Racism and human rights

Objectives:
To study o Nature and scope of racism. o Impacts of racism throughout the history of humankind especially in accordance with Universal Declaration of Human Rights. o To critically examine the solutions given by various philosophies, ideologies, institutions and to analyze the reasons of failure. o Further scope and limitations. To give compatible solutions which would be more effective in solving the issues related to Racism and Human rights.

INTRODUCTION: Racism is a great social evil. The prejudice due to race has always been causing Universal disruption. On account of these prejudices man in every age has generally been discarding humanity and drawing around himself some small circles and regarding those born within those circles as his own people and those outside them as others. These circles have been drawn on the basis of accidental birth and not on rational and moral grounds. In some cases their basis is the accident of being born in a particular family, tribe, or race, and in some particular geographical region, or in a nation having a particular colour or speaking a particular language. Then the discrimination between one's own people and others is not only confide to this that those who are looked upon as one's own people are shown greater love and cooperation than others, but this discrimination has assumed the worst forms of hatred, enmity, contempt and tyranny. New philosophies have been propounded for it, new ideologies invented, new codes of law made and new moral principles framed; so much so that nations and empires have made this distinction a permanent way of life with them and practiced it for centuries. RACISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS: It is interesting to know that the establishment of the United Nations (UN) following World War II led to a surge in declarations, conventions, and organizations aimed at promoting human rights and equality. The legacy of Nazism and the failure of the League of Nations galvanized the UN to formulate two critical postwar documents: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), and the Genocide Convention (1948).

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) lays out its opposition to racism in its first two articles:

Article 1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. But despite the boast of high rationalism and scientific developments todays man completely failed in solving the issue of racism. Today it is the biggest barrier dividing people and preventing people from enjoying the same human rights.

Definition :
Racism is the theory that people can be put into categories based on their physical appearanceskin color, hair, texture, shape of the faceand that those physical categories also serve to define those peoples intelligence, attitudes, and behavioral traits. The end result of this process of categorization is that races are ranked in a ladder of worth, with people belonging to some races declaring themselves to be superior to people belonging to other races.
There is nothing natural or scientific about the division of human beings into racial categories.Thetraditional division of the human species into three races (Caucasian,Mongoloid, Negro) is inherently arbitrary. By tracking the physiognomy of peoples, a vast array of types and looks can be charted. Not all Europeans look the same, however, nor do Asians, nor do Africans. The Chinese look similar to the Burmese, who look similar to the Nepalese,who look similar to the Indians, who look similar to the Iranians, who look similar to the Greeks, who look similar to the Italians, who look similar to the French. So why do the Chinese and French not belong to the same race? The reason is that race is a cultural construct. People invented the idea, and many believe it to be real. But although racism may be a figment of peoples imaginations,it has very real consequences. In the ancient world, racism as it is understood today did not exist. People had prejudices, but they were based on culture, not skin color. The Romans looked down on the Gauls because they felt they had a superior culture, not race. (When the Romans took slaves, for example, they were of all different skin tones and physical types.) Modern racism was born with the rise of African slavery in the Americas and the simultaneous spread of European empires. Europeans justified their enslavement of Africans by arguing that the Africans were inherently inferior, that they naturally were racially beneath the Europeans. When Europeans went on to conquer much of the world during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, they justified their conquests using the same racial ideas: they believed they were entitled to conquer non-Europeans because they considered themselves racially superior. Modern racial categories were developed by Johann Blumenbach, a German naturalist, who, in the 1700s, put forward a theory that

divided all human beings into five races: Mongoloid, Ethiopian, Caucasian, American, and Malayan. Blumenbach had no scientific basis for his categories; they were based entirely upon appearance. His ideas were expanded upon by the nineteenth-century French writer Joseph de Gobineau, who argued that the white race was superior to all other races (something Blumenbach had never said). The ideas of Gobineau and his successors were used to justify much of the racism that existed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including, most infamously, the racism of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. With the decline of European empires and the rise of civil rights movements around the world, racismat least officially sanctioned racismhas been on the retreat. The American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s led to the dismantling of the racist structures that had existed in the United States. Apartheid, South Africas system of racial separation, was abolished in the early 1990s.

RACISM TODAY
Despite the pronouncements of the United Nations and the victories of civil rights movements, racism still persists around the world, limiting the human rights of its victims. Racism means more than simply not liking someone because of his perceived race. Racism leads to racial discrimination, which directly affects the lives of its victims. Racial discrimination results in people not being hired, not being allowed to live where they please, not being treated with respect in public or in their place of employment, and having to send their children to substandard schools. Racial discrimination can be subtlea white real-estate agent might forget to tell a black couple about an available house in a white neighborhoodor it can be overt and uglywhite police officers stop cars driven by blacks because they assume that blacks commit most crimesbut it always detracts from the human rights of those targeted. In the United States, racism takes many forms. In one North Carolina slaughterhouse, for example, jobs are divided by race. Although nothing is said officially, whites dominate supervisory positions, blacks hold many of the slaughtering jobs, and Hispanic immigrants have the low-paying work of cutting up the carcasses. Racism can have tragic consequences. In 1998, a black man, James Byrd, Jr., was dragged down a Texas highway and killed by a truck driven by a white man looking for someone black to hurt. Racist hate groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, have also targeted blacks, harassing, assaulting, and sometimes killing them. Prison statistics suggest racism, too: African Americans make up only 13 percent of the population, but more than 45 percent of prisoners are black. African Americans are far more likely than whites to be put on death row. In Brazil, Eduardo Brito, the secretary of justice for the city of So Paulo, was pulled over by police, who assumed that a black man in an expensive car must have stolen it. Brazil, a country with as complex a racial mix as the United States, has often claimed to have avoided Americas racial problems. But although Brazil lacks the sharply defined color barriers of the United States, it is quite clear that lighterskinned people have better chances of success than those with darker complexions. Television, movies, and politics are all dominated by those with lighter complexions. Brazilians with African roots, who make up half of the population, do not have the same opportunities that whites have.

Not all racism in the world is white on black or black on white. Anti-Semitism, or hostility toward Jews, persists and is widespread (anti-Semitic books have even been published in Japan, a country with no native Jewish population). The Internet is filled with web sites claiming that Jews control the worlds money and that they are trying to take over the world, the same ideas that Hitler used to maintain his control in Germany. The Roma are another people persecuted by Hitler who still face racial discrimination today. The Roma have suffered from racist prejudice in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and many other European countries. Roma have been murdered and their houses burned by racists who see them as outsiders. In Japan, the Ainu and Burakumin, along with Korean immigrants, face constant discrimination; some Japanese corporations are known to have bought lists of Burakumin so as to avoid hiring them (in one of the oddities of racism, Burakumin look no different from other Japanese). Koreans and Ainu face similar discrimination in employment and social situations. In France, North African immigrants also face discrimination based on race. There is even a political party, the National Front, whose goal is to expel North Africans from France. In Germany, immigrant Turks can be born in the country, speak perfect Ger-man, and yet never be treated as fully German. Turkish homes and businesses in Germany have been firebombed by racist groups, many of which honor Adolf Hitler as a hero. In Indonesia, ethnic Chinese are viewed with suspicion by many ethnic Indonesians and have been subjected to racist attacks. Most of these Indonesian Chinese have lived in the country for many generations. One of the key organizations in the fight against racism is the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO has undertaken massive efforts to eliminate racism through education and international treaties. It is joined by many other private non-governmental organizations. Despite their efforts, racism continues to flourish. Until it is expunged, people will not all share the same human right to be treated with equality and dignity.