| Update 04.12.2007 |
INFORMATION LEAFLET |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
DEFINITIONS of concepts most used in anti-racist work "I
am not a racist, because I have nothing against black people, if they
assimilate and follow our rules. In fact, some of my friends are
black..."
Maybe you have been confronted with this opinion, or a similar one.
Maybe you have tried to explain that what you mean by tolerance does
not mean that everything is permitted. Maybe you have experienced
confusion when speaking with someone from another part of Europe about
'left' and 'right'.
In
this information leaflet we want to start a discussion about certain
terms we use often in our daily work. The 'definitions' in this leaflet
are ideas. They are not the unique and only expression of an
unchangeable truth. Language is constantly changing and so are terms
and concepts. In time they may change and come to mean something else.
In international cooperation, but in fact even in cooperation with our
next door neighbours, we must be aware that what we say may mean
something else to another person. We should be aware of the 'danger of
words'.
Human
Rights are rights that every human being, with no exception, should
enjoy. These rights are based on the ideas of philosophers of the
"Enlightenment" of the 18th century. Human Rights include social rights
(which are rights that need positive interference by the government,
such as work, housing, food, etc.) and political rights (which
essentially guarantee non-interference of the government, such as the
freedom of thought and expression, protection against detention and
torture, etc.). All countries in Europe, except a few very small or new
ones, have signed the European Declaration of Human Rights or the UN
Declaration of Human Rights. There is discussion on the inclusion of
rights such as the right to live without environmental polution.
Equality
is the state of being equal. It means that no person counts more than
another, whatever his or her parents are, whatever his or her social
position is. Of course, people are not identical to one another in
their interests, abilities, and lifestyles. So equality for people is
about having the same rights and the same chances. People must have
equal opportunities to succeed in education or work, depending on their
own efforts. Equality will only be a reality when people have the same
access to housing, social security, civil rights and citizenship.
Tolerance
is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our
world's cultures, forms of expression and ways of being human.
Tolerance is harmony in difference. It is fostered by knowledge,
openness, communication and freedom of thought, conscience and belief.
Tolerance is being yourself without imposing your views on others.
Tolerance is not giving in or giving up. Tolerance is, above all, an
active attitude prompted by recognition of the universal human rights
and fundamental freedoms of others. The practice of tolerance doesn't
mean toleration of social injustice or the abandonment or weakening of
one's conviction. Tolerance is not always a positive concept. More
traditional meanings of the word tolerance do not include respect or
acceptance.
Intolerance is a lack of
respect for practices or beliefs of others. This is shown when someone
is not willing to let other people act in a different way or hold
different opinions. Intolerance can mean that people are not treated
fairly because of their religious beliefs, their sexuality, or even
their clothes and hairstyle. Intolerance does not accept difference. It
lies at the basis of racism, antisemitism, xenophobia
and discrimination in general. It
can often lead to violence.
When you form an opinion
about a person, without knowing him, on the basis of assumed
characteristics of the group you think he belongs to, then you are
prejudiced. Prejudices are complex ideas that are preformed and
presumed without being proven right. The mind of human beings cannot
work completely without prejudice. By becoming aware of the prejudices
we have, we can overcome them. When someone is prejudiced, he will be
inclined to see only those things that confirm his ideas and thus
strengthen his prejudice, and the stereotypes he believes in. A
stereotype is generalised judgement about categories of people.
Discrimination is judging
someone, and acting towards that person in a negative way, on the basis
of certain irrelevant characteristics such as skin colour, sex,
sexuality, nationality, social class, ethnic origin, etc.
Taken literally,
"xenophobia" means a fear of strangers. The word is used to describe
hostility towards people who come from other countries or other ethnic
groups, as well as a lack of respect for their traditions and culture.
Racism is the belief that
some people are superior because they belong to a particular race.
Racists define a race as a group of people with common ancestry. They
distinguish different races from one another by physical
characteristics, such as skin colour and hair texture. In fact, there
are no clear differences, and especially no significant differences
that matter. Recent research shows that race is an imagined entity.
"Race" has no biological basis. The word "racism" is also used to
describe abusive or aggressive behaviour towards members of a so-called
"inferior race". Racism takes different forms in different countries,
according to history, culture and other social factors. A relatively
new form of racism sometimes called "ethnic or cultural
differentiation" says that all races or cultures are equal but they
should not mix together to keep their originality. There is no
scientific proof of the existence of different races. Biology has only
determined one race: the human race.
Antisemitism is prejudice against Jewish people.
Antisemites wrongly believe that Jews are fundamentally different from
other people. They often believe that Jews want to rule the world and
are trying to reach this goal through a worldwide conspiracy. This form
of xenophobic intolerance
leads to discrimination against
individuals as well as the persecution of Jews as a group. The most
horrific manifestation of antisemitism came with Hitler's rise to power
and the Nazi ideology of racial purity. Millions of Jewish people,
deported from all countries controlled by Germany, died in
concentration camps during the Holocaust. However, antisemitism did not
start nor end with the Holocaust. It is deeply rooted in European
culture and still manifests itself today.
Fascism is a violent reactionary right-wing political movement, which manifests itself ultimately in an openly terrorist dictatorship. Fascism gains support among all social groups especially in times of political and economical crises, it destroys democratic liberties and discriminates members of specific (ethnic) minorities and people with different views. Fascists believe in the just leadership of a strong man, instead of parliamentary democracy. Fascism builds on a strong nationalism that often turns racist. The most brutal form of fascism was the national-socialist dictatorship in Germany 1933-1945, but this is by far not the only fascist dictatorship in history. The word 'fascism' was coined by the Italian dictatorship of Mussolini. We often speak of Fascism with a capital 'f' when we speak of this specific ideology in this specific historical context and about 'fascism' when we speak about the generic 'family of ideologies'. Those who believe in this ideology nowadays are called 'neo-fascists'. Nazism is the ideology and
policy of the German fascism that
manifested itself most prominently from 1933-1945, and which was
characterised by racism, antisemitism, totalitarianism, social
demagogy, aggression, violence and superiority claims over other nations. The word Nazism is short for
national-socialism, which was a political movement in Germany led by
NSDAP (The German national-socialistic workers party). The NSDAP was
founded in 1919 and in 1933 took absolute power in Germany. It was
pronounced a criminal organisation at the Nuremberg trial after World
War II. The nazi regime was responsible for the deaths of millions of
civilians, part of whom were gassed in concentration camps, because of
their (presumed) difference. Especially persecuted groups were Jews,
Roma, homosexuals and communists/socialists. Some groups identify
themselves with the ideals of nazism even today. They are called
neo-nazis. Neo-nazis sometimes manifest themselves as skinheads, but
not all of them do and not all skinheads are neo-nazis.
The fear and hatred of
homosexuals is called homophobia. Homosexuals are sometimes seen as
'mad, bad and sad': as psychologically ill, as perverts or as pitiful
cases. A lot of homophobia comes from religious beliefs. In general,
homophobic people see another person's (homo)sexuality first and
his/her humanity only later. Homosexuals have been persecuted for
centuries and are still persecuted in many countries. As the word
'homosexual' is often seen as defining a 'disease', many prefer to use
the word gay, or lesbian or GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual,
transgendered).
Sexism is making an
unfounded difference between men and women. Physiologically speaking
men and women are built differently, which is the only reason why it is
sometimes appropriate to treat them differently. To unfairly
differentiate between men and women is discrimination.
Sexism is a form of discrimination.
Instead of speaking of sexes, activists often refer to 'gender'. Sex is
a biological term, gender a sociological or political term. Gender is
the way society defines masculinity and femininity.
A nation is a group of
people who have the desire to see themselves as one coherent group.
They recognise a common ancestry, a common history and often a common
territory. Nations are not organic, biological or natural entities.
They exist because of the will of people. They are 'imagined'. This
does not make them less real in the world, as we have to deal with what
people believe exists. The idea of the existence of nations as the
essential building blocks of our world is relatively new, it has come
up during the 19th century. States that wanted to unify the people in
their country propagated the idea of one nation, with one history, one
language and one territory.
Nationalism is a political
ideology that puts interests of one "nation"
or national group above the interests of others and above all other
relationships, be they to family, friends, gender or humanity. It is
often linked with a territorial claim. Nationalism makes a difference
between people as a result of a border, which often had nothing to do
with the people living in the region but with the king or other
authority putting a line on a map. This political idea proclaims
citizens of one nation to be superior to others and usually leads to
suspicion of other nations. An extreme form of this is chauvinism.
Originally the notion of nationalism was not so negative, as it also
dealt with the development of citizen's rights and the emancipation of
sometimes oppressed minorities. However, when the concept becomes
linked to heritage, identity and 'blood' it becomes a dangerous idea.
Patriotism means being proud
to be a member of one's own nation,
or loving one's nation.
Patriotism stems from emotional attitude to nationality and its culture
and society. Friendship with other countries and nationalities is still
possible in this way of thinking, and it can respect their rights and
interests. Although it is different from (political) nationalism,
patriotism can easily become the motor for an intolerant nationalism.
This is a vision of the
world in which human life, human rights
and human dignity are viewed as more important and more essential than
nationality. Internationalism is the refusal of recognising any real
basic differences between members of the human race of all
nationalities. People who believe in internationalism, will as a
consequence struggle against nationalism,
racism, fascism,
sexism, antisemitism,
homophobia and other forms
of intolerance.
This is the belief that we
become richer people by knowing and experiencing other cultures.
Different people should be able to live together, although they have
different cultural backgrounds. Interculturalism is about accepting and
respecting differences. People who believe in interculturalism believe
they can learn and profit from meeting other cultures.
Multiculturalism means the
existence or the promotion of the existence of different cultures
alongside each other, usually in one country. Many people use this
concept when they speak of an anti-racist future. But multiculturalism
can also mean the mutual isolation of cultures. Some racists believe in
a kind of multiculturalism that is close to the 'apartheid'-system that
existed in South Africa, where different cultures were separated in a
cruel and unjust way.
Integration is a process of unifying individuals and activities into a new system. It means that minority groups and the majority group develop a new way of living, which includes elements of the values and ideas of both groups. Integration also means that everyone finds a place in society. There are no fundamental divisions between groups. Assimilation is the
suppression of differences. Sometimes individuals choose to assimilate
of their own free will, but this process is mostly forced upon groups
against their wishes. Assimilation forces one group to give up its
culture in favour of another. Usually the minority
takes over the culture of the majority.
Social exclusion is the
opposite of social integration.
It is usually seen as a result of discrimination
on the basis of cultural background, ethnic background, disability,
sexual orientation, etc. It usually results in poverty, animosity
between groups and exclusion from essential social provisions such as
education, health care and community activities. This exclusion is not
always based on laws (although it often is) but also often on attitude:
making standards too high to reach for certain groups, reinforcing a
dress code a group can't comply with, etc. One example of a socially
excluded group is homeless people.
A minority group is a group
of persons resident within a area in which it constitutes at least less
than the biggest grouping within the population and whose members share
common characteristics of either an ethnic, religious, linguistic or
other nature that distinguish them from the rest of the population.
Sometimes we consider a group a minority, not because of the percentage
of people it contains in an area, but because of the position they are
in. A minority has a lower social and/or economic position than the
majority. It does not have as much power as the majority group.
Sometimes a minority sees itself as a separate nation.
A migrant is a person who
moves from his home country to another country. Migrants are different
from refugees. They have not fled
from danger of persecution. Most migrants move to another country to
build a better life for themselves and their families. In modern
terminology, all refugees who are not awarded refugee status are
migrants. The differences are often administrative and not based on a
fundamental difference. A lot of migrants have faced life-threatening
situations in their homelands.
A refugee is a person who
flees in the face of danger or a life-threatening situation. Refugees
are sometimes defined as those asylum-seekers
that are awarded a refugee status and sometimes as anyone who needs
refuge from danger. The choice between those definitions is a political
one, not a linguistic one. Sometimes economic refugees are also
recognised. They are people who flee from economic uncertainty,
exploitation, hunger and misery. The Geneva Convention definition is
detailed and somewhat restrictive. It includes those persons that are
persecuted on the basis of their supposed race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political opinion. The
African definition of refugee includes those seeking refuge from
natural disasters and famine too. The recent Dublin agreements limit
the Geneva Convention definition to refer only to political persecution
of individuals by the state.
An asylum-seeker is a person
who seeks protection in a country, and wants to receive the status of refugee. In many countries
asylum-seekers are kept in detention. Some are turned back at the
border. Only a small percentage of asylum-seekers are granted the
permission to stay.
Most people in our working
fields don't use the term illegal any more, but refer to a person
without the right papers as 'sans-papiers' (which literally means
"without papers"). Someone can be illegal because he comes into the
country without permission, or does not have a residence permit while
living in the country, or because the government decides to change its
rules and suddenly the right to stay is withdrawn.
We define solidarity as a
sense of togetherness, commonness of a certain degree (sympathy, moral
support, material help, co-operation), which is displayed towards each
other by countries, groups of people or individuals. Solidarity can be
both passive (as in sympathy) and active (as in material help and
co-operation).
Democracy is a word from
ancient Greek, which means "government by the people". In Europe the
philosophers of the "Enlightenment" have developed it further. Nowadays
the term democracy usually refers to the concept of a state, which
includes more than just voting for representatives in an election.
Democracy, in this case, also means being able to participate in
society with the same rights as other people. Participation is taking
part in an activity together with other people, such as in a youth
organisation, and being involved in making decisions. This view of
democracy includes listening to opinions of the minority even if the majority has a
different opinion. This ideal includes being able to deal with
diversity and eventually to come to a compromise for the good of
everybody.
The political terms of 'left
and 'right' originally refer to the seating positions in the General
Assembly of the first French republic. They have come to mean different
things over time and probably will change meaning again as years go by.
In general 'left' usually means: progressive, believing in the
possibility of change, in favour of equality
and the protection of the weaker. 'Right' usually means conservative,
believing in stability and continuity, in favour of the victory of the
best and the leadership of an elite. It is important to understand that
this term has become especially complicated in Central and Eastern
Europe, where 'socialism' has begun to refer to conservative groups and
'centre' often refers to groups that would in the West be called
'right'.
HATE CRIMES Hate crimes are any criminal offences, both against persons or property, where the victim, premises or target of the offence are selected because of their real or perceived connection, attachment, affiliation, support, or membership in a group which is defined by race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, political affiliation or social circumstances. It is an attack on one's physical self, but is also an attack on one's very identity. HATE SPEECH Hate speech is a term for discourse intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudice against a person or group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language, moral or political views, socioeconomic class, occupation or appearance (such as height, weight, and hair colour), mental capacity and any other similar distinction. The term covers written as well as oral and visual communication including in the mass media as well as some other forms of behaviours in a public setting, e.g. on the Internet. ANTI-GYPSYISM Anti-Gypsyism is a very specific form of racism, an ideology of racial superiority, a form of dehumanisation and of institutionalised racism. It is fuelled by historical discrimination and the struggle to maintain power relations that permit advantages to majority groups. It is based, on the one hand, on imagined fears, negative stereotypes, and myths and, on the other, on denial or erasure from the public conscience of a long history of discrimination against Roma. It ignores not only events where Roma were killed with bestiality, but also any non-stereotypical characteristics in the life of Roma. Prejudices against Roma clearly go beyond racist stereotyping which associates them with negative traits and behaviours. Dehumanisation is its central point. Roma are viewed as less than human; being less than human, they are perceived as not morally entitled to human rights equal to those of the rest of the population. RIGHTWING EXTREMISM Rightwing extremist ideology has its roots in nationalism and racism. It is governed by the idea that ethnic affiliation to a nation or race is of the utmost importance for an individual. All other interests and values, including civil and human rights, are subordinate to it. Rightwing extremists propagate a political system in which the state and the people amalgamate as an alleged natural order to form a unity ("ideology of the ethnic community"). Actually, this results in an antipluralistic system, leaving no room for democratic decisionmaking procedures and accepts violence as a legitimate way of achieving political goals.
(Source: www.verfassungsschutz.de)
UNITED
for Intercultural Action |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||