CLASS AND RACISM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

INTRODUCTION

            The term race is one of the main groups that humans can be divided into their physical appearances, for instance the skin colour. Another definition about race is a group of people who share the language, history, culture, and so on. There are so many races in the world. The existing of races makes up ethnicity which is belonging to a particular race. Race and ethnicity become modern concepts that have their origin in the global expansion of European societies in the late fifteenth century. The changing of rapid social process is followed by the transformation of European societies from rural-agricultural to the formation of urban-industrial. This condition brought Europeans the differences of contact with other human societies, especially for minority groups.

 In England, there were differences of physical appearance between themselves and others. The most striking of these seems to have been skin colour and it is notable that an early distinction emerged between those who had been described as a black in contrast to a white skin. The colours of black and white were emotionally loaded with concepts in English language. White represented good, purity, and virginity, black was the colour of death, evil, and debasement. The term race as sociologically is a social relationship in which structural positions and social actions are ordered, justified, and explained by reference to systems of symbols and beliefs which emphasize the social and cultural relevance of biologically rooted characteristics (http://www.irr.org.uk/2002/april/ak000001.html). That is why; it can make a problem in race that called racism. The term racism is almost as contentious as race that is a concept denoting attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies of social actions and structures. Racism defines as unfair treatment of other races, a belief that some races of people are better than others.

There are basically three causes for the existence of racism. The dominant view which is rarely expressed as a worked out theory but rather operates at the level of assumptions is that racism is an irrational response to difference which causes some people with white skin to have hateful attitudes to people with black skin which sometimes leads to violent and evil actions. People who have this understanding of racism usually advocate awareness and education as a way of preventing the practice of racism. The second view is that racism is endemic in white society and that the only solution is for black people to organize "themselves separately from “whites” in order to defend themselves and to protect their interests. The third view and the one which libertarian communists and social anarchists advocate is an explanation of racism based on a materialist perspective, which views racism as a historically specific and materially caused phenomenon (http://libcom.org/history/articles/racism-brief-history).

There are two styles of racism. The first is old style; this kind of style is based on the biological appearance. For example, the skin colour. The old style biological racism has replaced a new racism. It draws attention to the increasing frequency with political argument, such as the exclusion of migrant, the segregation of different members of groups, and negative consequences of culture to mix. Most of the countries, there are the existing racism. Here are a little explanation about racism in United Kingdom and Indonesia. United Kingdom and Indonesia are the multicultural countries that consist of many tribe or races. This situation makes these countries are rich in culture, but this also brings the problems itself to them. One of the problems is racism in both countries.

RACISM IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

The United Kingdom, like most countries, has experienced racism against various groups at various times in its history. There is an important of the placement of minorities’ ethnic in the British class structure. Thus English people are suitable to conceptualize themselves as individuals, while foreign are seen as members of groups. The degree of cultural differences between themselves and others, the more likely they are to see their groups as a characteristic of the behavior and motivation of those others.

The problem is the explanation of racial disadvantage lies in the nature of the British class structure or in the racism, and its associated practices of racial discrimination, which pervade British culture. There are ethnic minorities and majority. Black people as the ethnic minority in this class structure, having jobs which tend to place them at the bottom. They share class disadvantage with many white people. White racism keeps ethnic minorities at the bottom of the hierarchy and separated from white society as a whole.

HISTORY OF RACISM IN UNITED KINGDOM

The history of black and Asian people in Britain is a history of racism and of resistance to racism. The victims of racism often received white working class solidarity and had the backing of radicals and socialists. Workers’ Liberty surveys the history. Individuals and small groups of black people have been living in Britain for at least 500 years. But only after the 1650s did their numbers begin to rise significantly. When the industrial began, manufactured goods went from Bristol, Liverpool and London to the African coast, where textiles and guns were bartered for black slaves. The slaves were taken across the Atlantic to the Leeward Islands, Surinam and Jamaica, and there exchanged for sugar, spices and rum. These goods were then brought back - on the third leg of the “triangle” — to Britain, and sold. It was an enormously profitable trade — one product of which was the creation of black communities in the slave port towns, as slaves and black sailors found their way to Britain (http://www.workersliberty.org/node/5912).

            The history of racism in United Kingdom is the encountered of the black people in the industrial era to be asylum seekers and refugees. The effects of racism can be found in the aspects of life such as:

1.      EDUCATION

The differences between ethnicity made the problem in education. Education as one of the most important things to black people becomes integrated into the important part of white British life. As black children who go to school, they not only study to speak English but also the other courses which help them to get jobs, and study about British cultural values that makes the process of assimilation. A question of black children fitting into the educational system, and sociological problem might be to explain why they fail to integrate. Besides, the white teachers label black children as educational failures.

British culture is very nationalistic. The British always think that the way of their life is the best and the ways of foreigners unacceptable. This is the problem of nationalism that is anxious because this makes the foreign ways of life not only are treated as odd, but also very threatening. According to Gilroy (1987), nationalism is also closely related to racism. A. H. Richmond suggests that “Nationalism asserted itself in terms of the prior ‘rights’ of the indigenous ‘English’ over ‘alien’ invaders”, highlighting the old attitude about the civilized and the savages. Extremists demanded more restrictive immigration laws and repatriation, and even those who condemned these calls still “maintained a substantial measure of social distance from the immigrants” (A. H. Richmond). It seems that the mass media reinforce, and sometimes inflame, racial hatred through selective reporting (perhaps these are the modern manipulators of the ‘authoritarian”?), and children have ‘learned to be prejudiced’ at home, in the school and in the community (Davey, 1983). There are certain factors, including teacher racism, which impede the opportunities of ethnic minority children in education (Swann, 1985), education being very important when one considers the competition for work and realizes that education is an important method of improving the ‘status’ of the ethnic minorities.

2.      MEDIA

Racism and discrimination can be found in the media treatments that published or shared the immigration issues or racial attacks. For instance, a conception of the black community as a crime-prone group took hold in the 1970s in press treatments of attacks on, and thefts from, innocent people in the street; these attacks became known as muggings.

3.      HEALTH

The minorities group can get the differences treatment of health services compared to the host communities in the United Kingdom. The Black Report (1980) stated the sparseness of evidence that in the poorer occupational classes. Not only do ethnic minorities suffer the general problems that reflect their class position, but they experience additional difficulties because of language and cultural differences, or because of racial discrimination.

4.      EMPLOYMENT AND HOUSING

An area of particular concern is institutional racism and discrimination in employment and recruitment, with discrimination being a significant factor affecting labour market outcomes for members of ethnic minorities and race being a significant consideration of UK employers, as opposed to a candidate's academic or other qualifications, in making recruitment decisions. Black workers get the worst-paid jobs.

5.      POLICE

Police forces in the United Kingdom have been accused of institutionalized racism since the late 20th century. There is the evidence of discrimination in metropolitan police about the culture of police was pervaded by racially abusive talk.

THE CASES OF RACISM IN UK

In 2001, there have been both the Bradford riots and the Oldham Riots. These riots have followed cases of racism - either the public displays of racist sentiment or, as in the Brixton Riots, racial profiling and alleged harassment by the police force. In 2005, there have been Birmingham riots between Asian community and the black community, as a black teenager had been allegedly raped by South Asian men, although no teenager came forward claiming she had been raped. In July 2008, the London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children. The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism. Nursery staff must be alert for racist remarks among toddlers, a government-sponsored agency report has said (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_Kingdom).

ACTION OF ANTI RACISM IN UK

There are some actions of Anti racism in United Kingdom. Here they are:

-          Race Relation Act 1976, It was established by the British Parliament to prevent discrimination on the grounds of races.

-          The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), this was non- department public body in the UK which is aimed to tackle racial discrimination and promote racial equality.

-          African Reparation Movement (ARM).

-          Anti NAZI League.

-          Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF).

-          Race Action Partnership (RAP).

RACISM IN INDONESIA

Ever since the rise of the New Order regime 35 years ago, many minorities in Indonesia have had to face the racism and discrimination of Indonesia. This is achieved through many pieces of legislation. Some of them are specifically targeted at the Chinese ethnic community. Chinese-Indonesians comprise 3% of the total population of Indonesia, or approximately 7 millions. As a minority group, they still suffer from discrimination.
It is a fact that most Indonesians consider the Chinese-Indonesians as a separate group from the majority indigenous Indonesians due to different "ethnicity". The Chinese-Indonesians are not considered part of the nation in violation of the principle of equality before the law enshrined in the 1945 Indonesian Constitution.

THE ARRIVAL OF CHINESE TO INDONESIA

Before the arrival of the Dutch colonialists, the Chinese had been an integral part of what was then Indonesia. They integrated into the then Indonesian society in the same way that the Chinese in other parts of Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Vietnam) did. While the first Chinese are believed to have arrived in Indonesia in the fifth century, people from southern China came much earlier (prehistoric era) to the then Southeast Asian region to comprise the so-called Malays. The latter Chinese and the Malays are thus considered to belong to, or share, the same racial genealogy.

The relation of the Chinese into the society was disturbed when the Dutch colonialists came to Indonesia in the seventeenth century for trading purposes. They eventually colonized Indonesia for political reason, and ruled for about 350 years. To maintain its existence, the Dutch colonial government employed the divide and rule strategy (divide et impera) and divided the people in Netherlands Indisch (the Dutch colonial name of Indonesia) into several categories. Under State Regulation/Indische Staatsregeling No. 163 IS/1854, the population was divided into 3 social classes:

1. Europeans or Westerners
2. Foreign Easterners (Chinese-, Indian-, and Arab descent)
3. Indigenous people.

The division of the population caused tension among the groups particularly between the Foreign Easterners and the Indigenous groups due to their socio-economic differences. Religious and cultural backgrounds were highlighted in the Dutch colonial legal system by having a dual legal system, i.e., Western law mainly for the Europeans or Westerners and Customary Law for the indigenous people. The indigenous Indonesians were further segregated into Moslems who were bound by Islamic legal system, and the non-Moslems who were bound to the Western legal system. The ethnic Chinese were caught in between the two legal systems, each having a different court

At the beginning of the Dutch colonial rule, the political rights of the ethnic Chinese were recognized. But the 1740 Chinese rebellion (with 10,000 Chinese getting massacred, killed and slaughtered in Batavia or Jakarta) changed the situation. Since that incident the Dutch colonial government denied political rights to the Chinese. They were only allowed to engage in trade and business. The Dutch controlled agricultural plantations, mining, oil, finance, banking and other activities. Most indigenous people were marginalized as peasants and lower rank government officials. This structure of society and the legal system under the Dutch colonial rule was maintained and continued by the Indonesian government.

THE CASES OF RACISM IN INDONESIA

After the independence day, the New Order also discriminatory measures against Chinese ethnic who are legitimated, such as:
- The prohibition against the letter and the Chinese language.
- Restrictions on Chinese newspapers.
- The closure of Chinese schools.
- Restrictions on Chinese New Year celebrations and wine (Cap Gomeh).
- Restrictions ceremony in the temple and the formalization of the use of Chinese terms.

As a result, racial violence has become a common phenomenon in Indonesia. In 1998, women of Chinese descent were targeted for rape, and the rest of the ethnic Chinese community for assault, looting, and murder. Such atrocities occurred in major cities such as Medan, Makassar, Jakarta and Solo. Racial riots occurred also between the Dayaks, Malays and Madura in Kalimantan in 1997. More recently in Maluku, mass-killings have occurred between civilians belonging to two different religious groups. On a smaller scale, anti-Christian violence also occurred in Mataram and anti-Chinese riots in Pekalongan.

ACTION OF ANTI RACISM IN INDONESIA

Indonesia recently ratified a number of United Nations human rights instruments in response to national and international pressures. The following instruments were ratified:

1. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR)
2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
3. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
4. The United Nations Human Rights Commission to pressure the Indonesian government, to enact legislation against Racial Discrimination to protect all Indonesian citizens from all forms of discrimination, and to investigate all cases of racial and religious discrimination in Indonesia.

As a state party to ICESCR, ICCPR and CERD, Indonesia must faithfully report to the respective treaty monitoring bodies in the United Nations on the state of human rights in Indonesia.

COMMENTARY:

The problems of ethnicity and racism almost happened in all over the world. The causes of these problems are some people thought that their races better than other races. As a human, we must realize that we are same position in the God, we are created equal. The term Racism is almost as contentious as race.  It is a concept denoting attitudes, beliefs, and ideologies and social actions and structures.

From the explanations above, we can see there are the similarities and differences between ethnicity and racism that happened in United Kingdom and Indonesia such as the limitation of education, health services, police, politics, and many aspects of life to the minorities groups or ethnic. If there is the race discrimination to black people in United Kingdom, it differs in Indonesia that the victims of the minorities’ ethnics that got the racial treatment are Chinese or Tiong-Hoa. Black people in United Kingdom are included to the poor people or lower class people but The Chinese in Indonesia are included to the upper class that is why; there is the feeling of jealous to Chinese in Indonesia. So the Chinese is treated different. Another factor that makes racism because of the history from Dutch that divided social class into 3 classes, the first class is for Europeans or Westerners, the second is Foreign Easterners (Chinese-, Indian-, and Arab descent), and the last is Indigenous people or Indonesian people.

Nowadays, in the modern era, it is not suitable to see  people based on their physical appearance. Each people have the same right in life. So we must tolerance and respect each other to prevent conflict in societies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abercombie, Nicholas., Warde, Alan., Soothill, Keith., Urry, John., & Walby, Sylvia. 1994. Contemporary British Society, A New Introduction to Sociology (pp258-269). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

Jusuf, Ester. 2001. Statement A: Racial Discrimination and Violence against Ethnic Chinese people in Indonesia.  On the website: http://wcar.alrc.net/mainfile2.php/Statements/85/

http://www.irr.org.uk/2002/april/ak000001.html

http://libcom.org/history/articles/racism-brief-history

http://www.immi.se/ir/ir2001/yassine.htm

http://www.workersliberty.org/node/5912

http://www.hurights.or.jp/archives/focus/section2/2006/03/discrimination-against-ethnic-chinese-in-indonesia.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_the_United_Kingdom

http://sosbud.kompasiana.com/2010/01/06/rasisme-yang-mendarah-daging-di-indonesia/