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Racial
Discrimination
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Racial Discrimination
­Racial Discrimination
The UK is a country that is proud of its multicultural identity. In the larger cities of the UK you will find a varied mix
or cultures and communities living together and influencing the music, art, dance, literature and sport that brings us
together. Despite the diversity of the UK, there is often still a lack of understanding between neighbouring communities
and this can cause major issues for all concerned. One of main problems continues to be discrimination.
Buddhist 0.4%
Jewish 0.5%
Sikh 0.8%
Hindu 1.5%
Muslim 5%
Not stated 7%
No religion 25%
Religious
breakdown
of the UK
population
Christianity 59%
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Racial Discrimination
Equality Act 2010 - Discrimination and Your Rights
This information legally applies to England, Wales and Scotland, however the principles still apply to Northern Ireland.
Who is Protected?
The Equality Act 2010 upholds a person’s rights not to be discriminated against. Racial discrimination is treating
someone worse than other people because of their ethnicity, religion or cultural background. Either way - to
discriminate against people is usually a sign of ignorance and is totally unacceptable.
Signs of Discrimination in Everyday Life
It is important to remember that discrimination, both direct and indirect, is prohibited in the UK and can have legal
implications for anyone wishing to cause harm against others. The following are examples of direct discrimination on
the grounds of race, religion or belief:
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Refusing to interview or employ someone.
Refusing entry to commercial premises.
Refusing to serve someone in a shop or a restaurant.
Using derogatory terms or phrases about somebody’s ethnicity.
Failing to provide religiously appropriate food when catering.
Not allowing someone to observe their religious practices.
Prohibiting religious dress codes.
The History of Discrimination
History is littered with terrible tales of discrimination and needless suffering at the hands of ignorant and brutal tyrants.
Discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and religious and cultural beliefs is not just a problem in the Western
world, neither is it a modern problem. Throughout history, from the Vikings and the Romans right up until modern
times, individuals have battled long and hard against persecution. The early Catholics were burned at the stake or fed
to the lions, the Jews murdered en-masse throughout Europe because of Hitler’s personal predjudices, plus countless
other genocides throughout Africa and Asia.
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Racial Discrimination
What Can History Teach Us?
The U.S.A: Slavery
Slavery was a huge business in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s. Slaves were a form of currency and
labour and were shipped into the U.S.A. from Africa like cargo. Cotton was a huge industry in the hot, fertile southern
states and half of the total slave population picked cotton or worked on rich sugar plantations in Southern fields.
The slave population peaked at four million before abolition. The treatment of slaves varied widely but was generally
characterised by punishing chores and labour, brutality, degradation, and inhumanity. Whippings, executions and
rapes were commonplace and often whole families would be born into slavery and died in slavery. In 1865 the
Emancipation Proclamation was enforced throughout the South, which was slow to free its slaves, followed by the
thirteenth amendment, abolishing and criminalising slavery. On December 6th 1865, all slaves became officially free.
What Do We Learn? To treat others with the respect and kindness and to support human rights.
Recommended Film: 12 Years a Slave.
Germany: The Holocaust
During World War II, the National Socialist German Workers Party, more commonly known as the ‘Nazis’ and led by
a very persuasive dictator, Adolf Hitler, used methods of extreme brutality to banish or exterminate people of nonGerman race or culture within Europe, mainly those living as Jews. The Nazis and their followers developed a zero
tolerance attitude to members of these groups, many of whom they had previously grown up with and lived and worked
alongside. However, under a fascist regime, the media used propaganda to instill prejudice and hatred against the
Jews. As a result, eleven million people including children and the elderly were executed during the Holocaust - more
than 30% of the Jews in Europe at that time. Other groups subjected to persecution included those with disabilities,
homosexuals, transsexuals, and Romanies (known as Gypsies).
What Do We Learn? To tolerate and accept others.
Recommended Films: Schindler’s List, The Pianist.
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Racial Discrimination
Cambodia: The Khmer Rouge
Between 1975 – 1979, in Cambodia, The Khmer Rouge, an extremist group with xenophobic ideals led by Pol
Pot began the systematic murder of ethnic minority Vietnamese, Chinese, Thais and other maligned social groups
throughout Cambodia. After 5 years of excavating 20,000 grave sites and labour camps, and including all those
murdered and tortured in government facilities, the death toll at the hands of The Khmer Rouge is estimated at over
2 million.
What Do We Learn? Not to discriminate because of race and religion, but to embrace it.
Recommended Film: The Killing Fields.
Australia: The Aboriginals
In 1900, in Australia, over a period of seventy years, 20,000 to 25,000 Aboriginal children were forcibly separated from
their natural families and placed into institutions, in an attempt to slowly breed the aboriginal population out of the
country. The natives were seen as brutish and uncivilised, and were sorely mistreated by the pioneers. It is referred
to as the ‘Stolen Generation’. Aboriginal families were also pulled from their indigenous lands and forced to live on
controlled reservations, where they were treated like second-class citizens. On February 13th 2008, the Australian
Prime Minister presented ‘An Apology to Indigenous Australians’.
“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human
history. We reflect on their past mistreatment… For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen
Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind; we say sorry.”
What Do We Learn? To live in harmony and allow others to keep their religious and cultural practices sacred.
Recommended Films: Ten Canoes, Rabbit Proof Fence.
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Racial Discrimination
South Africa: Apartheid
After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all-white government immediately began enforcing
existing policies of racial segregation under a system of legislation that it called apartheid. Under apartheid, non-white
South Africans (a majority of the population) would be forced to live in separate areas from whites and use separate
public facilities, and contact between the two groups would be limited. Despite strong and consistent opposition to
apartheid within and outside of South Africa, its laws remained in effect for the better part of 50 years. In 1991, the
government of President F.W. de Klerk began to repeal most of the legislation that provided the basis for apartheid.
After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela was freed in 1990 and worked closely with F.W. de Klerk and negotiated the
end of apartheid in South Africa; bringing peace to a racially divided country and leading the fight for human rights
around the world.
What Do We Learn? That segregation is wrong and that people have the right to be equal.
Recommended Film: Mandela (Long Walk to Freedom).
ou kno
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Most children who live above the fourth floor of tower blocks in
England are Black or Asian.
Chinese boys are among the highest performing groups
in our schools. After university, however, they can expect to
earn 25% less than white British or European graduates.
Unemployment among ethnic minority young people is twice
as high as those who are white British or European, and of the
same age group.
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Racial Discrimination
Promoting Tolerance
The following days highlight the importance of tolerance between the different races, religions and cultural beliefs
and also provides a powerful reminder of what can happen when extreme discrimination and fanaticism is allowed to
happen.
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
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March 21st each year is the United Nations’ (UN) International Day for the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination and is observed by events and activities worldwide. The day aims to remind
people of racial discrimination and its negative consequences and encourages people to combat
racial discrimination and remove the racial inequality among people of different countries, states,
societies or communities.
Holocaust Memorial Day
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is the charity which promotes and supports Holocaust
Memorial Day, which is on January 27th each year. This date is chosen as it marks the liberation
of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. The aim of the day is to remember the
millions of people killed in the Holocaust and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda,
Bosnia, and Darfur.
World Religion Day
The aim of World Religion Day, held on the third Sunday in January every year, is to promote
inter-faith understanding and harmony. Through a variety of events held around the globe,
followers of every religion are encouraged to acknowledge the similarities that different faiths
have.
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World Refugee Day
Each year on the June 20th, the United Nations and countless civic groups around the world
celebrate World Refugee Day, established by the United Nations to honour the courage, strength
and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homes under threat
of persecution, conflict and violence.
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Racial Discrimination
Test yourself!
Find out if your viewpoints affect
the way you treat others.
YES NO
• Do I use nicknames to refer to certain races?
• Do I group people together as a whole and speak of ‘them’?
• Do I question someone’s competence because they are different from
me in race, religion, or gender?
• Do I adopt a condescending tone to those whose first language is not
English?
• Do I feel angry when I see someone of ethnic origin in a position of
power?
• Do I distrust or dismiss anything ‘foreign’ (foreign foods, articles, cultural
symbols)?
• Do I generally speak with contempt about other countries and people in
those countries?
• Do I avoid speaking to, or making acquaintance with, those who are of a
different ethnic origin to myself?
If you
answered yes to any of the
above, you should consider that you may
have some discriminatory viewpoints. The points
above are typical examples of how common
racism can show itself in everyday life.
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Racial Discrimination
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Glossary
Apartheid [1948 - 1990s]
Pioneer
A political system in South Africa that gave
privileges to those of European or white origin.
A person that is the first to do something, or a
settler in an unexplored country.
Brutish [Brute]
Reservation
Somebody regarded as cruel, ruthless, or
insensitive.
An area of land set aside for a special purpose.
Slavery
Forced labour and servitude; being ‘bought’ for
a fee as somebody’s property.
Catholic
A member of the Roman Catholic Church.
Tyrant
Degradation
An absolute ruler who exercises power cruelly
and unjustly.
Great humiliation brought about by loss of
status, reputation, or self-esteem.
Tolerance
Dictator
The acceptance of the differing views of other
people.
A leader who rules a country usually by force or
without being voted for.
Uncivilised
Emancipation
The act or process of setting somebody free.
Behaving in ways that are thought to be
socially or culturally undeveloped.
Fascism
Vikings
An attitude that favours a dictator in the seat
of government, often with extreme nationalist
views.
Scandinavian people who carried out seaborne
raids of Northwestern Europe between the
8-11th centuries A.D.
Genocide
Xenophobic
The systematic killing of all the people from a
national, ethnic, or religious group.
An intense fear or dislike of foreign people,
their customs and culture, or foreign things.
Indigenous
Originating in, or growing naturally in a region
or country.
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Racial Discrimination
Links
Discussion Points
Have a think about the subjects covered:
Further Reading:
Why
is it important to
remember events
of the past?
Equality and Human Rights
www.equalityhumanrights.com/
Religions of the World
www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/
How
can you prevent
a colleague from using
discriminatory terminology
and behaviours in the
workplace?
Holocaust Memorial Day
www.hmd.org.uk/
World Religion Day
www.worldreligionday.org/
Racial Discrimination Day
www.un.org/en/events/racialdiscriminationday
Throughout
history, there have been
many positive role models who have
championed equality. In your opinion,
who was the most important? Give
reasons for your choice.
Amnesty International
www.amnesty.org.uk/
Please be prepared to share your thoughts
with your Learning Advisor on your next visit.
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Congratulations!
You have completed the learning for this module.
Please be ready to complete the discussion point section
with your Learning Advisor on your next visit.
R7266 v2 30.07.2014