Racial Profiling

Reference is made to a letter titled: “Racial profiling “(Fiji Sun 14/11/17) by Joan McGoon of Nadi.

I strongly support this view because it has a lot of common sense reasoning and merit.

Recent television and radio advertisements have been pushing the concept that there should be no racial profiling because we are all Fijians and we are one.

No one doubts the sentiments behind these advertisements in promoting national unity.

However, there is a hollow ring to it as it fails to realise the reality of race and ethnicity.

The names of people are racially profiled.

As soon as we call someone by name the inbuilt mechanism in the name does the racial profiling. We come to know a person's gender, ethnic grouping, religion, and sub-cast he or she belongs to and perhaps the area they come from.

We cannot run away from this reality and this is where the race becomes the fact of life.

I totally agree that the sacredness and uniqueness of each group must be preserved for the posterity and for the sake of cultural identity.

We can still be proud Fijians united behind our leaders and the nation and still maintain our cultural or religious identity.

We in Fiji can identify our individual cultural groups and still be very proud Fijians.

I think the common name for all Fijian citizens enforced by Bainimarama Government is perhaps the biggest single achievement of our times. However, this does not mean we dilute our individual religious and cultural identities.