By John Hewson
One of my greatest concerns with the recent, global movements against traditional politicians, major parties and political processes has been the direct or implicit reliance on racism and prejudice as a basis for the arguments advanced in support of the quest for a "political messiah", an "outsider", and for a "disruption" of the traditional.
Of course, there is a huge academic literature on the appropriate definitions to be used in discussing the issues of race and ethnicity, but most of this is irrelevant to the point in the sense that most people know and can recognise racism when they experience it, hear it, or read about it. Sometimes its quite overt, sometimes a mere "nod and wink", but few miss the racist-based message.
There should be little doubt about US President Donald Trump's views on race, despite his occasional "denials", assertions of "fake news", and/or his semantic distinctions. His election campaign theme was effectively a promise to "Make America Great Again; America First and Only" and – nod, nod, wink, wink – to Make America White Again.
An essential element of his initial thrust was the lies he told about Barack Obama's citizenship. He went on, inter alia, to call Mexicans "rapists" and "murderers" – threatening to respond with his "wall" – and to make other racial slurs against Native American veterans, Haitians (all of whom have AIDS), Nigerians (who live in huts), and to question the loyalty of Muslim immigrants. In government, he has pushed hard to restrict immigration, especially Muslims from selected countries, and to cancel "temporary protection status", sending many packing back to their homelands, even after they had lived for years and raised their families in the United States. Most recently, there was his outburst deriding "shithole" countries during a reported meeting on immigration reform, that has led to global condemnation.
Illustration: Simon Letch
In policy terms, although his initial thrust was to focus on the economic disadvantage of those who had been left behind over recent decades, it was easy to extend the "explanation" that they had lost jobs, wellbeing, security etc to "illegals" and other immigrants, and/or because of Chinese/Mexican/other imports, and so on – all with a racial undertone.
There are also many recent European examples of race-driven political outcomes – much of it initially heightened by the impact and fear associated with mass migration from Syria, Iraq, and North Africa.
The Brexit vote in the UK was predominantly due to concern over Britain's lack of an effective immigration policy, and the outrageous and exaggerated "threat" that Britain risked being flooded with some five million refugees from the Middle East and North Africa in the next few years, if it remained in the European Community. Similarly, racial issues/undertones were instrumental in driving the recent electoral outcomes in France, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and there are the mounting East-West disputes across Europe, between "core Europe" (Germany and France) and central European member states such as Hungary and Poland, where ethno-nationalism is on the increase. These tensions are very real, and mounting, with the risk that Europe fragments.
Similarly, but to a lesser extent, so far at least, we have seen the race card played by One Nation, along with the emergence of anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly anti-Muslim sentiment, especially in a number of far-right, nationalist, political movements, all with the risk of intensified "hate-speak" and more pronounced political division. This has, in turn, stirred several "conservatives" in the major parties to begin to call for limits on further immigration, heightened "border security", and the like.
US President Donald Trump has tried to implement his campaign rhetoric but has so far fallen well short.Credit: Olivier Douliery
Overall, this is a global tragedy. It is most disturbing to see so many successful Western democracies, that were carefully and sensitively built on successful immigration programs over many decades, now turning against/ignoring the past successes, mostly in the name of short-term populist, expedient, politics. Nations are now dividing internally, and turning nationalist, looking inward, and seeking to resurrect people barriers, even walls. This is putting at risk all the economic and societal development that has been a keystone of their democratic success, and the significant improvement overall in global wellbeing, of recent decades.
Even more disturbing is that these trends could not be unfolding at a more inauspicious, inconvenient, and uncertain time, when there are now some 65 million displaced persons globally, seeking refuge and asylum, and the world is exposed to a broad spectrum of geo-political risks and tensions of unknown/unpredictable magnitude and timing.
Although racism and prejudice have often been used by politicians over many decades to get elected, as evidenced in many polls, it used to also be the case that there was a general acceptance that racial appeals were "out of bounds", such that drawing people's attention to the use of the "race card" was an effective way to counteract the effect. However, the situation has now been turned on its head – there is now a growing acceptance that playing the race card is an increasingly important and effective political weapon.
The key question remaining is just how far those so elected will go in carrying their campaign politicking through to implemented, anti-immigration, racially based economic and social policies. Trump has tried but, so far, encouragingly, has fallen well short of his campaign rhetoric.
Those involved in the political process and, more broadly, in civil society, have a clear responsibility to call out racism and prejudice in every instance. As the UN Convention concludes, superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous, and there is no justification for racial discrimination, anywhere, in theory or in practice.