The critical examination mandated by the present question requires an introductory
note concerning the appropriate definition to be employed regarding the terms
formation and racism.
Formation is suggested to be a less than ideal expression to describe the processes of
modern state development. In this sense the term evolution is preferred as the more
accurate and organic experience of modern state development.
Racism is a more complicated term due to the variance between its dictionary
meanings and etymology on one side, and its popular connotations on the other. The
meaning of racism is both closely associated and intermingled with its near cousins
culture and ethnicity. It is important to bear in mind as this examination is advanced
that racism may be considered as both a scientific term and as a catch -all descriptor
for all manner of conduct and attitudes that fosters the discrimination or antipathy of
one person or group against another.
This review will proceed on three distinct but related lines of examination: (1) how
racism should be conceptualised (2) the legal definition of racism as it has developed
in the UK, the European Union and in other jurisdiction as a pluralistic societal
initiative (3) examples of how racism has contributed to the development path taken
by modern nations. Sports examples are tendered as illustrations of how racism in
modern culture remains a constant in the face of wide ranging legislative schemes
aimed to eradicate it.
The concept of racism
Racism has been explained by way of both science and social perspectives through
history. From a purely biological orientation, debate has raged as to whether there are
distinct physiological differences between various peoples sufficient to permit a
rational, science based differentiation between them; DNA research and the genome
projects confirm this distinction exists to a slight degree in all fundamental human
construction.
In modern times, where Western societies have attempted to formulate a
comprehensive definition of race, an overwhelmingly white / Caucasian identity is
invoked as the societal norm, with others who are not a part of the white definition
cast in the position as a racial ‘other'. Goldberg and other academic commentators
have employed the contrasting analytical devices of racial naturalism, where race is
accepted as an outgrowth of science, and racial historianism, the concept that shapes
and defines race through legal enactment.
The historian view of race implicitly involves a consideration of racism as an
evolving concept. Much academic commentary has considered racism in terms of
outsiders, even where the population subject to racial treatment was born within the
nation. Paul Gilroy had considered a defined ‘new racism' in the UK in the late 1980s
not to be exclusively linked to skin colour or other physiological differences between
humans, but a logical extension of ‘…discourses of patriotism, nationalism,
xenophobia, Englishness, Britishness, militarism and gender differences' - a
sweeping rationale that represents the basis for national anti-racism legislation. It is
submitted that Gilroy's observation is much keener than the ability of the law to
counter the problem.
Racism is rooted in the establishment of separate and conflicting identities within a
society, where a people define themselves as the norm, and those different to them are
automatically presumed to possess all opposite characteristics.
The Enlightment thinking that was powered by the philosophies of Hobbes and
Locke, among others, has also been the subject of significant criticism as the root
cause of racism in modern state evolution. This approach centres upon the
Enlightment era reverence for rationality, where the conclusion that there must be
positions of natural superiority and inferiority between races was regarded as a
scientific outcome. Emphasis upon enlightened and rational thought placed Europe
and the supposed civility its race in contrast with all primitive places.
In contrast, other commentators have placed racism on a different historical footing.
The leaders of the Enlightment did not articulate racial principles or a presumed white
European superiority to a significant degree. Malik places the historical progression
of the racial definition as one of class distinctions, with racial divisions bearing a
greater relation to economic status than physiology.
As nations were elevated in status throughout the nineteenth century, it is suggested
that imperialism is an intrinsically racist concept; the subjugation of another people,
by relatively peaceful colonialism or starker military conquest, requires a national
mindset of superiority.
The encoding of race has also been a distinctly evolutionary process. ‘Black' (or
worse) was a simple blunt force description of the racial distinction between the
Caribbean immigrants to the UK and Canada during the 1950s and 1960s; in modern
times, the code words of immigration and naturalisation carry a subtle but equally
powerful message.
Racism has evolved to both include and modify popular concepts of culture and
ethnicity. Whether one accepts race as a genetic based circumstance, or as a purely
social invention, it clearly exists and prospers in Western culture. In modern societies,
racism has expanded dynamically as a concept to occupy the same ground as
ethnicity, where each has become interchangeable with the other as a means of
differentiation.
Ethnicity occupies this common ground with racism because it relies upon racial
principles in its definition. In each of the five circumstances enumerated as ‘ethnicity'
generated in a society, namely: the existence of an urban visible minority; ethno
national groups, such as the Kurds in Turkey; distinct groups that exist in plural
societies (e.g. Asian and Caribbean peoples who live within the UK); indigenous
minorities, such as North American or Scandinavian native peoples; post-slavery
minorities, such as Afro-Brazilians. Each ethnic definition contains a racial thread.
For the purposes of the legal definition outlined below, ethnicity and racism are
afforded similar treatment.
The legal definition of racism is at once subtle and bluntly constructed. Legislated
definitions, such as those contained in the UK Race Relations Act or the European
Convention of Human Rights, are comprehensive in their scope. It is equally
important to note that such definitions are often an ‘after the fact' response to societal
change, not a signpost for a nation's future.
The UK legislation enacted in 1976 was built upon the legacy of the Notting Hill riots
and the ‘moral panic' associated with black street crime in urban Britain of the early
1970s. It is impossible for modern states to enact laws that map a future treatment of
racism, as ethnic boundaries are in a constants state of flux. Germany's uneasy
relationship with its Muslim minority is generally cast in racial terms that incorporate
the religious, cultural and linguistic differences of the migrant labour attracted to the
formed West Germany in the late 1970s.
Statutes that proclaim as a purpose the eradication of racism are a constant in modern
pluralistic Western nations. The Race Relations Act as interpreted by the House of
Lords in Mandla determined that British Sikh people were a racial, as opposed to a
religious or cultural group within the meaning of the Act; race was defined by the
Law Lords as a combination of a long common history, a distinct cultural tradition,
and any confluence of the factors of geography, language, literature, religion or the
existence of the people within a larger community. The effect of Article 14, ECHR,
combined with Protocol 12 of the Community and the UK Human Rights Act
reinforces this definition.
In this sense, the law dictates race. In 1982 the enshrined constitution of Canada
elevated racial and cultural diversity to a fundamental national status. The Australian
constitution embraces a similar regime. These nations are highlighted here to
illustrate the evolution in racial notions in these states, as both countries had
previously engaged in efforts to assimilate its aboriginal peoples into a mainstream
white culture. Each country was overtaken by the realisation that pluralism and
multiculturalism were desirable societal goals, with pluralism used as its own code for
racial / ethnic diversity. Declining birth rates throughout the Western world have
created a dichotomy between the economic imperative to boost population and labour
forces through immigration, and ethnic / racial attitudes.
It is suggested that simply legislating an end to such societal strife will be
unsuccessful. Fitzpatrick's Mythology of Modern Law and the theories of H.L.A.
Hart share an important explanatory principle as to why racism exists among
peoples. Fitzpatrick's myth basis to modern law and Hart's concepts of pre-legal
societies that are founded upon shared cultural traditions and observances each
exclude those who are different.
The relationship between racism and economic standing mentioned briefly above is
also important in this context. It is contended that a wholesale economic re-ordering
of the world nations would do more to achieve racial harmony than any legislation.
The United States, Brazil and South Africa are prime examples of nations where
modern racism and socio-economic status are indistinguishable.
On one level, sport may seem an odd illustration of racism in the modern state. In the
predominately white cultures of the UK, USA, and Canada, the black athlete is a well
- established figure, particularly in the professional arenas. It is submitted that the
elimination of racism in sport has proved as illusory as with any other segment of
society. Owusu detailed the contradictory aspects of race in UK athletics through the
contention that black athletes are rewarded if they publicly espouse the view that
racism is non-existent in UK sport; those athletes who express contrary opinions as to
the fact of racism are characterised as paranoid or ungrateful. UK sprinter Linford
Christie and boxer Frank Bruno are presented as the opposite ends of this argument -
each man is of Caribbean heritage who achieved success in athletic pursuits. Bruno
never achieved the ultimate success in his sport, but maintained a steadfast image as a
‘mainstream' athlete, while Christie was outspoken throughout his career regarding
the UK athletics establishment. It was Christie who was cast as a disruptor of the
normative codes for the UK black athlete.
There is little question that racism is endemic in the progression of the development
of all Western nations. The period that has followed World War II has been marked
by ever-increasing contact between peoples of different national origin, cultures,
traditions, and heritage. The black letter of the law is not necessarily a stimulus to
changes in racial attitude, as the multi-faceted physiological, ethnic and economic
creature cannot be eliminated by legislation alone.
