Tackling racism in Malta and beyond
If there is something which is truly, truly sickening it is racism.
That someone feels that they have some sort of superiority over somebody else based simply on something like skin colour or where they happen to have been born or brought up is beyond incomprehensible.
And yet, it remains rife.
We see blatant racism in Malta on an almost daily basis – be it outside or even on comments boards online, particularly on articles which treat subjects such as migration or anything a foreigner happens to do (be it bad, or good).
For a nation which once prided itself on being generous and hospitable to foreigners, events in recent months and years have seemingly shown otherwise.
The murder of Lassana Cisse – allegedly gunned down simply because he was black – is a sure-fire example of this, but so are other episodes where, for instance, Maltese footballers who are of a darker skin colour have been racially abused or told to ‘ go back home’.
The most recent episode which saw African worker Lamin Jaiteh tossed onto the pavement by his boss after he fell at a construction site and suffered injuries including a broken spine, is another example.
It should be noted that the said ‘boss’ – contractor Glen Farrugia – has not been charged with anything indicating racism; but we did see a sense of racism in some public fora with regards to this case.
Some in fact had the gall to blame the victim for deciding to come to the country in the first place, labelling him as nothing more than a scrounger who was in the country illegally (which he isn’t – though he was working illegally), rather than blaming the contractor for the alleged act and for allegedly employing the man illegally and on a pittance of wages in the first place.
Had St Paul come into difficulties off Malta today, he may well have chosen to go down with his ship rather than having to face coming ashore.
Of course, racism is not a purely Maltese trait – the problem has exploded Europewide, and it is nowhere more apparent than in sports.
Every other week, there are incidents of racism in football matches in England and elsewhere.
Just this week, Rangers FC player Glen Kamara was booed and racially abused with every touch he took during a Europa League fixture against Slavia Prague. That’s shocking enough – until you then hear that the stadium’s attendance was made up of 10,000 children only.
Then how can we forget the racist abuse that England stars Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford suffered after they missed decisive penalties in the shoot-out of the Euro 2020 final against Italy.
In this environment, the government’s decision to launch Malta’s first anti-racism strategy should be applauded.
Like with every good idea however, we look forward to its implementation, and we also look forward to actually seeing our institutions take tangible action against racism.
Another episode this week saw an English football fan jailed for eight weeks and fined for racially abusing a West Bromwich Albion player on Facebook after a football match.
The punishments for such acts can be debated, but when racism is taken so seriously by the institutions – and is seen to be taken so seriously – it can then serve as a moment to finally teach people that some things are just not on.