GROWING RACISM IN EUROPE
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INTRODUCTION: Precisely, racism is the creation of our own times. Notwithstanding the fact that the doctrine and philosophy of racism have been proved to be a myth and absolutely untenable, there are still firm adherents of the unscientific theory scattered in all corners of the world. DEVELOPMENT OF THOUGHT: Given the power of the elites, racism in Germany is largely ‘top-down’. This, more or less, subtle elite racism has a serious impact on the public at large, given the privileged access of the elites to the mass media. This, in turn, allows elites to deny their own racism by typically attributing it “downward” to ordinary people. Managers will eventually realize that, in the long run, racism is bad for business. Organizations are unable to function adequately in a multi-cultural society without an ethnically diverse workforce. Therefore, managers should acquire the skills to energetically combat all forms of bias in recruitment, hiring, promotion and customer service, and to counter ethnic harassment at all levels in the organization. CONCLUSION: Hence, it should be our Endeavour to root out both the belief and its abominable practice whenever it rears its head and the focus must be on the necessary changes of the elite. |
 Once it has been accepted that racism in multicultural Europe is a wide-spread and a serious problem in all everyday situations and in all organizations and institutions, we are ready to look for\ solutions. Obviously, inadequate analyses of racism lead to ineffective measures. If politicians, judges, the media and scholars, and not only in Germany, think that “real racism” is only at the extreme right, among violent youths or in the streets, they should not be surprised that little will change. Hence, all measures to combat racism should be as wide-ranging, complex and comprehensive as ethnic inequality itself. Given the special responsibility of the elite, the focus must be on the necessary changes of the elite.
If politicians truly accept a multicultural society and recognize equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, not only in democratic theory but also in their daily discourses and practices, their decisions and laws will need to reflect such principles. International conventions for the reception of refugees must be respected and clear and humane conditions for immigration should be formulated. We especially need energetic legislation against all forms of discrimination, incitement to racial hatred, xenophobia and racism. This means that any organization, group, party or institution that breaks such laws or otherwise threatens multicultural democracy and ethnic peace, should be prohibited. Obviously, the courts have to change accordingly and start to take racist crimes seriously, instead of treating discrimination or inciting to racial hatred as a minor offence.
Arguments against such energetic measures should be critically examined. If it is said that prohibition of racist parties or organizations “makes them go underground” –often a transparent strategic move by those for whom such organizations are useful —the counter-argument would be: Should we also legalize the Mafia? The question is: are racist crimes different from “real” crimes? Prohibiting racist organizations essentially means discrediting or preventing the public actions and propaganda of their leaders.
Protected behind the wall of the freedom (read: power) of the Press, and (rightfully) opposed to any form of censorship, journalists have often shown that they are the only professional group that is exempt from public criticism in the media. The result is that many journalists, also because of their liberal self image, still resist changes in ‘ethfii6 affairs coverage: Yet, as long as the media are reluctant to employ (many more) minority journalists, and as long as editors, especially of the conservative Press, fail to self-critically examine their news, opinion articles and editorials for ethnic stereotypes, prejudices and the preferred use of white elite sources, and ignore the possible consequences of such biases among the public at large, they will continue to play a major role in the reproduction of racism.
News values, reporting practices, programme-making, advertising, films and other media products should reflect the presence and the contributions of all groups of a multicultural society. Explicit codes of reporting, advertising, or entertainment may have to be adopted, and breaches effectively sanctioned, as is the case for other professions. This does not mean (self)-censorship, but decency and quality. Since in modern societies the media play a key role in public information and opinion construction, their active engagement for a racism-free society is also the key to the solution of the problem of European racism.
Managers will eventually realize that, in the long run, racism is bad for business. Organizations are unable to function adequately in a multi-cultural society without an ethnically diverse workforce. Therefore, managers should acquire the skills to energetically combat all forms of bias in recruitment, hiring, promotion and customer service, and to counter ethnic harassment at all levels in the organization. It is necessary that organizations implement policies that guarantee that minorities are treated like all other employees. Research and experiences have shown that if the leadership is serious about combating discrimination and prejudice, the other employees will also tend to act accordingly.
Similar remarks may be made for the many other social domains in which change is imperative. Law enforcement should avoid seeing minorities, and especially men of African descent, as violent criminals, who can be harassed at will. Nor should it treat refugees or undocumented immigrants as a threat to national security. Teachers may have an extra look at their textbooks and lessons and eliminate eurocentric stereotypes and prejudices about other peoples and minorities. Similarly, professors may be expected to design curricula that are interesting and relevant to all students in a multicultural society. Similarly for union leaders, writers, civil servants, doctors, lawyers and others whose actions have a crucial impact on other people. In all social domains, the elite has to adapt its knowledge, attitudes and practices to the new demands of an increasingly diverse society, with equal rights and justice for all.
If the main hypothesis i0 correct—that much of racism operates top-down –combating racism will be effective only if the elite takes the lead. Hence, the first rule for those prepared to seriously ask “What must be done?” is to begin the change in one’s own department or organization, and always at the top. No policy will be credible if it is not implemented by those who have the power to formulate it.
The second rule: if we do not change by our own decision, social events will ultimately make us change. The Civil Rights Movement and other forms of protest and resistance of minority groups have shown that ethnic oppression, marginalization and inequality will only be tolerated for a while by the victims. Eventually, they will resist, and demand change.
These suggestions do not imply that if racism is effectively combated, there are no problems left in the multicultural societies of Europe. Nobody denies that large-scale immigration and the integration and acceptance of many “different” people is difficult. At the same time, however, we should realize that it is mostly more difficult for minorities than for the majority. Racism will neither make these problems go away nor make them easier to solve. On the contrary, racism, ethnocentrism or ethnic intolerance aggravates virtually all social, cultural and political problems.
If we are able to eliminate ethnic prejudice, discrimination and racism, the problems of a multicultural Europe will be reduced to their real social and political proportions—those of international refugee or labour migration, housing, employment, education, welfare or health care, among many others. We then will be able to focus on the true problems and conflicts of society, such as poverty, class and gender inequality, or the environment. These problems are formidable enough.
After the rabid racist attacks against refugees, immigrants and other minorities in Germany, international public opinion finally seems to awaken to the fact that European racism has become a serious social and political problem. Whereas political debate and media coverage in Europe until recently rather focused on real or alleged problems caused by immigration and the presence of minorities, critical voices that had earlier warned against the problem of xenophobia, discrimination and racism are finally beginning to be listened to. Unfortunately, it is too late for the many victims of racist arson, attacks, pogroms and assassinations. The public debate on racism in Western Europe is often characterized by inadequate knowledge of the nature of racism, which prevents effective measures against it.
 The holocaust of the Jews and other Nazi crimes has sensitized international opinion to a specific “German Problem”. The current developments in Germany seem to justify the international critique of the German authorities. The current German racism is a more blatant expression of racism and anti-Semitism in post-War Europe in general, an insight which obviously should not be abused to excuse or mitigate German racism.
 Similarly, we should not forget that, in spite of its specific social and historical nature, this postwar European racism continues a long tradition of Eurocentrism and racism, which goes back to the role of Europeans in the conquest, enslavement, colonization and genocide of Africans, Asians and other indigenous peoples.
 Most countries in Western Europe have right-wing, racist parties, whose electoral support reaches the double digits in some cities and regions. Especially in France, the Front National is a very influential political force, bigger than all right-wing parties in Germany put together. Their xenophobic slogans are adopted even more broadly, also by the “respectable” parties. Daily and sometimes deadly attacks, arson and harassment against immigrants and minorities occur in many European countries. Whereas in Germany (registered) racial attacks add up to more than an awesome 2,500 in 1993, greater London alone had the same number of attacks against minorities in 1992.
 Another misconception about racism is that it is largely limited to the “lower” levels of the social hierarchy—to skinheads, unemployed youths, the poor white inner cities, or the frustrated or threatened lower middle class. True, racist attacks have often been perpetrated by socially marginalized young white males, and “popular” xenophobia and resentment against immigration are widespread. However, further analysis of the causes, conditions and manifestations of ethnic prejudice and discrimination also points to a major role of the elite, such as leading politicians, journalists, scholars, police officers, judges and corporate managers.
Elites control the access to, and the content and style of public discourse in parliament, the media, textbooks, television programmes or movies. Research shows that in many ways they thus “pre-formulate” many of the tenets of “popular’ racism, though often in more moderate terms. Thus, the racist attacks in Germany are also conditioned by the continuous bickering of politicians in the Bundestag on controversial changes in the constitutional articles on refugees. Similarly, the frequent negative remarks on refugees and immigrants by conservative German politicians were dramatically amplified by tabloids like Bald. Racist parties are hardly grassroots movements. They are not usually led and funded by well-educated or well-heeled citizens, nor are the numerous neo-Nazi and racist publications usually written by hooligans. On the contrary, they may be inspired by reactionary scholars who defend white supremacy, extremist nationalism or cultural apartheid.
Given the power of the elites, thus. Racism is largely “top-down”. It is this. more or less, subtle elite racism that also has a more serious impact on the public at large, given the privileged access of the elites to the mass media. This, in turn, allows elites to deny their own racism by typically attributing it “downward” to ordinary people. Since they control virtually all resources, elites are also responsible for ethnic inequality in many decisive life situations of minorities, such as those of immigration, residence, employment, education, health care, welfare, culture, and so on.
The common sense perception of racism identifies it with segregation, apartheid, overt discrimination, racial violence, blatant prejudices, white supremacism or extremist right-wing activism. This, indeed, seems to be the real racism for the dominant majority. However, by exclusively identifying racism with the extreme right attention is deflected from racism elsewhere in society. That is, it is conveniently overlooked that European racism is a much more general system of inequality between majority and minorities. In this sense, the extreme right in many aspects plays the role of useful idiot.
 The overall system of ethnic or racial inequality we call “racism” can be sustained only when large parts of the majority actively or passively implement, support or tolerate it. Experiences by people from minority groups and scholarly research show that racism is reproduced in many daily forms of discrimination and prejudice—in processes of marginalization, exclusion or problematization. The daily interaction between “whites” and “blacks” (or other minorities) in public places, businesses factories, offices, police stations, courtrooms, classrooms, newsrooms and other locations, is riddled with the micro-inequities that characterize ethnic or racial subordination. Many of these forms of everyday racism are neither intentional nor even noted by many white Europeans. For minorities the everyday nature and the accumulation of such incidents mean an infringement on their well-being and a violation of their civil rights.
One of the hallmarks of European racism is its denial. This is especially true among the elites, left or right, whose self-image as moral guardians of society is felt to be inconsistent with being seen as engaging in racist talk and action. Even most right-wing extremists consistently insist on the fact (or rather the fiction) that they are not racist: They are “only” nationalists.
 Everyday talk and institutional discourse about minorities routinely invoke me disclaimer “We have nothing against them, but, where the but is always followed by derogatory remarks about “them”. Similarly, all studies on the representation of minorities in the Press, and especially in the conservative tabloids, show that newspapers selectively focus their “ethnic” coverage on threatening immigration, violence, crime, drugs or cultural deviance by minorities, immigrants or refugees. Research also shows that such news bias may induce or confirm ethnic prejudices in the readers. Yet, when confronted with such research results, the press typically denies that such coverage has anything to do with racism.
 The same is true for politicians who will emphatically deny that they spread stereotypes or prejudices about minorities enlarge their white constituencies when trying to legitimate immigration restrictions for instance. Similarly, scholars may prefer to study the “strange habits” or alleged deviance of minorities (typically so of Muslims), rather than the causes, forms and consequences of ethnic inequality, which they may fail to see as manifestations of racism in the first place. Thus,-not only are elite forms of racism reproduced from top to bottom, but the elite denials of racism are also thus spread throughout society.
This widespread denial of racism shows two things. First, it shows that many people hardly know what racism exactly is. Knowledge of the norm that racism is wrong does not necessarily imply knowledge of racism. Second, the emotional force of such denials shows that powerful underlying norms are at stake: Decent modern citizens all know and agree that racism is wrong. Hence the important face-keeping move of denying, minimizing, or otherwise rejecting one’s association with racism. This is also the reason why scholarly or other analyses of racism are seldom taken as credible conclusions of the research, but rather as intolerable moral accusations. Typically, such “accusations” are often being denounced and resisted more energetically than racism itself.
 In sum, racism in the perception of most white Europeans is always else-where: Abroad, in the past. among right-wing extremists, with the lower classes, among the less educated, among one’s customers, next door, and so on. Hence, we need to learn to recognize both the blatant as well as the more subtle and indirect manifestations of ethnic inequality in everyday life. Especially, minority opinions about the nature and consequences of racism should be listened to. If anything, their personal experiences and insight make them the real experts on racism. Finally, we should realize that in general, denials by those responsible for offences are not exactly the most credible judges of their own actions.
