Today we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, yet how close are we to this reality?
Let’s turn back the clock, shall we? Racism was always present in one way or another with the constant fear of “different colored people” even though the term race didn’t exist like it does today. The ego’s wish to constantly be superior follows us to the very core of our being. Then we ask the question, why don’t the most intelligent beings on the planet with many available resources comprehend and understand the term “equality”?
Addressing the ego in racial discriminatory behavior
Psychological egoism claims that each person has but one ultimate aim: her own welfare. This theory goes a long way, in a live-or-die situation, the mother will even abandon her child just to be able to survive and then address the situation accordingly. This is seen as a natural need to survive our body has in its DNA, but the human ego has a massive role in it as well, deeply rooted in our self-consciousness.
The ego thrives on identification and separation. Here we come to the need to belong to a certain role, to be connected to a higher being or goal, all while feeding our ego. Thus, many civilizations and kingdoms decided how to gain power and trust. Some nations choose the path of racism, to control a group to gain power, some choose nationalism, and many and almost all choose sexism because of easier physical oppression.
Asian countries perceived the Mongols as barbaric and uncivilized; Western Europeans saw East Europeans and the Middle Eastern as dirty, many of which we still hear about in different contexts, and one of the worst systematic oppressions of all, towards Black people.
Systematic oppression was first largely noticed in the Middle Ages, with the church reaching the height of its power and influence with race being shaped and geographically targeted. The Crusades and the expansion of Islamic empires introduced Europeans to people from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, often with a sense of cultural and religious superiority. This early sense of “otherness” began to evolve into racial distinctions that we know today, which gained its ultimate shape through colonialism.
The peak of colonization
From the 15th century onward, European powers began colonizing parts of Africa, Asia, and America. Many different crimes against humanity were committed during this period such as murders, rape, experiments, starvation, and imprisonment based solely on being different. To justify the exploitation, enslavement, and colonization of non-European peoples, colonial powers developed a racial hierarchy, with Europeans at the top and Africans, Indigenous peoples, and others seen as inferior. These actions resulted in one of the worst acts against human rights in the context of racial discrimination in history, the transatlantic slave trade, which lasted from the 16th to the 19th century, to establish further “white supremacy”. These events later created the safe ground for scientific experiments for biological “racial hierarchy” with many people being referred to as less intelligent purely based on the size of the head, darker color of the skin being seen as dirty, while white skin was seen as pure, and grounding it in “scientific” research. Colonial ideologies led to claims that certain races were biologically superior while uneducated people, the large portions of nations, blindly believed these claims and acted accordingly. With education being unavailable to many groups of people, and being controlled by power and systematic oppression, this led to racial discrimination in all layers of society.
Our role in racial discrimination today
Society tends to follow and succumb to the easy behavioral changes, to be blinded by beliefs taught by families from a very young age, many of these families have passed on discriminatory beliefs “from knee to knee” as we say in the Western Balkans, from one generation to the next. Speaking of this region, Roma here are very much discriminated against, especially in this context of generational limiting beliefs. In Serbia, a large number of Roma live in more than 700 informal settlements, without the basic conditions for a dignified life with social assistance that does not even cover the minimum consumer basket. According to the data of the organization A11, it is evident that Roma men and women are systematically, directly and indirectly, discriminated against on a racial basis – they even testify that the emergency services sometimes do not respond to the calls of the people who live there. While legal structures like segregation and apartheid have been dismantled, systemic racism remains deeply embedded in areas like law enforcement, healthcare, education, and employment. It’s also perpetuated by societal stereotypes and prejudices.
Globalization, migration, and the digital age have also exposed new dimensions of racism, as individuals and groups may face discrimination in different countries or through online platforms.
Our role is to address it or succumb to it. Today, easier than ever, we can shape global beliefs through social media, create workshops and projects on discrimination of all kinds, write publications, become experts in these areas, and address discrimination in bodies of public services.
All of this can start by just listening… and we are here to hear.
Jasmina Bigović
intern at YIHR Serbia
The views and opinions expressed in the blogs published under the Towards 2030 initiative are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Balkan Forum.
