Race and Racism: Some Salient Issues

Abstract

It can be said that virtually all member states of the United Nations are multiethnic, and yet racism and ethnic discrimination remain significant features of many of these countries. This chapter examines the notions of race and ethnicity, the origins of racialization and racism, as well as ethnic discrimination. It alludes to the historical significance of the enslavement of millions of Africans to labor in the plantations and mines of the Americas and Caribbean islands, colonialism in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, and international labor migration to contemporary forms of racism and interethnic relations. The violent displacement and movement of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria to Western countries have given rise to xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism in the latter states. Interethnic tensions and conflicts remain legacies of an earlier epoch of uneven and unequal development as well as discriminatory practices in most postcolonial states. The struggle against racism and ethnic discrimination is an ongoing process.