I had been thinking about Haiti, so I began to look for current information on the internet about the progress of Haiti since the earthquake of January 2010. I was fortunate to find some good info about how the billions of dollars of foreign aid were being spent for Haiti. The report said how much money had been used on new medical facilities, water, and food. And how much money was still waiting for the Haitian government to establish sound plans for allocating funds into viable ways to clean up and rebuild. I felt good about what I had read. I was glad to know that even though Haiti is yet in real trouble, some visible progress has been made. Feeling hopeful, I began to glean the comments that were made under a particular story on Haiti. I truly don’t believe that I over reacted but, one commenter sounded as if he was blaming the Haitians for some degree of their suffering. His comment was about their poverty and birth rate. He seemed to be saying that if they would stop having children they could pull themselves up out of poverty. I was moved to the degree that I decided to blog about it, because I thought that the statement made, was unaware and unfortunate. The comment did however make me think about Haiti’s history. I started with Haiti, but I found that there are many Haitis, racism is global. That doesn’t surprise me, I just never thought of it outside of America’s borders.
“Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in times of conflict and war, even during economic downturns.” http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism
The socioeconomic sufferings of our world don’t just happen because a group of people fails to pull their own weight. As I read accounts of history, racism became a means to an end; the end ultimately being genocide and capital gain, then containment and separation. Racism has a pattern, I only read a few examples, but it appears that inferiority is consistently associated with darker skin. The objects of disdain are the darker indigenous people, who are vilified, to justify their genocide. Religious and political differences can also make one worthy of separation, disdain, and death. I thought the information I found was interesting enough to share. (Peace was hard to find).
How did the Haitians become so impoverished? (Read the excerpt).
Racism in Haiti
“The underdevelopment and backwardness of the (Haitian) society has nothing to do with voodoo and a perceived inherent inferiority of the Haitian mind and body, but rather to do with exploitation and racism of the last 200 years. During its heyday as a sugar producer, Haiti was the most prosperous slave colony, exporting to France over 218 million tons of sugar, cocoa, coffee and indigo. The majority of these products were re-exported from France in its trade with the rest of the world. Haiti was the envy of the British, who attempted to capture it (1796), even while Lord Pitt and company were seeking to end the slave trade on humanitarian grounds. Coming at the end of the unconscionable economic exploitation by France, the American military occupation established and carried out the Munroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary to secure the American backyard and to make it known to the foreign powers they were not welcomed.” http://guardian.co.tt/commentary/columnist/2010/01/20/exploitation-racism-keep-haiti-despair
Racism in Australia
“‘The term “racial discrimination” shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.’
Myths and stereotypes are a key component of racism:
- they reduce a range of differences in people to simplistic categorizations
- transform assumptions about particular groups of people into ‘realities’
- are used to justify status quo or persisting injustices
- reinforce social prejudice and inequality
Three out of four Indigenous Australians experience racism in their everyday lives.
Labeling of Indigenous Australians including stereotypes such as dark skin, despair, levels of alcohol consumption, laziness, levels of intelligence, ability to work and care for children, and levels of criminality are all part of the myths and stereotypes that perpetuate racism in Australia.” This sounds like the U.S. http://www.antar.org.au/node/221
Racism in Columbia
Afro Colombians refers to Colombians of African ancestry, and the great impact they have had on Colombian culture. (Wikipedia).
The nearly 11 million Blacks Colombians have been forced to abandon traditional homelands along the country’s Pacific coast as encroaching paramilitary battles have threatened their lives. As a result of the continuing strife in the country, Colombia’s paramilitaries often work hand-in-hand with right-wing forces in the country, fighting battles in a war that began in the middle of the last century.
Afro-Columbian communities are among the poorest of the 44 million inhabitants of Columbia. Their chronic levels of poverty speak of their invisibility and discrimination in a nation recognized by its Constitution as multiethnic and culturally plural. Despite the legal recognition of territorial and cultural rights trough the Law 70 of 1993, the lack of political will and state governance have made this and other legal resources powerless to resolve the historical injustice committed against the Columbian Afro-descendants. http://www.seeingblack.com/2003/x032803/colombians.shtml
Class in India
The UntouchablesThe caste system in India is a most shameless practice in this world, worse than racism. It was started as a classification on the basis of one’s occupation. In that system, there could be more than one caste in a family on the basis of one’s occupation. One can change his/her caste once he/she changes his/her occupation. Gradually, those who are in the higher castes wanted to protect their family members from slipping in to lower castes. They, with the help of then rulers built ‘iron curtains’ between the castes. The higher caste people cornered all the wealth, education, and power in their baskets.The worst fact was these privileged classes denied these privileges to the so called shudras and dalit castes. They were treated worse than animals. It is these atrocities which are perpetuated on these low caste people which constitutes the vast majority of the population, resulting in utter poverty, illiteracy and backwardness among the majority of the population in this nation. Had everybody been treated equally, India would have been the number one nation in the world by now. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-caste-system.htm
Racism in Africa
South Africa is a country blessed with an abundance of natural resources including fertile farmlands and unique mineral resources. South African mines are world leaders in the production of diamonds and gold as well as strategic metals such as platinum. The climate is mild, reportedly resembling the San Francisco bay area weather more than anywhere in the world.
South Africa was colonized by the English and Dutch in the seventeenth century. English domination of the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or Afrikaners) resulted in the Dutch establishing the new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. The discovery of diamonds in these lands around 1900 resulted in an English invasion which sparked the Boer War. Following independence from England, an uneasy power-sharing between the two groups held sway until the 1940′s, when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority. Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, aim of the apartheid was to maintain white domination while extending racial separation. Starting in the 60′s, a plan of “Grand Apartheid” was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression.
With the enactment of apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Race laws touched every aspect of social life, including a prohibition of marriage between non-whites and whites, and the sanctioning of “white-only” jobs. In 1950, the Population Registration Act required that all South Africans be racially classified into one of three categories: white, black (African), or colored (of mixed decent). http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.html
Racism in Germany
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. “Holocaust” is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.” The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jews, deemed “inferior,” were an ALIEN threat to the so-called German racial community. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143
Racism in Canada
Unfortunately, life in government-built villages turned out to be a major trauma for the Innu. Treated like children by missionaries and government bureaucrats, subject to humiliating racism by their non-Aboriginal neighbors, punished by Newfoundland hunting regulations, the Innu fell into a quagmire of rock-bottom self-esteem, alcohol abuse, family violence, and other forms of cultural collapse. http://www.cqsb.qc.ca/svs/434/fninnu.htm This sounds just like America.
“What Survival reveals…has shocked and appalled me. It is clear that behind Canada’s liberal reputation lies a scandal the government is desperate to hide. If Canadians knew what their government is doing to the Innu, they would be astonished and ashamed.” Julie Christie, actress. http://www.religioustolerance.org/sui_innu.htm
Racism in the U.K.
And, following the end of slavery, the Irish and African Americans were forced to compete for the same low-wage, low-status jobs. So, the “white negroes” of the U.K. came to the United States and, though not enslaved, faced a status almost as low as that of recently freed blacks. While there were moments of solidarity between Irish and African Americans, this was short lived.
Over the course of the 19th and early 20th century, Irish Americans managed to a great extent to enter and become part of the dominant white culture. In an attempt to secure the prosperity and social position that their white skin had not guaranteed them in Europe, Irish immigrants lobbied for white racial status in America. Although Irish people’s pale skin color and European roots suggested evidence of their white racial pedigree, the discrimination that immigrants experienced on the job (although the extent of the “No Irish Need Apply” discrimination is disputed), the simian caricatures they saw of themselves in the newspapers, meant that “whiteness” was a status that would be achieved, not ascribed. http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2009/03/17/irish-americans-racism-whiteness/
Class in Asia
But in Asia, it is different. Dark skin is poor, white skin is rich. They promote whiteness because no one wants to be perceived as poor. In Thailand, I saw plenty of dark-skinned people in high-ranking jobs, and their current prime minister is dark-skinned. While they prefer white skinned, they don’t look at a dark-skinned person and think “they are less of a person.” The same is true all over Southeast Asia. Driving a BMW in the West says you’re rich and classy; in Asia, the color of your skin says it. (dark skin = poor and that is not esteemed) http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/08/19/white-skin-why-racism-in-asia-isnt-quite-what-you-think/
Why not leave skin color out of it. If it’s just about class, let wealth = high class, period. Instead this system says if your dark skinnned you’re poor, and in Asia, according to the article, there are dark-skinned wealthy people. Also with this point of view, an Asian could be as white as a sheet, which signals wealth, and yet be poor. This really sounds like a mental health issue. The info. following is something I read, but not sure how accurate it is. Light skin = Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. Dark skin = Filipinos, Malay, Indonesian, etc.
The issue of Taser-Torture is only escalating read this story of the latest victim, and just remember the victims were nontheless ALIVE, until they were hit with some 50,000 volts of electricity.
