Racism by country

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The article describes the state of race relations and racism in a number of countries. Racism of various forms in found in almost every country on Earth.^[1] Racism is widely condemned throughout the world, with 170 states signatories of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by August 8, 2006.^[2] In different countries, the forms that racism takes may be different for historic, cultural, economic or demographic reasons.

Contents 1 Austria 2 Bulgaria 3 Canada 4 Chile 5 Finland 6 France 7 Germany 8 Guyana 9 Hong Kong 10 India 11 Indonesia 12 Iraq 13 Ireland 14 Israel 15 Italy 16 Ivory Coast 17 Japan 18 Madagascar 19 Malaysia 20 Netherlands 21 New Zealand 22 Russia and other post-Soviet states 23 Spain 24 Sweden 25 Trinidad 26 Turkey 27 Uganda 28 United Kingdom 28.1 Scotland 28.2 Northern Ireland 29 United States of America 29.1 Slavery 29.2 Post-slavery racism 30 South Africa 31 Switzerland 32 Zimbabwe/Rhodesia 33 Footnotes

Austria

Austria has sometimes been criticised of trying to sweep its Nazi past under the carpet, typified by the widely pronounced myth that Austria was a victim of Nazi aggression rather than a willing participant. This has its origins as an Allied propaganda tactic. This complacency was severely tested in the 1986 presidential race when it emerged that Kurt Waldheim (a former UN secretary general) had concealed (or forgotten) certain facts about his war-time military service with the Wehrmacht. The revelations caused much controversy in Austria as well as in the outside world. Nevertheless Waldheim was elected President. Controversy again erupted in 2000 when Jörg Haider's centre-right Freedom Party entered into coalition with the conservative People's Party having gained 27% of the vote.

However much progress has been made with settling the disputes and compensation for Jews and others whose property and assets were seized during the Nazi era, with a deal completed in 2001. Elections in 2002 saw a significant drop in support for the Freedom Party, with the party subsequently splitting into opposing factions. Jörg Haider now leads the "Alliance for the Future of Austria".

Bulgaria

Racism in Bulgaria has been geared towards the gypsies who are perceived to be of different racial and ethnic background. However, not all Bulgarians are racist towards gypsies, and it really depends on the individual's upbringing, education, area where they lived, and other factors. Bulgarian nationalists are also wary of the country's large Turkish minority because of their perceived ambitions for greater power in Bulgaria and potential separatism in areas where Turks predominantly live. The forced assimilation campaign of the late 80s and early 90s directed against ethnic Turks resulted in the permanent emigration of some 300,000 Bulgarian Turks to Turkey. During this period, Turks were forced to change their names to Slavic Bulgarian ones and Turkish culture was heavily suppressed. Muslim Bulgarians (ethnic Bulgarians practicing Islam) were also targeted as Islam was seen as a "foreign "Turkish element" that stood against Bulgarian interests. The National Union Attack or Ataka, a party widely considered fanatically xenophobic, surprisingly won 10% of the popular vote at the recent 2005 elections.

Canada

Canadian society is often depicted as being a very progressive, tolerant, diverse, and multicultural. Accusing a person of racism in Canada is usually considered a serious slur.^[3] The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms legally assures equal treatments, rights and freedoms without discrimination based on race (among other criteria). Nevertheless, racism is still present in Canada, and continues to affect the lives of all people who live in Canada.^[4]

Canada's treatment of Aborignials is governed by the Indian Act, which provides special treatment for Indians, Inuit and Metis. In 1999, the Canadian government created an autonomous territory, Nunavut for the Inuit living in the Arctic and Northernmost parts of the country. Inuit composed 85% of the population of Nunavat, which represents a new level of self-determination for the indiginous people of Canada.^[5]

There are notable records of slavery in Canada in the 1600s. More than half of all Canadian slaves were aboriginal, and the United Empire Loyalists brought their slaves with them after leaving what became the United States. In 1793, the Lieutenant Govenor of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe, passed a bill making it illegal to bring a person into the colony for the purposes of enslavement, and mandating the gradual emancipation of all slaves^[6] in Upper Canada. Slavery was fully outlawed across all of Canada in 1834. Most of the emancipated slaves of African descent were then sent to settle Freetown in Sierra Leone and those that remained primarily ended up in segregated communities such as Africville outside Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Starting in 1858, Chinese "coolies" were brought to Canada to work in the mines and on the Canadian Pacific Railway. However, they were denied by law the rights of citizenship, including the right to vote, and in the 1880s, "head taxes" were implemented to curtail immigration from China. In 1907, a riot in Vancouver targeted Chinese and Japanese-owned businesses. In 1923, the federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, commonly known as the Exclusion Act, prohibiting further Chinese immigration except under "special circumstances". Japanese Canadians were also subject to anti-Asian racism, particularly during World War II when many Canadians of Japanese heritage — even those who were born in Canada — were forcibly moved to internment camps. The government of Canada officially apologised and made restitution for the treatment of Japanese Canadians in 1988.^[7] The Exclusion Act was repealed in 1947, the same year in which Chinese Canadians were finally given the right to vote. Restrictions would continue to exist on immigration from Asia until 1967, when all racial restrictions on immigration to Canada were repealed, and Canada adopted the current points based immigration system.

Chile

Located in South America, Chile is a country that viewed itself with a high degree of both European and/or Amerindian blood, but demography and national politics has argued over whether or not Chileans are more of a white people, a mestizo majority, or descendants from a multiplicity of ethnic groups, since Chile had attracted waves of European immigrants in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

If the Chilean people feel they have Amerindian, Spanish or in many cases: British (English/Irish), French or Swiss, German or Austrian, Italian, Portuguese, Yugoslavian (Serbian/Croatian) and Arab (Lebanese/Syrian) ancestry, it won't explain the problematic issues faced by most Latin American countries is poverty affects a large segment of Chilean society the same way the middle-classes are 40 percent of the population, one of Latin America's largest groups of affluent or financially secure peoples. Disputed but assymetrical statistics shown that between 20 to 50 percent of the Chilean population, are poor and in the low income strata, mainly consists of mestizos and Amerindians.

The national cultural profile of Chile appears more of a white country located in the southern hemisphere surrounded by more Amerindian or mestizo majority Latin America, might indicated the political and cultural ethos of the Chilean government under an elite not typically identified as mestizos, since its' independence in 1818 from Spanish rule.

The Chilean government like most Latin American nations, used policies and public messages in attempt to encourage their people to take pride of their mestizo background, but like its mostly white neighbor Argentina, insisted it has a more European cultural integrity. Chile passed several laws and changed their 1925 constitution to prohibit racial discrimination in public or private employment, and despite its Catholic majority, the country allowed freedom of religion for its small Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Mormon and other religious communities.

Chile had a history of high levels of socio-economic inequality despite its' tradition of ensured economic prosperity and social protection laws enacted in the early 20th century. But the country's small wealthy elite is predominantly of Spanish and other European descent, whom might been allowed to take Mapuche, Aymara or Incan wives in order to procreate children to inherit the land.

The Roman Catholic Church promoted the white Spanish settlers and later European immigrants to intermarry the indigenous or mestizo majority, with disregard to their racial origin or skin color, in order to procreate a new colony. From the first census in 1821 to the 1901 census report, Chile had grown from 500,000 to had under 3 million people, but today much of the country is sparsely populated.

However, Chile has experienced many levels of racial conflict between its' indigenous peoples (esp. the Mapuches) and Spanish conquistadors ever since they first arrived in 1541, will have a 350-year conflict resulted in wars and oppression of the Mapuche whom escaped defeat by the colonial Spanish.

The Mapuches were expertise warriors and knew how to have battles with little casualities or defeats with the first Spanish, then Chilean armies, but the Mapuches' fighting skills declined in efficiency and they surrendered to the Chileans in the 1880s, to increase their level of racial malignment and economic status in the next century, as they joined the ranks of lower-class Chileans (esp. mestizos not considered "white" or not from land inheritance families) into the status of underpaid or overworked farmers and miners in the early 20th century.

When it comes to a history being a land of untapped natural sources abound in its' thin (its widest point is 100 miles) but 3,000 mile long shape, Chile should highly profited from its' major byproducts: copper, nitrates and sulfates exported to the global market, esp. in high demand in World Wars I and II, provided a high source of financial revenue for the "white" political and business elite.

The Mapuche only made up 3 percent of the country's population, but continued to encounter open and subliminal forms of racial prejudice, and the majority of Mapuche migrated to the cities in search of work and opportunity find themselves in the bottom of the country's defined class system. In Santiago, the country's capital and largest city, the endless influx of rural tenants now represent over half the city population, neighborhoods of dirt floor slums, rackety shacks and substandard housing, and these areas are avoided by local upper middle classes don't want to witness or get near the poverty and racial tension of Amerindians under "white" rule.

This is the same problem for the Polynesian Rapanuis of Easter Island, located 2,000 miles (1.400 km.) west of Chile, was under Chilean rule since 1888 by the Chilean navy sent to protect the Rapanui from frequent slave raids by traders from Australia, French Polynesia, and South America, in which the island population declined after two centuries of neglect and exploitation by the European visitors.

The Rapanui recently demanded more political autonomy and cultural preservation after introduction of culture and technology from the outside world, in the same time the Rapanui had very high rates of poverty than Chileans on the mainland, and until the late 1980's the Chilean government restricted the Rapanui language, cultural practices and although mostly Catholic, their animist religious elements to preserve their traditional integrity as a South Pacific people. In the late 1990's, autonomous rule was granted to the Rapanui of Easter Island.

Chileans had a strong emotional pull on issues relating to poverty, racism and class distinction, although the Chileans are discovering how deep the impact of racial and class divisions had on the country in the 1940s and 1950's, along with a growing concern in leftist circles to produce a small opposition to promote liberal reforms. The country had a large political presence of left-wing activists and an active Communist party from the 1930s (the first in Latin America, but was banned under law in 1956 and permanently in 1973) whom opposed what they felt the country's economic system was oppressive, a highly inequal distribution of wealth, and lack of opportunities that most rural mestizos and Amerindians encountered.

The leftists called the system as an anathema of a developing country, once in the late 1960's had a billion-dollar surplus in its' treasury accumulated by mining profits, could been used to fund one of the world's oldest social welfare state programs. After leftist parties were elected to majority status in Chilean congress, they created farm work programs and subdivided large estates into collective farms, but was small land plots for rural mestizo peasants.

In 1970, Salvador Allende, the first Marxist president elected in the western hemisphere tried to decrease the country's huge class disparities through changes in banking, the national treasury, land ownership and nationalization of private industry. Allende promised to boost the buying power and financial security of the poorest and working-class Chileans (especially mestizos and Amerindians) he got the most popularity from, but this came with a price by high opposition of the upper-class and businessmen got the Chilean army to take care of an ailing economy, and protect their wealth and business interests from damage by the Allende regime.

In the bloody coup in 1973, Allende was found dead (or alledgely killed), might put an end to his socialist reforms to decrease racial and class disparity, as Chile fell under a military dictatorship by general Augusto Pinochet from evident assistance from the US-CIA, as Chilean leftists and worldwide left-wing activists claimed, meant to preserve the "status quo" of the rich "white" Spanish elite whom supported Pinochet to take power, over the Amerindians, mestizos and the working poor.

From 1973 to his retirement in 1990, Pinochet had a "laissez-faire" approach to business, and promised to restructure the social, political and economic functions of Chile left damaged or neglected by previous governments and when civilian rule returned in 1989, the Chilean congress began to focus again on racial and ethnic issues once scorned by Pinochet in order to avoid being labeled as "socialist agitation". Pinochet wanted to preserve the status quo of business elite interests, emphasized a more nationalistic ideology of conservative and patriotic values on what he viewed the Chilean people, and took little consideration on poverty and racism faced by large numbers of lower-class mestizos.

In the 1990's and early 2000's, Chile enjoyed unprecedented economic growth and more middle-class Chileans began to have a higher standard of living by a mixed socialist/capitalist free market. The Chilean government with restored democratic rule began to discuss on including every Chilean not of upper-class or mostly European ancestry to not only share, but invest in financial gains after authoritarian rule ended.

Chilean poverty rates were cut in half from 45% in 1989 to 18% in 2005. However, its small Mapuche minority whom lived apart and encountered racial insults by non-Amerindian or "white" Chileans struggle to keep their autonomy and livelihood, a byproduct of over four centuries of their servitude and inferior status in a Hispanic country.

Recent waves of immigration from East or South Asia, Eastern Europe and other Latin American countries came to Chile in a fast pace, but most Chileans hold little prejudices on the basis of race or ethnicity but Chileans complained they wanted these immigrants to assimilate and contribute to the country, the homogeneous "melting pot" concept known as Chileanadad at large.

But, Chile was also a site of pro-Nazi political activity to nearly claimed electoral victories in the 1930s and early 1940s, but Chile was a wartime ally against Nazi Germany. In recent years (early 2000s) Chile got into news reports as active in far-right and "skinhead" gangs had racial and anti-Semitic views, and the country has an image of low percentages of black Africans (less than 1 percent, lower than numbers of east Asians or Japanese-Chileans), but this came from a low need for slavery in colonial Chile has explained the ethnographic trend.

The country had an emotionally charged argument for so long whether or not to admit a mestizanaje side in a Hispanic culture modeled on that of Northern/western Europeans, and the country's small black minority doesn't feel regularly threatened for their race, since Chilean law has traditionally avoided racial segregation, but nonetheless experienced the plight of its' "non white" mestizo, black, Asian, Amerindian and Rapanui populations.

Finland

Sami people were traditionally feared for being wizards and Russians for being criminals, but the fear was more cultural. In the nineteenth century, the ruling Swedish-speaking minority considered Finnish-speaking people to be a separate race and inferior to the Germanic race. The discrimination since transformed into mainly linguistic.

France

The French have a long history of ethnic and racial conflicts. Anti-Semitism, a common trend in European history, is also highlighted in French history by events such as the Dreyfus Affair at the turn of the nineteenth century, and France's treatment of its Jewish population during the Vichy regime. Likewise, the treatment of North Africans and other former colonials during the colonial era, the atrocities committed in Algeria during the War of Independence (1954-1962) and also the Paris massacre of 1961 are also signs of intolerance. The fact that Algerians formed the bulk of late-twentieth century immigration has raised delicate issues, which are exacerbated by the degradation of the general social situation. In the 1970s Jean Raspail wrote The Camp of the Saints which some felt implied African immigrants should be drowned or shot to prevent them from entering France.

In 1998 the Council of Europe's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) made a report stating concern about racist activities in France and accused the French authorities of not doing enough to combat this. The report and other groups have expressed concern about organizations like Front National (France). In a recent Pew Survey, 47% of the French deem immigration from Eastern Europe to be a bad thing. A small minority shows signs of Anti-Semitism. Roughly 11% had an unfavorable view of Jews [1] and 8% felt that US policy was most influenced by the Jews [2]. In the colonial age some French also displayed negative sentiments toward black Africans.

Nevertheless these judgments should be balanced by the following: Canadians had roughly the same percentage linking US policy to Jews as France did. Furthermore, France had been ruled by Jewish leaders during the twentieth century (most notably Léon Blum and Pierre Mendès-France, who were both highly popular). Indeed, France has a long history of support for universalism dating back to the Enlightenment : the unenforced constitution of 1794 gave the right to vote to all "foreigners" (independently of any racial consideration) living in France for more than one year. The French also generally have a greater interest in African culture and aid to the region.

In late October of 2005, violent riots erupted in north-east Paris, and later other cities around France, after two youths of North African origin were accidentally electrocuted after supposedly fleeing police.

Germany

Further information: Nazism and Christian antisemitism

The history of Germany has included many acts and policies of racism. If one includes pre-19th century acts of anti-Semitism as racism, the history stretches back to at least the eleventh century, when Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor expelled Jews from Mainz in 1012. Other acts of anti-Semitism included numerous bloody attacks on Jews living in the area in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, most notably the massacres of Jews in the 1340s after they were blamed for spreading the Black Death.

In the nineteenth century, Germany became one of the major centers of nationalist thought, with the Völkisch movement, and also a major area for development of racial theories, many of them virulently racist See above. Anti-semitic campaigns in this period took on a definitely "racial" valence, as definitely distinct from a purely religious one.

The period after World War I led to an increased use of anti-Semitism and other racism in political discourse, for example among General Ludendorff's followers, which was capped by the ascent of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party in 1933. Nazi racial policy and the Nazi Nuremberg Laws represented some of the most explicit racist policies in Europe in the twentieth century, and culminated in the Holocaust, a systematic murdering of millions of Jews, Gypsies, disabled people and others "undesirables".

In the post-World War II era, German reconciliation with its anti-Semitic past has been a protracted experience.Recent concerns about racism have centered around immigrants (Ausländer), who encounter prejudice when seeking jobs and apartments, or can even experience direct violent attacks by some right-wing groups. This pattern is similar to what is happening in some other European countries.

The immigrants came in two waves, the first in the 1950s, the so called Gastarbeiter (Guest Workers) and their families. These people came from countries such as Turkey and Yugoslavia in West Germany, and Vietnam and Angola in East Germany. The Gastarbeiter were expected to remain on limited contracts, and then leave. Many did not. Starting from the 1980s, the second wave were the Asylbewerber (Asylum Seekers) from countries such as Sri Lanka and Lebanon. This second group were considered by some locals to not be genuine cases, but so called Wirtschaftsflüchtlinge (Economic Migrants).

Guyana

There is a lot of tension between the Indians and the blacks. This is evident during elections where major riots by the blacks occur when an Indian is president.

Hong Kong

In a population of almost 7 million[3] Hong Kong has gained a reputation as international city, while remaining predominantly Chinese. This multi-culturalism has raised issues of racial and sex discrimination, particularly among the 350,000 ethnic minorities such as Nepalese, Indians, Indonesians, Pakistanis and Filipinos, who have long established minority communities since the founding days of the former colony or have come to Hong Kong recently to work as domestic workers. There are also around 380,000 immigrants from mainland China who have also suffered discrimination[4], as evidenced by cases of high unemployment rates, poor working conditions, psychological and physical violence, lack of minimum wage. In 2003, the number of complaints filed with the body handling discrimination issues, the Equal Opportunities Commission [5] was up by 31 percent.

A race discrimination bill has been demanded by human rights groups for the last 10 years, and the government has been accused of putting the issue on the back burner.

Last December 3, 2006 was the first time a drafted bill was released onto the Legislative Council, and is expected to be passed before the end of 2008. However, the bill is criticized to be "too conservative"[6]. The exclusion of mainland Chinese immigrants has also been a source of controversy, with the government claiming that they are not considered to be of a different race. Another issue of the bill has been of language instruction in schools. Low-income ethinic minority parents who cannot afford to send their children to English-instruction schools have to send them to Chinese-instruction schools, where they fall behind in classes or make little progress.

India

It is claimed by some activists[7] that casteism practised in India is a form of racism, but this is debated by those who believe that casteism has nothing to do with physical attributes, unlike racism. At the UN world conference on racism (August 31 - September 7 2001) the Indian Government opposed the discussion of caste in the conference, saying that "the caste issue is not the same as racism"[8].

Such allegations have also been rejected by many sociologists such as Andre Béteille, who writes that treating caste as a form of racism is "politically mischievous" and worse, "scientifically nonsense" since there is no discernable difference in the racial characteristics between Brahmins and Scheduled Castes. He writes that "Every social group cannot be regarded as a race simply because we want to protect it against prejudice and discrimination".^[8]

In addition, the view of the caste system as "static and unchanging" (which would indicate a form of racial discrimination) has been disputed by many scholars. Sociologists describe how the perception of the caste system as a static and textual stratification has given way to the perception of the caste system as a more processual, emprical and contextual stratification. Others have applied theoretical models to explain mobility and flexibility in the caste system in India.^[9]. According to these scholars, groups of lower-caste individuals could seek to elevate the status of their caste by attempting to emulate the practices of higher castes.

Sociologist M. N. Srinivas has also debated the question of rigidity in Caste.^[10][11] For details see sanskritization.

Indonesia

See Jakarta Riots of May 1998.

In Indonesia riots over higher food prices and rumors of hoarding by merchants and shopkeepers often degenerate into anti-Chinese attacks.^[12]

Iraq

During World War II, Rashid Ali al-Kaylani blamed British hostility toward his pro-Nazi stance on the Iraqi Jewish community. In 1941, Iraqi nationalists murdered 200 Jews in Baghdad in a pogrom.^[13]

Further information: Farhud

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Iraqi Jews faced persecution so great that by 1951, approximately 100,000 of them left the country while the Iraqi rulers confiscated their property and financial assets.^[13]

During 1987-1988, Iraqi forces famously carried out a genocide against the Iraqi Kurds that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Further information: Al-Anfal Campaign

Ireland

Traditionally there has been very little immigration by non-whites to the Republic of Ireland due to historic poverty, though in recent times growing prosperity in the country (see: Celtic Tiger) has attracted increasing numbers of immigrants, mainly from Africa, China, and Eastern Europe. Also the absence of any colonialist baggage has meant that foreign people are not drawn to Ireland by "mother country" factors that have affected other European countries. Descendants of Irish people who emigrated in the past have also started moving to the country. Most immigrants have settled in Dublin and the other cities. Though these developments have been accepted or tolerated by most, there has been a rise in racist attitudes among some sections of society. Much of this racism takes the form of verbal and other abuses. However, in 2002, a Chinese man Zhao liu Tao (29) was murdered in Dublin in what was described as the Republic of Ireland's first racially motivated murder.[9] Later that year Leong Ly Min, another Chinese man who had lived in Dublin since 1979, was beaten to death by a gang who had been racially abusing him. [10]

Several issues relating to immigration have gained publicity in recent years. After 1997 and prior to 2005 any baby born in the Republic was entitled to Irish citizenship due to stipulations in the Good Friday agreement. This led to claims that many pregnant women (overwhelmingly from Nigeria) from Africa, having discarded their identification documentation were travelling directly to Ireland expressly to give birth and thus allow their child to gain Irish citizenship. This became known as citizenship tourism. Following these alleged abuses of the loophole in the Irish Constitution a referendum on the issue was held. The referendum was duly carried and the loophole was closed.

In 2005 Nigerian student Olukunle Elukanlo was deported after his asylum application was rejected. Following an outcry by various left-wing activist groups at the decision he was allowed to return to complete his leaving cert. The issue highlighted the growing numbers of failed asylum seekers been deported, an issue which is highly controversial to some (despite that fact that very few failed applicants are actually deported). This has been highlighted in recent television and radio programmes focused on exposing the extreme high cost to the Irish taxpayer of processing false asylum claims in addition to the cost of returning bogus asylum-seekers to their country of origin.

Many Irish people are very proud of being in the European Union, but increasingly large numbers resent migrants from outside the Union coming to Ireland expressly for the purpose of claiming asylum, without having applied for asylum in other countries along their route as is required by international law. There are several "anti-racism" groups active in the Republic, as well as those seeking tighter immigration laws such as the Immigration Control Platform.

Israel

On 22 February 2007, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination will consider the report submitted by Israel under Article 9 of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The report states that “Racial discrimination is prohibited in Israel. The State of Israel condemns all forms of racial discrimination, and its government has maintained a consistent policy prohibiting such discrimination”. [11]

However, this report was challenged by several reports submitted to the Committee by other bodies. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel alleges “Israel's discriminatory planning practices”, the “discriminatory permit regime” and “egregious and systemic discrimination against Palestinians based solely on their national origin . . . reminiscent of policies characteristic of an Apartheid regime.”[12] Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel alleges that “the State of Israel pursues discriminatory land and housing policies against Palestinian citizens of Israel” and that “the needs of Palestinian citizens of Israel are systematically disregarded” [13] A joint report submitted by 19 Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs alleges “State laws and institutions that dispossess the indigenous Palestinian and Syrian populations”. [14]

Also see Israeli Arab discrimination and Anti-Arabism in Israel. See: Haaretz:UN panel to hear Israel respond to charges of bias against Arabs

Italy

See Northern League (Italy)

Ivory Coast

In the past recent years the Ivory Coast has seen a resurgence in ethnic tribal hatred and religious intolerance. In addition to the many victims among the various tribes of the northern and southern regions of the country that have perished in the ongoing conflict, foreigners residing or visting the Ivory Coast have also been subjected to violent attacks. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the Ivory Coast government is guilty of fanning ethnic hatred for its own political ends.^[14]

Japan

See Ethnic issues in Japan

Madagascar

Ethnic tensions in Madagascar often produce violent conflict between the higlanders and coastal peoples. The Merina people in particular are often the targets of violence especially during political campaigns to elect a new president.^[15]

Malaysia

Economic policies designed to favour Bumiputras (ethnic Malays), including affirmative action in public education, were implemented in the 1970s in order to defuse inter-ethnic tensions following the May 13 Incident in 1969, but these have not been fully effective in eradicating poverty among rural Bumiputras and have further caused a backlash especially from Chinese and Indian minorities. The policies are enshrined in the Malaysian constitution and questioning them is technically illegal.

Netherlands

In the early twenty-first century, Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn and film maker Theo Van Gogh (film director) both aired highly controversial views on immigration, particularly North African immigration. Adding further controversy were their subsequent murders.

Pim Fortuyn was murdered by Volkert van der Graaf, an animal rights activist, while Theo van Gogh was murdered by Mohammed Bouyeri, who was, in fact, of Morrocan descent.

New Zealand

Although New Zealand did not have an official policy along the lines of the White Australia Policy, it did impose a poll tax on Chinese immigrants during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The poll tax was effectively lifted in the 1930s following the invasion of China by Japan, and was finally repealed in 1944. An official apology to the Chinese community of New Zealand was afforded by Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2004.

After World War II, immigration policy remained largely pro-British Isles until the mid-1980s, although war refugees, non-Anglo-Celtic migrants, and foreign students studying under the Colombo Plan were allowed into the country in varying numbers. In the 1960s and 70s, large numbers of British immigrants and their proliferation in the trade union movement gave rise to popular Anglophobia in the media and on the streets. This was typified by talkback radio host Tim Bickerstaff's promotion of his "punch a Pom a day" campaign.

In the 1975 election campaign, opposition leader Robert Muldoon ran a scare campaign directed against Pacific Islands migrant workers, which was followed by a series of dawn raids on suspected overstayers. In response, a Pacific Islands group known as the Polynesian Panthers came to prominence. Indigenous land issues came to a head in the late 1970s with Maori protesters occupying the Raglan Golf Course and Bastion Point, with land claims on both being settled by the following decade.

In 1986, country-of-origin rules were abolished, leading to major inflows of immigration for the first time in years, in particular large groups of skilled and business migrants. However, anti-immigration rhetoric directed mainly towards Asians from the populist Maori politician Winston Peters has since forced immigration rules to be tightened. A 2003 study by the Human Rights Commission showed 70% of New Zealanders think that Asians face significant discrimination. Many non-Polynesian ethnic minorities perceive official policy to be indifferent towards them in the context of the Maori-Pakeha bi-culturalism issue.

Russia and other post-Soviet states

Further information: Racism in Russia, Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union and Anti-national sentiment in Russia

Racism inside Russia is quite a modern post-USSR phenomenon that has been steadily growing in the past decade. In the 2000s, neo-Nazi groups inside Russia have risen to include as many as tens of thousands of people. [15] Racism against the peoples of the Caucasus, Africans, Central Asians and East Asians(Vietnamese, Chinese, etc) is an ever increasing problem.[16]

A Pew Survey showed that of those who believed some religions are more violent than others 10% of Russians named Judaism as the most violent.[17] This was the highest percentage outside the Muslim world. Further a previous poll showed that 25% of Russians had an unfavorable view of Jews.[18] Racism towards central Asians is said to be even more widespread.

Spain

Further information: Pureza de sangre, Bartolomé de Las Casas, and Eduardo Galeano

At the end of the Reconquista, Spanish Inquisition imposed pureza de sangre ("racial purity") against Jews and Muslims. Discovery of the New World also led to the famous Valladolid Controversy, in which Bartolomé de Las Casas opposed Sepúlveda's denegation of the existence of "Indian souls". See Eduardo Galeano's The Veins of South America .

Racist abuse aimed at black footballers has been reported at Spanish football league matches in recent years. This has lead to protests and UEFA fines against clubs whose supporters continue the abuse. Several players in the Spanish league including Barcelona player Samuel Eto'o have spoken out against the abuse. In 2006, Real Zaragoza player Ewerthon stated : "the Spanish Federation have to start taking proper measures and we as black players also have to act.^[16]

Sweden

According to the report Racism and Xenophobia in Sweden by the Board of Integration Muslims are exposed to the most racial harassment in Sweden. Almost 40% of the interviewed said they had witnessed verbal abuse directed at Muslims.^[17]

Trinidad

Trinidad is a melting pot of cultures and has been also a place of great ethnic tensions between the poorer African-Caribbean and the politically and economically empowered European and Asian-Caribbean people.

Turkey

Further information: Pan-Turkism, Pan-Turanism and Greco-Turkish relations

The Istanbul Pogrom directed against Turkey's Greek minority resulted in the deaths of 16 Greeks and 1 Armenian. The supporters of MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) (also known as Grey Wolves) advocate the supremacy of Turkish race and promote hatred against Armenians, Greeks and "separatist" Kurds in Turkey. Smaller right-wing groups like "National Socialist Turkish Movement" [19] and followers of Turkish racist Nihal Atsiz [20] also promote hate speech and violence against Kurds, Africans, and Jews. None of these activities are prosecuted by Turkish authorities. Recently, in the course of Turkey's accession to the EU, fringe nationalist groups (often with racist tones) are reported to gain considerable support among Turkish youth.

Uganda

In the 1970s Uganda and other East African nations implemented racist policies that targeted the Asian population of the region. Uganda under Idi Amin's leadership was particularly most virulent in its anti-Asian policies. The forced expulsion of Uganda's entire Asian population attests to the persecution of Asian peoples residing in the country at the time. Today, Asian/Indian residents of Uganda continue to face marginalization being given an inferior status.

United Kingdom

There were race riots across the United Kingdom in 1919: South Shields, Glasgow, London's East End, Liverpool, Cardiff, Barry, and Newport. There were further riots by immigrant and minority populations in East London during the 1930s and Notting Hill in the 1950s.

In the 1980s, perceived societal racism, discrimination and poverty - alongside further perceptions of powerlessness and oppressive policing - sparked a series of riots in areas with substantial African-Caribbean populations.^[18] These "uprisings" (as they were described by some in the community) took place in St Pauls in 1980, Brixton, Toxteth and Moss Side in 1981, St Pauls again in 1982, Notting Hill Gate in 1982, Toxteth in 1982, and Handsworth, Brixton and Tottenham in 1985.^[19]

The report identified both "racial discrimination" and a "racial disadvantage" in Britain, concluding that urgent action was needed to prevent these issues becoming an "endemic, ineradicable disease threatening the very survival of our society".^[18] The era saw an increase in attacks on Black people by white people. The Joint Campaign Against Racism committee reported that there had been more than 20,000 attacks on non-indigenous Britons including Britons of Asian origin during 1985.^[20]

More recently in 2001, there have been both the Bradford riots and the Oldham riots. These riots have followed cases of perceived racism - either the public displays of racist sentiment (including crimes against members of ethnic minorities which were subsequently ignored by the authorities), or, as in the Brixton riots, racial profiling and alleged harassment by the police force.

Racism in one form or another was widespread in Britain before the twentieth century, and during the 1900s particularly towards Jewish groups and immigrants from Eastern Europe. The British establishment even considered the Irish a separate and degenerate race until well into the 19th Century.

Since World War I, public expressions of white supremacism have been limited to far-right political parties such as the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and the British National Front in the 1970s, whilst most mainstream politicians have publicly condemned all forms of racism. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that racism remains widespread, and some politicians and public figures have been accused of excusing or pandering to racist attitudes in the media, particularly with regard to immigration. There have been growing concerns in recent years about institutional racism in public and private bodies, and the tacit support this gives to crimes resulting from racism, such as the murder of Stephen Lawrence, Gavin Hopely and Ross Parker.

The Race Relations Act 1965 outlawed public discrimination, and established the Race Relations Board. Further Acts in 1968 and 1976 outlawed discrimination in employment, housing and social services, and replaced the Race Relations Board with Commission for Racial Equality. The Human Rights Act 1999 made organizations in Britain, including public authorities, subject to the European Convention on Human Rights. The Race Relations Act 2000 extends existing legislation for the public sector to the police force, and requires public authorities to promote equality.

There have been tensions over immigration since at least the early 1900s. These were originally engendered by hostility towards Jews and immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe. Britain first began restricting immigration in 1905 and has also had very strong limits on immigration since the early 1960s. Legislation was particularly targeted at members of the Commonwealth of Nations, who had previously been able to migrate to the UK under the British Nationality Act 1948. Virtually all legal immigration, except for those claiming refugee status, ended with the Immigration Act 1971; however, free movement for citizens of the European Union was later established by the Immigration Act 1988. Legislation in 1993, 1996 and 1999 gradually decreased the rights and benefits given to those claiming refugee statues ("asylum seekers"). 582,000 people came to live in the UK from elsewhere in the world in 2004 according to the office of National Statistics.

Some commentators believe that a huge amount of racism, from within all communities, has been undocumented within the UK, adducing the many British cities whose populations have a clear racial divide. While these commentators believe that race relations have improved immensely over the last thirty years, they still believe that racial segregation remains an important but largely unaddressed problem, although research [21] has shown that ethnic segregation has reduced within England and Wales between the 1991 Census and 2001 Census.

Racist remarks made by contestants on the Big Brother TV series against Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty have caused widespread outrage. Demonstrators in Banglore burned effigies of the TV Channel's directors.^[21]

Scotland

It has been reported that racial minorities are underrepresented in the police force [22]. Philomena de Lima noted that Scots sometimes feel there is "no problem here" because ethnic minorities are regarded as small in number, "invisible", and "silent." However, she found that in most schools, at least 4% of students were ethnic minorities. In the urban areas tensions between Whites and Pakistanis occasionally flare up. In the past football (soccer in US English) has at times divided on racial lines with "Asian teams" versus "Scottish teams" causing conflict. There is however a more sinister and deep seated racism towards foreigners in Scotland, especially those from Pakistan. Several items regarding this type of racism in Scotland are reported here. [23].

The BBC, in 2002, has reported on poll conducted by System Three which "suggested that one in four Scots admitted to being strongly or slightly racist" and that "almost 50% said they did not believe it was racist to use terms such as 'Chinky' or 'Paki' in relation to food or shops.

However, there are indications that the Scottish authorities and people are well aware of the problem and are trying to tackle it. Among the Scottish under 15 years old there is the positive sign that, "younger white pupils rarely drew on racist discourses." [24]

There is also a strong current of anti-English prejudice in Scotland; see Anglophobia.

Northern Ireland

Racism in the United Kingdom is particularly acute in Northern Ireland, which has prompted The Guardian newspaper to label it the "race hate capital of Europe"[25]. Despite having the smallest numbers of non-whites in the UK it has the highest levels of racist violence in the country (racially motivated attacks are at 16.4% per 1000 of the minority population, whilst in England and Wales the figure is 12.6%).

More recently non-white people, especially Chinese, have started to live in Northern Ireland, primarily in the capital Belfast. The population of Northern Ireland is 99% white. Discrimination takes many forms such as the spraying of racist graffiti, intimidation, assaults, general harassment, protection racketing, vandalism and house burning. Attempts to build a mosque in Portadown were met by much opposition — the plan was eventually dropped.

United States of America

Main article: Racism in the United States

Many historians have argued that racism has been an integral part of the United States of America since it was first colonized by Europeans. In general, the question of race and the practices of racism have been major issues in American politics and daily life since before the country became independent in the late eighteenth century, and continue to have a major role in political and social life today. Racism exists among members of every ethnic group and demographic, specifically among those of African American; white American (e.g. Irish, German, Italian, Polish); Jewish (although in the US a Jewish identity is treated as a solely religious, not a racial/ethnic designation), Asian American/Pacific Islander, Native American/Alaska Native and Latin/Hispanic heritages. Despite the attention on immigration issues in the late 20th century, other Latinos like Chicanos — whose families lived in the Western US in the 1850s when the US annexed lands formerly part of Mexico and Puerto Ricans — are born US citizens. All of these ethnic groups have racists within, and likewise all of these ethnic groups have members within that have been a victim of racism. Another controversy is what makes an American...too often the concept of assimilation, integration, national loyalties of second-generation Americans, promotion of cultural uniformity, and doing away with ethnic discrimination...has forgotten the needs and issues of African-Americans and other racial minority groups.

Slavery

In colonial America, before colonial slavery became completely based on racial lines, thousands of African slaves served European, alongside other Europeans serving a term of indentured servitude. In some cases for African slaves, a term of service meant freedom and a land grant afterward, but these were rarely awarded, and few Africans became landowners this way. In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led a revolt against the Governor of Virginia and the system of exploitation he represented: exploitation of poorer colonists by the increasingly wealthy landowners. However, Bacon died, probably of dysentery, and the revolt lost steam. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, slavery was a major national controversy that divided Americans, to politicians and religious leaders as much it divided land owners, businessmen and workers argued on the principle of the human dignity of slaves versus the right of free enterprise should not have government intervention (abolition of slavery).

The central cause of concern to landowners was the unity of Bacon's populist movement. It raised the question to the landowners of how to divide the population politically in ways that would keep the poorer colonists divided enough to rule. To the Governor, the most threatening, and unexpected, aspect of Bacon's rebellion was its multi-racial aspect. So from that time on, the wealthy landowners determined that only Africans would be used as slaves — and European colonists were promised whatever benefits would have gone to Africans had they continued to be indentured servants. The fuel of the racism was due to the fear of sex among Africans and Europeans. This relationship was specifically afraid of African, Native American, Asian, and Latin (Hispanic) men with European women. The thousands of lynchings were testimony to this. This legacy is still seen in the antimiscegenation laws which were repealed only within the past few years. This change began the infamously long period of the American slave society, in which slaves were primarily used for agricultural labor, notably in the production of cotton and tobacco. African slavery in the Northeast was less common, usually confined to involuntary domestic servitude. The social rift along color lines soon became engrained in every aspect of colonial American culture.

Post-slavery racism

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, freed all slaves in the Southern states that had made up the Confederacy except slaveholding border states which had not seceded from the Union, and those states already under Union control. Slavery ended in the whole country with the 13th Amendment which was declared ratified on December 18, 1865. Despite this, discrimination continued in the United States with the existence of Jim Crow laws, educational disparities, widespread criminal acts perpetrated by local and vigilante groups, and vigorous action by trade unions and their allies to enact Minimum wages, which had the effect of pricing the typically unskilled and untrained black and immigrant laborers out of the labor market.

In the 1950s and 1960's a mass based movement of predominantly African-Americans capitalizing on the gains made by the New Deal engaged in a series of local movements, national lobbying and legal attacks on segregation and discrimination. These groups included the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Congress of Racial Equality, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and a variety of local groups and labor unions. This movement culminated in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" — Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. (28 August 1963).

While attention to race relations in the United States has been focused largely on that between European-Americans and African-Americans, the changing racial makeup of the American population (when Asians, Latinos, Arab Americans, Native Hawaiians and ethnic Europeans other than Anglo-Saxon, began to advance higher in political representation and slowly but surely climbed the socioeconomic ladder) at the beginning of the twenty first century has caused many voices to call for the inclusion of other races in the equation. It is estimated that by 2050, European-Americans in America will comprise less than 50% of the total population (Latinos, for example will acount for 25% of the US population). Thinking about race relations in the United States is therefore broadening to include Latin-Americans (the fastest growing ethnic group) and Asian-Americans. At this writing, at least 4 states, California, Texas, Hawaii, and New Mexico (and the District of Columbia) are deemed "majority minority" states, where whites are not the majority of the population. Native Americans dealt with similar issues on color-based racism, greater demands for tribal autonomy, fought social discrimination and economic disparities for a people whom encountered hardship and oppression for centuries after the first Europeans entered the land to become the United States.

South Africa

See History of South Africa in the apartheid era.

Switzerland

The Swiss Confederation or Confederatio Helvetica is a nation composed of four subcultural groups: German-speaking (63.7%), French-speaking (20.4%), Italian-speaking (6.5%) and Romansch-speaking (0.5%) (Source: Federal Population Census 2000). With this diversity and its history of neutrality, Switzerland has been seen as a safe refuge for those genuinely fleeing from persecution, and this is backed up by statistics. Switzerland has seen an increase in refugees in recent years, (particularly from Africa), who have claimed asylum directly in Switzerland. In 1992, the federal refugee office registered some 7,000 black Africans requesting asylum. In the first nine months of 2002 the number was 17,000.

The vast majority of asylum seekers are believed by many Swiss politicians to be economic immigrants rather than genuine asylum seekers. Furthermore, the SVP or Swiss People's Party has significantly increased its share of the vote in recent years on a perceived "anti-immigrant" platform. It is best known for opposing Swiss membership in international organisations such as the EU and United Nations and for its campaigning against perceived flaws in the immigration, asylum and penal laws.

Swiss "Confederation Commission Against Racism" which is part of the Swiss "Federal Department of Home Affairs"[26]published a 2004 report, Black People in Switzerland: A Life between Integration and Discrimination [27] (published in German, French, and Italian only). According to this report, discrimination based on skin colour in Switzerland is not exceptional, and affects immigrants decades after their immigration.

Zimbabwe/Rhodesia

Until majority rule in 1980, the minority white government of Rhodesia (as Zimbabwe was then called) practised institutionalised racism similar in most respects to the apartheid system in South Africa. White Rhodesians "lived in the best houses, owned most of the best land, enjoyed a high standard of living and controlled the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the means of coercion." (Godwin, P. & Hancock, I., 1993. Rhodesians never Die, Baobab Books, Harare, Zimbabwe.)

The laws enforcing racial segregation, however, were not always welcomed by the local white community. They were viewed as not only being racist, but expensive and unnecessary. This was highlighted in an incident, called "The Battle of the Toilets" in 1960, involving a new theatre that would be open to all races.

Twenty years after Independence, whites in Zimbabwe remained a market dominant minority through their continued ownership of the vast majority of arable land, the most valuable resource in a country like Zimbabwe where agriculture is the leading industry. In 2000, the government, arguing that the country's landownership patters were the result of longtime failure to address the legacies of colonialism and racism in Zimbabwean society, began a controversial land reform process directed at confiscating the land of the white resident farmers and redistributing it to the poor black majority. Mugabe, however, had come under heavy criticism and accusations of having apportioned land to supporters, doing so in a disorganized and anarchical manner. This was coupled with renewed criticisms (originally directed decades ago) that a comprehensive land reform has been long overdue. (Astrow, A., 1983, Zimbabwe: A revolution that lost its way?, Zed Books, London)

Footnotes