Racism is back in the news with the comments made by Stormzy, which was followed by racist abuse suffered by Chelsea player Rudiger. Whenever racism is discussed, there is a lot of finger pointing, and finding short-terms solutions, for a problem that has been around for decades. Of course, there’s been progress, compared to the 20th, 19th, 18th century etc. However, the events of the last decade has shown there has been a massive step backwards, with racism and hate crimes on the rise.
So how do we tackle racism and aim to eradicate this disease. Well we have to look at institutional racism. Unless we tackle institutional racism, we will continue living in a loop of progress and regress. What exactly is institutional racism? This is racism that is in the foundations of our society. Institutions like our politics, media, judiciary system, education etc. Unless we tackle racism in all of our institutions, we will not be able to eradicate racism. Racism will continue, and racist will be able to spread their hateful words and ideologies to others, especially to the future generations.
Racism is deep-rooted in politics all around the world. With the far right on the rise once again, it seems an election can longer be won, unless the candidate holds racist views. Minorities are constantly being put down by politicians. Modi’s fascist regime stripping Muslims of their rights, Vote Leave running anti-immigrants campaign, Boris Johnson and Trump both using discriminatory language. Boris Johnson has to take responsibility for his words, which has legitimatised the actions of hateful people. When he called Muslim women “letterboxes”, there was 375% increase in Islamophobic incidents in the week that followed. The Tories themselves have allowed racism to creep into their policies. Policies which create a hostile environments for “illegal” immigrants and the Windrush scandal shows how the Tories are fanning the “flames of xenophobia and hatred”, as Jeremy Corbyn put it. These policies didn’t attack the lives of “illegal” immigrants but instead the lives of minorities all around the country. It also legitimised hate crimes and racist abuse against minorities. The last 5 years has taught us how hard it still is for a person of colour to become the Prime Minister. When the Home Secretary is not invited to a state banquet for Trump, it is clear the levels of discrimination within politics. The only reason Sajid Javid was snubbed was because of his Muslim background.
Yesterday, when Stormzy was asked if Britain was still racist, he replied “definitely, 100%”. How did the media portray this? They spun these two words to make it seem like Stormzy said Britain was 100% racist. The backlash he got from people in the media was mind-blowing. Not only were they misrepresenting what he said, they were trying to bring down someone for saying something which is completely true. Stormzy was proved correct a few hours later when Rudiger was racially abused by Spurs fans. However, this whole event exposed the media for hidden racism that exist. How can the BAME community be fully represented when 94% of the media is white. These people will never be able to comprehend what it is like to be a minority. Whether it is being racially abused or being treated differently at work, they will never suffer from that. Some may never come across any form of racism in their life. Instead they have to look at stats to analyse racism. One really annoying thing I saw was journalist trying to prove Stormzy was wrong by showing stats. They claimed racism wasn’t a problem because of how bad racism is in other countries. This is peak institutional racism. For me it is actually racist to tell minorities “look at racism in other countries”. What you’re essentially telling me is to be grateful I am living in UK and not this other country with high levels of racism. Be grateful my forefathers came to UK and not somewhere else. By saying this, you’re treating all minorities like second class citizens. It’s as if, in your eyes, we aren’t actually British. So, we should be grateful and carry on suffering from “low levels “of racism.
You are probably wondering why I included education. How is education racist? Our education system is the perfect example of institutional racism. Our education system fails at teaching racism and discrimination. History should have a much more importance than it currently is. It teaches kids lifelong lessons, such as what is right and wrong, different ideologies, philosophies and political views, all which are important especially in todays climate. A lack of importance on subjects which makes students think critically has allowed generations of people who never question their surroundings, and what is happening. A bigger problem is how history has been whitewashed. Students are being taught a watered down version of what actually happened. When being taught the civil rights movement, the emphasis is placed on people like MLK, however, Malcolm X, who was crucial during the movement, is never mentioned. Nelson Mandela, a man of peace. Or was he. That’s what we are taught. We are taught that Mandela was a man who went to prison without lifting a finger against his enemies. It is far from the truth. His whole history has been whitewashed. Nelson Mandela was a communist. You will never be taught that in school. He also co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, a paramilitary group which fought the South African government. When we are taught about our heroes who fought to create an equal society, we are taught a whitewashed version, where our champions are peaceful people who never fought the establishment. This is far from the truth and a form of suppression.
On the other hand, when we are taught about British history, we are taught about how great the British empire was, and how great Winston Churchill was. What great things did the empire actually do? It actually did many terrible things, like causing the deaths of millions around the world, including committing genocides. Stripping the rights away from people based on their race. Creating an anti-gay society. Countries which once were okay with people being gay, now have anti-gay laws which were implemented by the empire. The empire carried out chemical experiments on the local people, to test chemical warfare. It invented concentration camps and new torture techniques. Are these the great things you are referring to when claiming the empire was great? The British empire was a racist regime. Winston Churchill, a man named the greatest Britain to ever live, was responsible for the death of 3 million Indians. A man who was a racist, that hated Indians, Black people and anyone that was not white. If we are to eradicate racism from our society, stop glorifying racist and racist regimes. Start teaching kids the truth about the civil rights movement, and how these amazing people fought racist regimes. Stop whitewashing history to make your ancestors look good.
The fight against racism is a long and tough one. If we are serious about this challenge then we need to tackle racism within the foundations of our society. I have only named a few examples. Every institution needs a rethink. Until changes are made within every aspect of society, we will never eradicate racism. Essentially, we need to challenge the establishment to create an equal society. This also allows us to create a new society which will be better for all, not just a few.
Aleha
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