This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 30, 2017 - November 5, 2017

Since the collapse of communism almost 30 years ago and the outbreak of ethnic wars as well as other forms of ethnic conflict in various parts of the world, there has been a revival of interest in the study of racism.

More recently, a United Nations body that monitors the implementation of the global convention on prohibiting racial discrimination called on high-level politicians and public officials of the US to “unequivocally and unconditionally reject and condemn racist hate speech and crimes in Charlottesville and throughout the country”.

Referring to the racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, Anastasia Crickley, chair of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), in a news release, expressed alarm at the “overtly racist slogans, chants and salutes by white nationalists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan promoting white supremacy and inciting racial discrimination and hatred.”

For decades, national and international organisations, researchers and activists around the world have been concerned with global racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance. Acts of racial discrimination are varied and include arson, damage to property, dissemination of hate literature, desecration of cemeteries and the use of racial slurs.

In the Malaysian context, a peninsula-wide survey commissioned by the Centre for a Better Tomorrow (CENBET) in late 2015 revealed that Malaysians, while not being outright racists, do have racist tendencies in various aspects of their lives.

Out of 1,056 respondents surveyed, 60% say they are not racist, while another 37.2% admit to being racists or having “shades of racism”. Of this 37.2%, a large number (46.31%) earn between RM1,000 and RM4,999 a month and are from urban areas (75.6%).

When and where did racism start? What are the causes? Can we expect to see a rise in racial discrimination as migration on a worldwide scale increases?

Racism must be distinguished from a similar phenomenon known as ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism refers to the beliefs of a people of a particular culture that their way of life is superior to those of other cultures. In this sense, ethnocentrism is universal. Racism, on the other hand, refers to a belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another and it is not a universal phenomenon. Racists believe that the superiority or inferiority of a people are related to differences in the physical appearance of what is referred to as “race”.

Racism is also quite recent. About a hundred years ago, social Darwinists argued that the fact that Western societies came out on top in the struggle for survival meant that they were highest on the evolutionary scale of human progress. Such ideas were used to justify the supremacy of white people over “races” of other “colours”. These developments cannot be understood outside of the context of colonialism.

The ideology of colonialism was a racist ideology that sought to justify the economic order of colonial capitalism. In doing so, the reality of race and ethnicity was distorted. For example, the view that blacks are inferior to whites fit into the argument that Africans were suited for slavery. Potential for progress was found to be present in the European races and differences between whites and others reflected differences in social, intellectual and psychological abilities.

There is, therefore, an important historical dimension to racism. Once the notion of “race” was created, the idea that there are inherent differences related to physical appearance took root. There were even attempts to “prove” this scientifically, as was the case in Hitler’s Germany.

However, while we may explain the historical emergence of racist attitudes by going back to the colonial period, what accounts for the persistence of racism today? This has a lot to do with the inequality in economic and political relations between advanced industrialised countries and the poorer nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Migration is an important manifestation of this inequality. Poverty and overall underdevelopment in these countries had caused large-scale migration to North America and Western Europe. These immigrants become targets of racial discrimination for a variety of reasons. Often, they are perceived to have taken jobs away from host country citizens, especially where manual work is concerned.

In other cases, non-white immigrants — for example, Asians — in North America, are seen to be relatively affluent and there may be some resentment towards them. Other times, immigrants are perceived as enemies of the host country and become victims of racial discrimination. An example is the plight of Iranian students in a certain part of the US who were victims of racism, particularly during the American hostage crisis in Tehran in the early 1980s.

It is unlikely that an increase in immigration on a global scale in future will lead to a decline in racial discrimination as long as the root causes are not weeded out. Racist attitudes and stereotypes are deeply entrenched and require much socialisation to uproot them.

Also, various international political and economic problems must be solved. For example, as long as there is no peace in the Middle East, terrorist activities will continue and Arabs, Iranians and other Muslims will continue to be stereotyped as terrorists in other parts of the world.

In the fight against racism, both legal and non-legal measures must be resorted to. The United Nations recommended that Germany adopt anti-racist laws against anti-Semitism and xenophobia. In Germany, it is a crime to deny the genocide of the Jews. In Britain, there are laws on incitement to racial hatred. Nevertheless, the battle on the legal front is a difficult one to wage considering that racist attitudes are widespread even among law enforcement officers.

The attitude of the government is also important. There should be concerted efforts by the government to recognise racism as a problem and provide a legal infrastructure to deal with it. In Malaysia, the official view is that there is no necessity for an Anti-racist and Anti-discrimination Bill as people in the country are generally united. While this may be the case, anti-racist and anti-discrimination laws are still needed in order to deal with the few but prominent cases of hate speech and racial discrimination.

Legal processes, however, are not a substitute for education. Socialisation through education is vital in the combat against racism. It would help if human rights as a subject were taught in schools and if parents refrained from uttering racial slurs or telling racial jokes in front of their children.

Racism is a serious problem that can bring down a nation. Two years ago, it was announced that the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry was considering a ridiculous proposal to legislate the segregation of trolleys for halal and non-halal food items in supermarkets. Allowing for such a practice would set a very dangerous precedent and Malaysia on a slippery slope towards an apartheid-like state. The segregation would not stop with trollies.

After some time, some Muslims may feel offended at the sight of non-halal items such as pork being sold in the 

supermarkets that they patronise. They may demand that there be separate supermarkets, kedai runcit and convenience stores for Muslims. Some people may object to non-Muslims eating in halal restaurants.

What is to guarantee that these non-Muslims may not bring traces of porcine substances into halal restaurants? Therefore, it would seem sensible to call for segregated halal restaurants in which Muslims and non-Muslims dine in separate areas and use utensils that are washed and stored separately. This would eventually lead to calls for separate restaurants for Muslims and non-Muslims.

We have already seen the establishment of a Muslim-only laundromat in Muar. The call for segregation would escalate to encompass more and more areas of life so that the Muslim consumer would not have to worry about contamination.

The slippery slope towards an apartheid-like state must be avoided. Politicians, activists and religious leaders have to take a decision. They can either choose to play to the gallery of bigotry and racism, or take the lead by educating Malaysians on how to live a decent life, that is, one with a multiculturalist sensibility that is not ridden with doubts and insecurities.

Racial discrimination is not something perpetrated solely by whites against non-whites. Racism exists in Asia as well. Nevertheless, Asians, including Malaysians, have been less open and less self-reflective about racism in their own backyard. What is needed everywhere is the greater acceptance of multiculturalism and the tolerance and understanding that follows from that.

Syed Farid Alatas is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore

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