Why racism cannot be taken less seriously than gender intolerance

Sep 26, 2016

Even civil strife around the world has taken racism lines

By Simon Mone

People of African descent have continued to come up against a load of racial malpractices, especially with the upsurge of migrants and asylum seekers in recent years. Inequality of skin colour has seriously undermined the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of people.

Racism has been with us for a long time, maybe even before the advent of slave trade. And today, we see it having deep-seated impact on people of black race. Generations will probably come and go, while we look for answers. The easiest example, as we know, is clearly seen with black sportsmen.

These guys, despite their great performances on sports arenas, have had to withstand all kinds of abuse and racial slur. Look at the 2016 European football championship finals in July. France and Portugal both fielded black players. The French national team on one part selected line-up consisting of about half with black players.

And they didn't disappoint. As if no ‘French' players were available to play. We know that they ply their football trades in European elite leagues. But because of the rule of merit, the French team would be dominated by a big presence of blacks.

On the Portuguese side, of significance is the deciding goal. It was delivered by a player whose origin is traced to Cape Verde Islands. Black players clearly came out the victors in this one. And in many cases, a lot of teams have had black players dig them out of jail.

But unfortunately, racism continues. Even civil strife around the world has taken racism lines. Against this background therefore, it is abouttime the World began taking xenophobia seriously. A lot can be done to win the battle against xenophobia, just like we see significant strides being made in fighting gender intolerance.

In mitigating gender bias, the strategies being applied seem to work well, delivering promising outcomes. We can make use of the same processes. We can collect xenophobia data like; number of migrants stuffed to death in wagons, like those whose settlements have been torched. And those cases where black people are physically attacked.

With this, we can advance the crusade against ill-treatment of humanity. This could work. And we could see improvement in levels of xenophobia. With such information, we will be able to promote equal opportunity regardless of who people are. We will facilitate a global campaign to respect the rights of humanity. So emphasis of data is important.

It makes people see how bad some things are. And therefore, will force the campaign for racial tolerance to another level. We would then witness more world-wide migration conferences, deliberately aimed at looking for solutions to racial discrimination.

What I would look forward to, is for instance that tax exemptions were extended to companies that employ black refugees and immigrants. Or by ratifying and expediting implementation of policies that gives special privileges to institutions and businesses that cherish black people. The way it has been done to gender-based initiatives. We now see in many countries, gender representation is a big thing in Parliaments.

Organisations, in job advertisements, encourage qualified females to apply. And this has succeeded big time. The world can implement similar approaches if it's focussed and intended at eliminating, or at least seen trying it's best to eliminate xenophobia.

Such solutions would provide black refugees with the capacity to be a part of the solution to conflicts in their respective countries, rather than being a part of a big problem in foreign land. The challenge is to have world leaders throw their weights behind such initiatives.

As humanitarian aid organisations and indeed governments may have found out, the best way to assist needy people is, by offering to them good solutions. So, the same methodology that has been used in addressing the gender gap can be done to solve the problem of xenophobia.

The writer has an interest in humanitarian development

 

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