Abstract

PLEASE NOTE: I was involved in the drafting of this paper, but am not claiming it as my own; it was published by the International Council on Human Rights Policy, ICHRP, in English, French and Spanish. The following abstract is an edited text from the Preface to the paper by Robert Archer, then Executive Director of the ICHRP: This paper provides a brief survey of some of the main issues that currently preoccupy people who suffer from racial discrimination or who study its effects. It looks at racism as an international phenomenon, because in one form or another it is to be found in almost every society on earth. It is deeply associated with certain forms of entrenched poverty and certain kinds of violence. No subject is rawer for those who suffer it, precisely because it is a denial of human relationship. Yet it is a feature of racism that, though widespread, for many people it remains unseen. When it is not physically violent, those who do not experience it often fail to understand how profoundly offensive it is. The paper tries to show how persistent racism is, and how it mutates to re-appear in different contexts. The paper is limited. For instance, there is no full agreement about the definition of racism and we did not try to find one; our aim was merely to identify a range of issues for debate. For similar reasons, this document does not take adequate account of history. Numerous issues of substance arise here too, but such complex historical questions can unfortunately also not be addressed in so short a paper. Finally, this document does not describe what it is to experience racism and racial discrimination. Perhaps only literature can do this adequately. As Rober Archer put it: "If this paper helps in any way to sharpen our awareness of the numerous and also subtle forms that racism and racial discrimination take in our societies, it will have served its purpose.".