket for impromptu games of cricket.  At one end of this we noticed a man and a woman using it as an outdoor gym complete with equipment for weight training.

Whilst we were strolling a group of two dozen young men who I don’t think would object to being called Asian, though I prefer to think of them as fellow Rochdalians gradually arrived.  Carrying bats and balls they were clearly intent on a game of cricket.

Now one might reasonably have expected that the duo would have moved off the surface intended as a cricket wicket and so let the game proceed.  But no, selfishly they stayed put and the young men had to content themselves with a bit of bowling practice with a wicket at the other end.

I’ve called this selfishness, others who observed it might choose to call it racism. Selfishness privileges one’s self over others irrespective of their skin colour; racism privileges one’s self over others because they have a different skin colour. Which of these motivated this pair to behave as they did I don’t know and nor does anyone else. To me these motivations seem awfully alike and equally reprehensible. Or maybe that is just my ‘white privilege’ talking.

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