The real virus that has been spreading worldwide for centuries
By Valentina Olivares
What is happening nowadays with the COVID-19 situation is beyond any prediction. The disease continues to spread, and the damage is increasing as well as the measures to contain it, such as drastic lockdowns of entire cities.
But there are other emerging issues are occurring around the world besides this pandemic, such as discriminatory and racist attitudes against a variety of ethnicities.
There is no absolute certainty about the geographical origins of racism, although there is some consensus among experts on the need to distinguish social practices of rejection of what is different from the ideologies and theories that have tried to support it.
Multiple social, historical, genetic and anthropological pieces of evidence show that it is wrong to classify and prioritize human beings in terms of race.
But, why, then, does discrimination remain so strong?
International commemoration
The 21st of March is marked as a historic day in all calendars worldwide. Once more, the impact of racial discrimination on society has been fought. And all our hope lies within the idea that someday it will be defeated.
It was precisely on the 21st of March 1960 that the police opened fire and killed 69 people in a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid pass laws in Sharpeville, South Africa. The memory of that event led the General Assembly of the United Nations to proclaim “The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” which has been commemorated on the 21st of March every year since 1966.
The events that occurred in Sharpeville lead to an opportunity to highlight a phenomenon of exclusion and social affectation. This still occurs in the world we live in, not only against the African population but also against indigenous and migrant populations.
Ambre Le Van Chau, 24, who comes from a mixed family, is an activist who is part of several movements against racism in Canada.
“Racism is everywhere, and we tend to think it only has to do with dark-skinned people, but it’s not. It goes against all of us. There will always be something to judge you by, no matter your skin colour or gender,” she said.
The daughter of an African mother and a French dad, who was born in France but raised in Canada, Ambre feels she belongs “nowhere”. She explains how hard it is to be mixed, as you are “too white for black people but then too black for white people”.
“Friends of mine make laugh at me calling me ‘Bounty’, telling me ‘Oh you are like a Bounty [chocolate bar], black outside but then you think like a white’. Is then when you stop and start thinking, was that a compliment? Even if it didn’t comment with bad intentions, it doesn’t mean it was not racist.” she concluded.
How come people see being white as a privilege? The origin of this narrow-headed idea is due to the way society has been raised. Unconsciously, our daily vocabulary is full of racist expressions that we use without mincing our words.
Survey shows racism is rampant
A survey of women aged from 20 to 25 years old from different countries and ethnicities revealed that the majority of them at least once in their lives have been excluded just for their origins, ethnicity or skin colour. It also showed that five of them had been involved in more than three racist situations throughout their lives.
Ana Isabel Matute, 25, a lawyer who fights against racism and for women’s rights, said: “In university, I learnt that intersectionality is a way of racism too. Unfortunately, women who are not white do not have the same privileges as the rest does.
“In Europe, while a white woman could be facing problems just for being a woman, another would be facing problems for being women, for being skinned coloured, for being foreign and many others.”
A study by the US media company BuzzFeed released at the end of 2016 reflects part of this trend: in some of the main magazines produced and circulated in the country the presence of white people is overwhelming, while those with brown skin rarely appear on their pages.
After analyzing the editorial content and advertisements of 15 selected publications, BuzzFeed found that at best the dark-skinned individuals represented there do not exceed 20%. In no case did they appear in a cover photo and when they appeared in the interior spaces it was an allusion to philanthropy or travel issues.
Even if it is denied or condemned in the speeches, the monster of racism continues to show its many faces and is often a factor in the hierarchy of individuals on the assumption that anatomical and colour differences are determinants of human nature.
UK racism against Muslims
Nowadays, the UK’s three million Muslims face increasing racism, fuelled in part by the Government’s frequent identifications between “terrorist threat” and “foreigners” or “extremist Muslims”.
In France, Muslims of sub-Saharan or North African origin suffer greater abuse by security forces than do non-Muslim French nationals.
In many countries in Europe, traveller communities are denied their economic, social and cultural rights. In countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, there is evidence of a lack of access to primary education for these children.
These data reveal that racism and discrimination is a very serious problem in the European Union. Moreover, there is a big gap between the promises of governments and actual practice.
Not even half of the European Union states have implemented national action plans against racism, nor have they ratified Protocol 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which would make it possible to bring cases of discrimination before the courts.
The coronavirus pandemic also brought many discriminatory comments towards Chinese people, blaming them as the origin of the pandemic.
Sadly, the world is in a huge battle when it’s a time when we should all be encouraging each other to fight for human and social rights to make a better world.
Ana Isabel added: “I think people need to remember this is not just now, it is not new and it doesn’t finish now. We all need to show off to make it as big and visible as possible. This discriminatory virus can only be fought by society.”
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