Difference isn’t a threat

How to make good Europe's promise for all

ACOMMENDABLE thing happened on Friday in faraway Brussels, the capital of the European Union. There the European Commission held the first ever European Anti-Racism Summit, two days ahead of the International Day against Racial Discrimination. It promises to be an annual event. A year earlier, the EC even drew up a European Anti-Racism Action Plan. Another first for the EU.

But such things only make a good 30,000-foot view. As the big picture gets granular, the evidence on the ground turns troubling. But first the big picture. EC President Ursula von der Leyen’s first word, “racism”, set the summit going: “Racism is around us, in our societies. It doesn’t always make the headlines. But it is there.” Knowing the problem is a good start. Action becomes easier when it starts with acknowledgement. Racism isn’t a new problem, though. To begin with the recent past, von der Leyen said as much in her 2020 State of the Union address to the European Parliament as president of the EC.

Quoting the 1998 words of John Hume to the European august house, she said: “The European visionaries decided that difference is not a threat, difference is natural. Difference is the essence of humanity.” To build a truly anti-racist Europe, as von der Leyen said, the EU must go from condemnation to action. Action is where the EU is finding it hard to be colour blind. This happens at two levels: at the EU level and the state level. Let’s begin with the EU level. Writing in the EURACTIV, a European news portal, Alfiaz Vaiya, co-founder of Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice and former coordinator of the Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup in European Parliament, said the EU can only be colour blind if it tackles racism in the EU’s social, economic and political system.

Curing racism at the individual level won’t work. Because, it is far more pervasive. We agree. Because only in this way the EU can make good its promise of making Europe a place for all Europeans. Now for the state level. France’s law against separatism is a case in point. French Prime Minister Jean Castex told the media in February that the legislation was not against religions “nor against the Muslim religion”. Castex’s particularisation didn’t help. French President Emmanuel Macron’s Oct 2 speech hitting out at Islam made it clear that the law was aimed at Muslims and no one else. As pointed out by Euronews portal, Macron has been working on outlining his ideas on secularism and Islam since his first days at Elysee Palace.

In his view, the “Islamist separatists” were creating a “counter-society”. The Muslims are not wrong in being troubled by such language in a president’s speech and the language of the law against separatism. The Muslims have their attire as do the followers of other faiths. Why does the Muslim attire alone separate? It is clear the separatism law discriminates against the 5.7 million Muslims, the largest minority in Europe, whether Macron admits it or not. Amnesty International thinks so too. France is bent on doing things that go against the very motto of Europe that von der Leyen was proudly mouthing at the European Anti-Racism Summit on Friday: Unity in diversity. Anti-racist Europe can’t be built this way. If “unity in diversity” is truly the EU’s raison d’etre, then France is building a counter-society within Europe. A case of disaster by design?

...EU can only be colour blind if it tackles racism in the EU’s social, economic and political system.