| Update 12.02.2009 | CAMPAIGN |
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Value Diversity14-22 March 2009 European-wide Action Week Against Racism
Diversity Adds Value: Value DiversityPopulation in Europe is becoming more and more diverse. Internal and external migration processes are making it a place where people of many different backgrounds share their existence. Nowadays diversity seems to be considered worrisome rather than a potential growth. “Diversity is beautiful” - that’s true and much more than that it adds value to society, cohesion and development in any aspect. What we need to understand is how to manage diversity and not to be afraid of it. The magic formula is to LOOK DEEPER and VALUE DIVERSITY to recognise what is beyond the unknown and find out that there is a lot to explore, to understand and to learn from each other. We believe in future as a time of communion, when all the people living in Europe offer their uniqueness to each other as a gift and diversity is not seen as an obstacle anymore; a future without discrimination and exclusion, but with a mainstream culture based on intercultural respect, solidarity and equal rights. With this goal, we stand UNITED in our struggle to value diversity. Stop Thinking Black & White!Our thinking is reflected in our actions: Europe’s current general attitude is getting more violent and empathy is killed by indifference. Although Anti-discrimination laws exist in nearly every European country, authorities fail to implement them. Minority groups in Europe, especially Roma and Muslims, face nowadays growing racist violence, suffer under racial profiling and policing and are excluded from having equal access to services like housing, employment, health care and education. Stereotypes and a culture based on the “clash of cultures” theory are artificially created and promoted by defamatory media coverage. Hate speech is the language of extremists and populist politicians. All this facts contribute to worsen the overall social situation in Europe and as a result we all suffer under it. People who cannot find a way to handle their fears follow populist and extremist leaders who are preaching easy solutions for much more complicated problems. Increasing extreme-right tendencies are not incidental problems; they are a broad phenomenon of ignorance and violent communication affecting society. When it comes to the upcoming European Parliament Elections in 2009, UNITED is very much concerned about a general swing to the right by politicians in order to catch votes, no matter which party they belong to. The current attitude of European citizens is characterized by mistrust, doubt and fear and overshadowed by the nightmare of a general financial crisis. Only an empowered civil society is able to overcome this hostile climate and sustain peaceful social cohesion. Together We Are Strong!Take this opportunity and be part of the European Action Week against Racism. In this week hundreds of activists throughout Europe join forces across borders to raise awareness about the mentioned issues and celebrate diversity. We won’t keep silent watching how intolerance is dictating our life, on the contrary we will raise our voices against inequality and discrimination. Our message needs to be visible to be recognised and therefore the movement depends on your support. It’s up to everybody, so “be the change you want to see in this world!” 21 MarchThe General assembly of the United Nations declared 21 March the International Day for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. This day was implemented as a reaction to the murder of 70 anti-apartheid demonstrators in Sharpeville, South Africa, in 1960. Apartheid was a legal system of racial segregation enforced by the government of South Africa between 1948 and 1990. Not even 20 years have passed by since this hard-line institutional racism was abolished and still segregating ideologies based on ‘race’ can be recognised everyday. The winning thought is that there is only one race: the human race! Each year around 21 March UNITED coordinates the European-wide Action Week Against Racism. Activists, NGO’s, universities, schools, municipalities and a wide variety of different organisations carry out hundreds of activities all around Europe in order to make a change. Through the actions implemented during the annual campaign thousands of people all over Europe actively engage themselves for tolerance, equal rights and celebrate the diversity of Europe. The activities taking place in the Action Week range from very basic poster actions in schools, public and working places, to intercultural youth festivals, street actions, lectures, living libraries, film screenings, conferences, multicultural football games or cleaning the walls from racist graffiti and many, many more. Faces of RacismThere are many different forms of racism and it’s important to spot and stop each one of them. Across Europe, racist manifestations are taking place in a wide range of areas, not always as racist street action or public hate speech, but also as hidden and institutionalised means. In the last years, researches have shown that minority groups are systematically discriminated whenever looking for housing, demanding proper inclusion in health care and education or looking for employment. The public acceptance of racism and hate crimes, as well as the mistreatment of religious and ethnic minorities is increasing. This phenomenon is based on biased media coverage, the misuse of the ‘hot topic’ immigration and integration by politicians as well as racial profiling by authorities like the police. Hidden racism is a topic that gets discussed more and more by anti-racism activists and victims of racism. Social scientists named a special form of hidden racism ‘microaggression’ and describe it like water dripping on sandstone - it is almost invisible but potential lethal. It means that subtle indignities suffered on a daily basis by minorities may not qualify as racism at first glance; their effect may not have immediate consequences, but negative interactions can be as deadly as thousand little cuts for the victim. An example is the question “Where are you from?” asked to people who might not look don’t look ‘indigenous’, but are in fact 2nd or 3rd generation migrants. Such example makes it clear that we have to constantly reflect our personal behaviour in daily-life interaction with persons perceived as minority, or as ‘different’. In this context also positive-discrimination can play a role. Do we treat everybody equally, or do we behave different if somebody seems not ‘usual’ to us? Why Cooperate in Campaigns?Racism is not a local issue and the European-wide campaign can help to set the agenda on all levels. We have to campaign on local, regional and European level to get our point across. By linking local and national actions, we can generate European-wide publicity. We can show that there is an enormous amount of people that believe in an intercultural open society. It gives all participants new energy to go on with their everyday struggle against racism and intolerance and let people who may not be aware of it in their daily life reflect about the issues raised. You will get motivated and inspired by the ideas and enthusiasm of other people, learn from each other’s experience and views, generate more publicity because of the scope and size of the activity, etc. If you would like to take part in this campaign, keep in mind that it is the variety and creativity of many different activities all over Europe that make the UNITED campaigns unique. Be Creative & Have Fun!All organisations, large and small, can contribute in their own way to the Action Week. In fact it is not important for an effective action to have lots of financial resources: it’s more the creativity and originality that counts. The European campaign aims to raise awareness in all relevant sectors of society. Three main targets are the media, youth and the general public:
If you want more information and ideas you can take a look on the UNITED website. We have published the information leaflet ‘Get Active! - The how to Organise an Activity? - Guide’. You also can get inspiration by checking former campaign reports, lists of activities or the Calendar of Internationalism with an enormous list of good practices. Join the CampaignOrder free material Do you believe in the active struggle against racism? Join the campaign and order more copies of this poster for free. Send, fax or e-mail information about your activities (title, date, theme, place) to UNITED and the name, address and contact person of your organisation. Have also a look at our webpage for more campaign material (posters, stickers, postcards, infoleaflets etc.) available for free and to get to the online order-form. With every campaign there is also a List of Activities published from which you can gain new ideas and get inspired by other organisation’s actions. Planning a Campaign Activity
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