Addressing the West's global racism

American killer cops received world-wide condemnation this weekend as protests, which erupted in 75 cities across the United States, went global. Berliners, Torontonians, Londoners, Tehranians, and more all stood in solidarity with Americans to protest the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Abery, and countless other black Americans murdered by cops, once again exposing long-standing systems of profound injustice. 

For as long as the idea of America has existed, it has been entrenched in racial inequality. From the Three-Fifths Compromise, when in 1787 founding fathers deemed black citizens as only three-fifths of a person, to today, when institutionally sanctioned killers of black Americans walk free from justice or reprimand.

America is also a country that has globally condemned inequality on ethnic and racial grounds. America was foundational in building compromise in post-Nazi Germany, America denounces the killing of Uighurs by China and genocide of the Rohingya by Myanmar, America positioned itself to be instrumental in resolving apartheid in South Africa, and ethnically based violence the former Yugoslavia. The United States sees herself as a beacon of justice and peaceful resolution, except when that focus is turned inward. 

All western liberal democracies, the United States included, base their founding principles on equal rights under the law. It is a set of principles that has led to a pervasive belief in the region's exceptionalism. If we remove the distorting lens of exceptionalism and peer at reality, it is easy to trace the long history, which marginalizes people of color across western liberal democracies. Just as these nations have categorically condemned discrimination on ethnic grounds all over the world, it is time to turn our attention inward to overcome the complicit racism permeating the systems and institutions, which are the foundation for their global policymaking. 

Images of protests around the world

Considerations on discrimination against people of color

In American history, the Federal Government permitted banks to deny mortgages to potential black homeowners, including black GIs returning from World War II. Though the practice of redlining is now illegal, the consequences of relegating black communities to poor urban centers without the financial capital, and therefore equity, that homeownership provides has never truly been undone. Today, though most forms of discrimination are illegal, there are three times as many white people as black people, but the whites hold 20 times the wealth. Schools, which are primarily funded by property taxes, receive, in total, 23 billion in additional funding in white neighborhoods. Blacks are disproportionately likely to be jailed, killed by police, and their life expectancy is a full four years shorter than whites. 

But America is not alone. 

Europe has never genuinely confronted its colonial past. Development aid and work often overwrite the impact of the harm of colonization. Instead, it is complicit in peddling narratives that countries that are poor today have corrupt governmental systems or incorrect values in society. We could overlook these sentiments if the development aid were creating legitimate, favorable outcomes. Increasingly, we see that development aid does not produce long term positive outcomes. It further entrenches systems of inequality, disproportionately affecting individuals who have not or were prevented from adopting the western, liberal, democratic model. 

Looking inward, the BBC conducted a study of African descendants' experience with racism in Europe. They found that across the EU, 30 percent of people experienced racism. In light of the protests, op-eds from people of color detailing their experiences with racism across the United States and Europe shine a light on the hidden problem amongst all western liberal democracies. In Denmark, studies from 2005 and 2011 indicate employment discrimination based on minority status. Yearly hate crimes in both Denmark and Germany have doubled since 2015. In Britain, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Black households are the groups with the highest number of households in the lowest income brackets. Australia effectively punishes all migrants who do not arrive via plane, and both Australia and the United Kingdom have pay gaps for people of color.

What we see here is a bias. It may not be active racism, such as the murder of black Americans by police, but it is pervasive enough to cause people of color's worse outcomes in liberal democracies. It demonstrates that, across the West, society favors individuals of European descent, despite platitudes of equal opportunity for all.

1914 colonial map

While not a direct causation, comparing maps of historic colonialism to modern GDP is a good way to correlate and gain greater understanding of the current impacts of colonization

Actively undoing racism

In the wake of protests, Berlin passed an anti-discrimination law that bars public officials from discriminating against civilians based on skin color and race. It is the first German state to do so, and so far, it is the only place in Europe to take action in the wake of anti-racism protests. In the United States, Democratic lawmakers are poised to release a police reform bill. The bill is reported to contain measures for punishing departments who racially profile and officers who use excessive force.

These changes, while welcome, don't address the racism that is ingrained in liberal institutions.

Our globalized consumerist culture arose from a Western-dominated colonial past. For centuries, continuing to this day, it has been built upon the inhumane extraction of resources and labor of the global poor, mainly in the less white Global South. Nearly every global institution emerged through a western, liberal, democratic mandate and are, therefore, reflections of the strengths and weaknesses of our society.

In Europe, lower levels of provocative violence toward people of color does not mean they are exempt from looking inward at inequality. Europe especially needs to contend with its colonial legacy. 

In America, band-aid legislation like affirmative action doesn't create new funding for schools or stop police from killing and imprisoning black men. The current illegality of redlining doesn't help thousands of black Americans make up for a century of low-levels of capital compared to whites. Bussing kids between neighborhoods to different schools didn't create more equitable funding of schools in majority-black communities; it caused wealth to leave these areas and a surge in private school attendance for those who can afford it. And making efforts toward police reform does not equalize opportunities for people of color. Not to mention that many of these policies were created and put into place by majority-white committees and legislatures.

We fix it by not just taking away the policies that created inequality; we must implement policies that reverse the damage caused by them wherever they rear their heads. All around the world as we raise our fists for Black Power and scream to the world that Black Lives Matter. We call for our leaders to halt platitudes for change as a platform for reelection. We demand our leaders stop taking money from corporate giants who capitalize on the systemic poverty of our black and brown brothers and sisters. Ensuring a basic standard of living and universal services is the first step. We can demand that our leaders stop taking social and monetary handouts from corporations that directly benefit from maintaining the cycles of racist poverty.

The world is vastly different than the one that birthed and nurtured these systems of inequality, not just for people of color, but for anyone disadvantaged by a society that doesn't guarantee fundamental rights. We must listen to the black leaders in our government, and where our systems fail to give them a representative voice in our governmental apparatus, we will listen to those protesting from the streets and their homes. We must use conflict resolution practices and reconciliation not just to condemn racial discrimination but rebuild systems to equalize opportunity.