Иностранный язык (английский). Political and social matters. Учебно-методическое пособие

Discrimination

Warm-up

1.Give a definition of the word „discrimination‟.

2.Which types of discrimination do you know?

Discrimination on the basis of race

Text 1

Pre-reading task

1.What do you think causes racial prejudice?

2.Have you ever been involved with racial violence?

3.Read the following situations and decide if it is racial discrimination.

Why?

1.A landlady who refuses to let a room in the house where she lives, to a Pakistani girl.

2.A theatre director who will only accept a black actor to play the part of Shakespeare‟s Othello.

3.A white geography teacher in a predominantly white class who shows pictures of Indian peasants in mud huts, and says, pointing to an Indian boy in the class, “Hanif comes from India”.

4.A TV producer whose programme contains sketches which ridicule other nationalities.

5.A politician who advocates repatriating all non-white immigrants.

6.A factory that now employs only non-whites on the basis that nonwhites have in the past suffered from adverse discrimination and should be given the chance to “catch up”.

Read the following text and make a summary of the text.

Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another; that a person‟s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics.

Racism has existed throughout human history. It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another or the belief that another person is less than human, because of skin colour, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes.

During the past 500–1000 years, racism on the part of Western powers toward non-Westerners has had a far more significant impact on history

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than any other form of racism (such as racism among Western groups or among Easterners, such as Asians, Africans, and others). The most notorious example of racism by the West has been slavery, particularly the enslavement of Africans in the New World (slavery itself dates back thousands of years). This enslavement was accomplished because of the racist belief that Black Africans were less fully human than white Europeans and their descendants.

This belief was not "automatic": that is, Africans were not originally considered inferior. When Portuguese sailors first explored Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries, they came upon empires and cities as advanced as their own, and they considered Africans to be serious rivals. Over time, though, as African civilizations failed to match the technological advances of Europe, and the major European powers began to plunder the continent and forcibly remove its inhabitants to work as slave laborers in new colonies across the Atlantic, Africans came to be seen as a deficient "species," as "savages." To an important extent, this view was necessary to justify the slave trade at a time when Western culture had begun to promote individual rights and human equality.

In the second half of the 19th century, Darwinism, the decline of Christian belief, and growing immigration were all perceived by many white Westerners as a threat to their cultural control. European and, to a lesser degree, American scientists and philosophers devised a false racial "science" to "prove" the supremacy of non-Jewish whites. While the Nazi annihilation of Jews discredited most of these supposedly scientific efforts to elevate one race over another, small numbers of scientists and social scientists have continued throughout the 20th century to argue the inborn shortcomings of certain races, especially Blacks. At the same time, some public figures in the American Black community have championed the supremacy of their own race and the inferiority of whites – using nearly the identical language of white racists.

All of these arguments are based on a false understanding of race; in fact, contemporary scientists are not agreed on whether race is a valid way to classify people. What may seem to be significant "racial" differences to some people – skin colour, hair, facial shape – are not of much scientific significance. In fact, genetic differences within a so-called race may be greater than those between races. One philosopher writes: "There are few genetic characteristics to be found in the population of England that are not found in similar proportions in Zaire or in China….those differences that most deeply affect us in our dealings with each other are not to any significant degree biologically determined."

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Text 2

Read the text and explain the highlighted words. Summarize the main ideas.

Global Action against Racism

Since its creation, the United Nations has struggled to find measures to combat racial discrimination and ethnic violence. This commitment to human dignity and equality is reflected in its adoption of a number of resolutions, conventions and declarations, including:

Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide – 1948

Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – 1963

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination – 1965

21 March designated International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – 1966

International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid – 1973 Apartheid.

First Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination 1973– 1982

First World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, Geneva 1978

Second World Conference to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination, also in Geneva 1983

Second Decade for Action to Combat Racial Discrimination l983– l992

Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination 1994– 2003

World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2001

Since the adoption in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international community has made some important advances in the fight against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. National and international laws have been enacted and numerous international human rights instruments, particularly a treaty to ban racial discrimination, have been adopted. Progress has been made – witness the defeat of apartheid in South Africa. Yet, the dream of a world free of racial hatred and bias remains only half fulfilled.

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As technology brings the peoples of the world closer together and political barriers tumble, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance continue to ravage our societies. Horrors such as "ethnic cleansing" have emerged in recent years, while ideas of racial superiority have spread to new media like the Internet. Even globalization carries risks that can lead to exclusion and increased inequality, very often along racial and ethnic lines.

The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance took place in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. It adopted a Declaration and Programme of Action to eliminate racism and to encourage acceptance of human diversity and interdependence. The World Conference addressed the issues of trafficking in persons, discrimination of migrants, “double” discrimination on the basis of gender and race, etc.

The Race Dimensions of Trafficking in Persons – Especially Women and Children

Each year, millions of individuals, the majority women and children, are tricked, sold, coerced or otherwise forced into situations of exploitation from which they cannot escape. They are the commodities in a multi-billion dollar global industry dominated by highly organized criminal groups operating with impunity.

Trafficking is a phenomenon that affects and implicates all regions and most countries of the world. While trafficking routes are constantly changing, one constant factor is the economic distinction between countries of origin and countries of destination. As with all other forms of irregular migration, trafficking invariably involves movement from a poorer country to a wealthier one. Southeast Asian women are trafficked to North America and other Southeast Asian countries. African women are trafficked to Western Europe. The breakup of the former Soviet Union and the resulting economic and political dislocation has led to a dramatic increase in the number of women trafficked from Central and Eastern Europe.

Traffickers use a variety of recruitment methods including outright abduction and purchase from family members. However, in most cases, the potential trafficking victim is already seeking a chance to migrate when she is approached by an acquaintance or lured through an advertisement. Some are tricked into believing they are being recruited for legitimate employment or marriage abroad. Others know they are being recruited into the sex industry and even that they will be obliged to work in order to pay back large recruitment and transportation fees but are deceived about their conditions of

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work. The web of dependence is a complex one. Traffickers generally seek to exercise control over a victim‟s legal identity by confiscating her passport or official papers. Her entry or stay in the destination country is usually illegal – serving to increase her reliance on the traffickers. Debt bondage is widely used to control trafficked persons and to ensure their continued profitability. Physical restraint, violence, and intimidation are frequently reported.

Traffickers are rarely apprehended and even more rarely prosecuted. Penalties for trafficking are relatively light when compared to the smuggling of drugs or weapons. One reason for the poor law enforcement response to trafficking is the low incidence of reporting. This is not difficult to understand. Victims of trafficking are rarely treated as anything other than criminals by the authorities of the receiving state and are often detained, prosecuted, and deported. This reality, combined with a fear of reprisals from traffickers, means that trafficked persons have little incentive to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the destination countries. A lack of knowledge of legal rights and entitlements, cultural and linguistic obstacles and the absence of support mechanisms combine to further isolate trafficked women and to prevent them from seeking or receiving justice.

Although the links between trafficking and racial bias are not immediately clear they are nonetheless undeniable. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson put it, “Trafficking is … inherently discriminatory. In the case of trafficking into the global sex industry, we are talking about men from relatively prosperous countries paying for the sexual services of women and girls – and sometimes men and boys – from less wealthy countries. This is more than a labour rights issue or an issue of unequal development. It is a basic human rights issue because it involves such a massive and harmful form of discrimination”.

Migration and Discrimination

Some 150 million men, women and even children, about three percent of the world's population, are outside their country of origin coming as strangers to the country where they reside. There is no continent, no region of the world which has no migrants within its boundaries. Every country has become a country of origin, transit or destination of migrants. Many are all three. More than half of international migrants live in developing countries. According to the International Organization for Migration, the largest numbers of international migrants are located in Asia; Europe and North America have about equal numbers followed by Africa, Latin America, and Oceania with progressively fewer numbers.

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Migrants are a particularly vulnerable group and see their rights routinely violated, not only as workers, but as human beings. They commonly face discrimination and xenophobic hostility. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), migrants "are more and more targeted as the scapegoats for all manner of domestic problems facing societies today, particularly unemployment, crime, drugs, even terrorism." As noted by Ms Gabriela Rodriguez Pizarro, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, "this is especially true in the case of many migrants who are undocumented or in an irregular situation, including the victims of trafficking in persons, who are the most vulnerable to human rights violations." According to the UN, between 300,000 and 600,000 women are smuggled each year into the European Union and certain Central European countries. The problem is also widespread in Africa and Latin America.

Ms Rodriguez Pizarro says in her report to the UN Commission on Human Rights, "people whose colour, physical appearances, dress, accent or religion are different from those of the majority in the host country are often subjected to physical violence and other violations of their rights, independently of their legal status." Her report notes that in the last decade there has been an alarming upsurge in intolerance, discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the form of outright violence against migrants in practically every region of the world. The report notes that racism may be aggravated by inequitable distribution of wealth, marginalization and social exclusion. New communication technologies, including the Internet are being used to disseminate racist and xenophobic propaganda against migrants.

Answer the questions:

1.Name the key factors that contribute to the development of illegal trade in human beings.

2.Why are trafficked persons usually reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement authorities?

3.What is the critical link between trafficking and racial discrimination?

4.What are the main causes of migration? What makes people leave their homelands and move to other countries?

5.Which forms of discrimination are migrants subjected to?

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Text 3

Read the text and summarize its main ideas. Explain the highlighted words.

At the Crossroads of Gender and Racial Discrimination

The injustices suffered by victims of racial discrimination and related intolerance are well-known: limited employment opportunities; segregation; and endemic poverty are only a few among these. The disadvantages faced by women in societies around the world are also familiar: lower pay for work of equal value; high illiteracy rates; and poor access to health care. While race is one reason for inequality and gender is another, they are not mutually exclusive forms of discrimination. Indeed, too often they intersect, giving rise to compounded or double discrimination.

For many women factors relating to their social identity such as race, colour, ethnicity and national origin become "differences that make a difference". These factors can create problems that are unique to particular groups of women or that disproportionately affect some women relative to others.

Consider the societal roadblocks experienced by a Roma woman living in Eastern Europe. As a member of the Romani population, she has few advocates and is the target of constant hostility. She is marginalized within her community because of her minority status and within her family because of her gender. The same can be said of an aboriginal woman living in Australia, a Dalit woman living in India, a female asylum seeker living in England and so on. These women live at the crossroads of gender and racial discrimination.

Without taking race into account, the statistics on the status of the world's women show that women have a long way to go before achieving equality with men. According to a recent report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), women fall short in many of the main indicators that measure progress towards gender equality and women's empowerment.

The literacy rate for women worldwide is 71.4 percent, compared with 83.7 per cent for men. Of the 960 million illiterate adults, two-thirds are women. The gender gap in earning persists, with women employed in industry and services typically earning 78 per cent of what men earn in the same sector. Women's share of decision-making positions reached 30 per cent in

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only 28 countries in the 1990s. Additionally, of 1.3 billion people living in poverty, 70 per cent are women.

When a woman's race is factored in to her experience, the double burden of gender and racial discrimination and related intolerance becomes evident. Areas of particular concern include the disadvantages faced by minority women in the labour market, trafficking in women, and race-based violence against women.

Ethnic or race-based violence against women is considered the most recognizable example of intersectional discrimination. Incidents of rape in Bosnia, Kosovo, Burundi and Rwanda represent race-based targeting of women for an explicitly gender-based violation. Additionally, ethnic conflict produces a large number of female refugees who then become vulnerable to sexual violence and gender-related issues. Rape against women picked because of their ethnic or religious origin has now been recognized as a weapon of war by both International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and prosecuted accordingly.

After-reading tasks Answer the questions:

1.What is double discrimination? Which groups of women does it af-

fect?

2.Bring the examples of gender inequality in modern societies. Will this gap be reduced in the nearest future? Why?

Make true/false statements to the text.

__________________________________________________________

Exercises:

I. Fill in the gaps with the correct form of the verbs or their derivatives (mind the use of prepositions): to marginalize, to traffic, to prosecute, to coerce (2), to abduct, to intimidate, to segregate

1.He claims he was c_______ into admitting his guilt.

2.The m_____________ of certain groups within the community may lead to social unrest.

3.She said that she had signed the contract under c___________.

4.There has been a series of a__________ of young children from schools in the area.

5.The campaign of violence and i____________ against them intensifies daily.

6.Most of the civil servants involved in the affair have been successfully p________ and dismissed.

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Discrimination on the basis of religion

Text 1

Read the texts and summarize the main ideas.

Muslim minorities in the West

The portrayal of Muslims by the American media generally promotes the image of extremists who live and operate in strange and distant lands. The reality, however, is that Muslims are a permanent and growing element in the populations of nearly all Western nations, including those of North America, Western Europe, the Caribbean, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. As residents and citizens of these nations, they are our neighbours, our colleagues, and often our providers of goods and services. This significant demographic shift poses a major cultural challenge to the countries where Muslims are now citizens and to the governments and resident populations of those countries, who must find ways to meet challenge. Although small numbers of Muslims found their way to Western lands over the course of the nineteenth century (and sometimes even earlier), it is only since the middle of the twentieth century that their presence has become so consistently visible [ ].

It is the fate of immigrants to face a variety of forms of discrimination based on a great many factors: race and ethnicity, inability to speak the language of the land, dress, customs, and religion. For Muslims, this discrimination has been aggravated as a consequence of growing hostility towards Islam in the West, sometimes called “Islamophobia”. Recently, the religion factor has been especially significant. The stereotyping that has come from media responses to international events usually has repercussions on Muslims living in minority communities in the West. They become the focus of attention and of scapegoating. Islamophobia results from the religion being depicted as violent, and the attribute of violence then stigmatizes minority Muslims. The situation gets even worse when, as has been the case in Chicago and other U.S. cities, Muslims are accused of being connected to and financing radical Islamic groups in the Middle East; accusations that receive great attention from the local and national press as well as from government security agencies.

Efforts of the host country to demonize Islam or its citizens have served to pave the way toward common religious identity and an affirmation of common beliefs and practices as symbols of distinction. During periods of

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