This document discusses how ethnicity and color have historically divided people and caused conflict, as seen in events like the Holocaust, African slavery, conflicts in Syria and West Papua, and the Rwandan genocide. It describes how the movie Hotel Rwanda depicts the horrors of the Rwandan genocide, where the minority Tutsi ethnic group was targeted for death by the majority Hutu ethnic group simply due to their ethnicity. The document argues that ethnicity and color should not divide people and that we are all part of one human race.

1. EthnicityandColour;The Dividers
It isfunnyhowthe term ‘racist’came intobeing. Fromwhat I know,there isonlyone race of people
inthisworld;and that isthe human race. That’sright. The humanrace. So how didcolourcome in?
How didethnicitycreepintothe picture? Since whendidpolitical boundaries and territorial borders
become more important than human life?
As far as the historyof the world goes, ethnicity and colour somehow had the power to divide the
humanrace. For example;Hitlerbelieved that the Aryan people were the superior race and he led
the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. Back then in the 17th
century, the Europeans took Africans as
slaves to America. It seemed as though the colour of one’s skin determined a person’s character
back then,sothe Africanswere called‘Blacks.’Andthen you have the crisis in Syria. The ISIS killing
innocent people in the name of Religion!? And just across the border we hear of the bloody
massacre of the West Papuans by the Indonesians. One can only imagine the oppression these
people were and are going through. Unfortunately the list does not end there…….
Watching a movie like ‘Hotel Rwanda’ changes your perspective. About life. About death. About
peace. And about freedom. The friction between the Hutus and the
Tutsis burned away the hopes and the livelihood of the future of Rwanda. The Tutsis were the
minorityinRwanda. Beinga Tutsi spelt danger and death. Every Tutsi man, woman and child lived
and movedwiththe fearof beingkilled anytimeandanywhere. The smell of death was as real as air
itself, only that it was graver.
The movie depicts the love of a man for his wife and his sacrifices to save his family. He is a Hutu
and is married to a Tutsi woman. Caught in between his ethnic group and that of his wife, Paul
strugglestocome up with ideas that will save him and his family. He also had to put his life on the
line to save a few of the Tutsis. In such an ethnic clash, harbouring the enemy could end your life
and that of your family. Butbeinganhonourable manwhoalwaysbelieved in doing the right thing,
Paul set his heart on leaving ethnicity out of the picture and saving the lives of innocent people
whose characters and life he chose to value.
In Rwanda,all ittook to be eligible fordeathwastobe a Tutsi. For a Hutu, one had to be loyal to his
or her ethnicgroup. If you were suspectedof being a Tutsi spy, you would be tortured to the point
of death. The content of one’s character hardly counted. In the Hutus eyes, all Tutsis were
cockroaches;not worthyof living. Theyhad to be eliminated from Rwanda, and that was the awful
truth.
Children;babies,toddlers and teenagers who could have lived out their childhood days have been
slaughtered in the name of ethnicity. For those who survived, the images and sounds of guns and
machetes have been etched into their childhood memories. Watching their families and people
sufferatthe mercilesshandsof the Hutusmusthave beenahorrifictorture. No child ever deserves
to witness a bloody warfare or to killed in the name of ethnicity. Is peace too much to ask for? Is
the price for freedom and equality worth a human life?
Colour and ethnicity; two powerful words. Powerful enough to draw a line between you and me.
Betweenwhat’syoursandwhat’smine.Powerfulenoughtosteal one’s happiness, take away one’s

2. familyanddestroyanempire builtonhappiness. Eliminating an ethnic group from the earth makes
the world less diverse. I’m sure God had his reasons for creating the human race the way it is. I’m
sure He meant to colour up the world and teach us a lesson to learn to live with one another.
What’sto gain fromall the killing? Wealth? Power?Glory? Thatquestion can only be answered by
one who believes in the human race.
Watching ‘Hotel Rwanda’changedthe way I look at people. Each and every individual is fighting a
battle no one knows about. It’s time to be a lot more kinder to familiar faces you see every day.
Theymay not be going through something like the genocide that took place in Rwanda years back.
But a little faith and appreciation in humanity will make a difference.
If I say that I’m a racist, that simply means I believe in the human race.