A FEW years ago, I had the chance to work as a safety coordinator at a printing press abroad. The facility had different sections, but safety precautions were the same for everyone. Our three-member team carried the charm of diversity; a Portuguese manager, a Nigerian super-visor, and a Pakistani coordinator. But, to be honest, the sense of inclusivity was missing.

As safety coordinators, the team had the immense responsibility of ensuring the safety of the whole team that included those operating machinery and leaving debris all over the place. They were predominately native whites.

They had minimal formal education, but what they had in abundance was attitude. Whenever something went wrong, the natives would throw the non-white university undergraduates under the bus.

During my stay abroad, I had the occasion to see first-hand how the system works, drawing clear lines to separate the whites, the browns and the blacks. Despite all the brouhaha over diversity, the Western mind is far from being free of its misplaced sense of racial superiority.

Faraz Naseem
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2025