There is a tendency to classify all victims of racism under the label “people of color” or “black, Asian and minority ethnic” people (shortened to BAME). However, this generalist approach fails to account for the varied ways that racism affects different races. There is anti-black racism, anti-Asian racism (which affects east Asians and south Asians differently), anti-Arab racism, even sometimes anti-white racism. To be clear, all these strands of racism are significant, and we need to work to eradicate them all. Yet, historically, it’s black people who have most often found themselves at the bottom of the pile.
In the US, black people are more likely to be arrested for drugs offences even though they are not more likely to use or sell drugs, and as a result make up a disproportionate amount of the prison population. They also have a higher chance of getting shot by the police than white or Hispanic people. In today’s Brazil, black people are still treated as second-class citizens; while in India, students of African origin are persecuted. In South Africa, a majority black country, 72% of the country’s private farmland is owned by white people, who make up 9% of the population. During the apartheid era there was a clear racial hierarchy: whites at the top, Indians and “COLORED” in the middle, and black people at the bottom.
Posted By: Stracy C. Watin II
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