RevUE de la conférence d’Ilke Adam proposé par Alan Efrain Munoz Gomez

« Antiracisme en Europe : Politiques publiques et activisme », le 1er octobre 2024 avec Ilke Adam (Brussels School of Governance).

Racism in Europe has a long history, the colonial powers of Western Europe even if they experience great waves of immigration before their Eastern counterparts, they seem to have problems dealing with it still.

The speaker didn’t identify herself as being a part of a political current but due to her point of view and the vision of the institution she represents, we can say she leans towards a liberal perspective.

To understand racism in Europe, we need to understand the difference between racism and prejudice. According to the speaker, racism needs to be seen as a preconceived opinion based on the ethnicity of an individual, on the other hand, prejudice is a judgment about an individual without a specific reason but never related to race.

In Europe, there is still a hierarchy of race that governs the institutions and the society. We can observe that racism developed to a structural and systematic issue at the same time some sectors of the European society link Nazism with racism but forget the colonial past of the West.

The 80s and 90s were especially violent for racialized individuals. Racist attacks were perpetrated in Belgium, France, United Kingdom and Germany which lead to the creation of the 2000/43/EU Racial Equality Directive. The effects of its application were little but significant, the creation of equality bodies gave voice and representation to minorities, even if some countries didn’t create local legislation against racism after the application, the cornerstone was already set. Germany for example adopted legislation against racial violence in 2009.

The year 2020 was significant for activism, the Black Lives Matter movement spread all over Europe and put the issue in the centre of the conversation. The mobilization was such that the President of the European Commission pronounced a speech against racism in the European Parliament giving a clear path to fight against the problem.

Is something changing? Even if some progress is being achieved, the institutional and structural problem is a major issue in the fight against racism. The problem in the EU is identified, but some solutions in the everydayness life should and must be achieved.

The activism is still a means to materialize these changes. New waves of racism are emerging in some European countries and the mobilization is still a way to protest it. The speaker puts special attention in continuing the fight with the creation of organizations and unions that will continue to give voice and presence to the racialized individuals in society.

The fight against racism is not over nor just in Europe nor in the world. We need more activism more mobilization and knowledge about the past. The platform presented by the speaker showed us how the activism generated changes in Belgium these heroes have contributed to addressing the problem and propose solutions, little by little the racism will be a past issue.

Alan Efrain Munoz Gomez.