Racism in our midst: War against vice ought to start early in school

Last week, a parent home schooling his children as a result of the coronavirus school closures assigned them four tasks: read newspapers, summarise news items, explain the main idea from each column and identify new words.

After reading the The EastAfrican the children asked. “Baba, what is racism?”

“Have you never heard the word before”? he asked.

“No, the teacher has not taught us,” the children responded.

Baba asked the children to find a dictionary and read the definition out to him. The Oxford Dictionary definition said, “racism is prejudice, discrimination or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior”.

Baba said racial difference, based on physical and behavioural traits came from theories which have since been disproved. The development of racism, mainly in Europe, was based on racial superiority mainly to justify slave trade and colonisation.

Does racism still happen today? The children asked. “Yes, it does,” Baba said, showing them a few video clips. False notions of racial difference can still be seen through beliefs and behaviour particularly against black people. At this point Baba sent me a message asking, “whether I could pick up the topic from there.”

As Baba said, racism does not occur in a vacuum. It has a historical, political and sometimes religious context. Racism as a system of discrimination can be described as what happens when someone with stereotypical behaviour and prejudiced views gets the power to discriminate.

Legislation laid the foundation of the apartheid racist government in South Africa. Likewise, policies shape allocation of resources making inequalities for black people worldwide continue over generations. This can be inferred from, among others, statistics on property ownership, funding and participation in political bodies and decision-making roles, and lack of anti-discrimination policies and laws. This is generally known as structural racism.

Sometimes people of different skin colours are hired only to meet legal requirements, promoted on the basis of skin colour and segregated in office and cafeteria seating arrangements.

In the developed world, black and brown skinned people often occupy the lowest stratum of the job market, and not because they lack talent or skills. This is referred to as institutional racism. In many areas of the world, institutional power is held by people who are not black.

Everyday racism can be seen through people’s attitudes and behaviours. Sometimes a person may refuse to sit next to someone of a different skin colour in public transport, or a salesperson may express doubt a black person can afford to buy an item. Sometimes it is talking down, in a patronising tone, or insults.

Racism can be openly practiced or cleverly hidden. Its particularly impactful when structural and institutional racism converge.

Racism is based on race superiority and therefore examples are often similar, resonating beyond national borders. Films, for example, often show images of white supremacy and superiority with the hero in action movies almost always a white man. Black and brown people are often exposed to standards of beauty, through magazines or movies glorifying lighter coloured skin as part of an ideological construction of racially specific beauty. Occasionally some black and brown people resort to skin lightening creams and cosmetic surgery, sometimes with adverse effects, in an attempt to look more like the white image of beauty.

In contrast, negative images of black people have been reinforced through education, including teaching of history negating Africans and promoting white people as the explorers who discovered them and African lakes, mountains and rivers, literature depicting black people as inferior and media portrayals in subservient roles.

In public and political discourses, the prevalence of racism on black people is often ignored, even by African politicians.

Children encountering racism should remember bullies are cowards, and racists, really, are bullies. Children should tell friends, parents and teachers what is happening to them.

Racism is a very complex issue and you may not be in a position to address it by yourself.

Racists often shift the blame to their victims, so always remember you are not the discriminator. You may be accused of reverse racism but remember racism can only be perpetrated by someone with power and systemic privilege. To avoid blame shifting, it is therefore important to keep evidence, and if not possible to record on video, write it out as it happened.

When children go back to school, ask the teacher to help them start an anti-racism newsletter and club and then invite people from all races to speak on anti-racist ideas.

Thank you, Salma, Ahmed and Baba Mohammed Hussein from Uganda, for challenging us all to think deeper on racism.

Wairimu Nderitu is the author of Beyond Ethnicism, Mukami Kimathi, Mau Mau Freedom Fighter and Kenya: Bridging Ethnic Divides [email protected]