Racism is still very much alive and kicking in Malta. And the fact that it is no longer as open and vociferous as it once was does not mean it no longer exists; what it means is that racism has perhaps, after all these years of the issue being kicked around like a political and societal football, quietly permeated at least a segment of the national psyche.
On the one hand blatant racism appears to have died down, but on the other hand it has been replaced with something else. Calls for migrant boats to be sunk with cannon fire before they reach Malta’s shores are thankfully no longer heard as often as they once were, but there is a more insidious form of racism that is still very much alive and unfortunately doing well.
It may be spoken of in more hushed tones these days, but there is still a very real sense of resentment among many against the Africans who, not by design but by a twist of fate, ended up here in Malta.
A sizeable group of Maltese and migrants residing in Malta gathered yesterday before the Law Courts in Valletta to highlight the fact that racism in Malta has become institutionalised, and they could not have been more correct.
Long gone, at least for the time being, are the days when migrant boats would turn up on our shores on a daily basis. And, apparently also, long gone are the days of Malta’s far-right parties that protested so loudly about the country accommodating these asylum seekers, as though the country even had a choice in the matter considering its international obligations.
Now that the days of the migrant ‘crisis’ appear well behind us, that the particularly ugly breed of racism those groups and parties had espoused diminished along with their electoral fortunes.
But that vociferous brand of racism appears to have morphed into something more insidious, subtler and possibly more dangerous to society. The institutionalisation of racism is just that, it works its way into the national psyche, takes root and becomes part of the national consciousness. When that happens, all the small acts of racism that we see around us on a daily basis, if one is observant enough to notice them, become socially acceptable, they become social norms.
As was pointed out yesterday, recent court proceedings on the death of a migrant in 2009 consistently referred to the victim as ‘the black’ man, as though the man did not have a name, just a label he shared with all others like him. But, it seems, no one in court batted an eyelid at the nomenclature.
For the record, that man’s name was Suleiman Ismail Abubaker. Also for the record, should the culprits be found and the case comes to court, the young man who was slain last week in Paceville was called Osama Saleh.
The death of this other young man in Paceville last week was a tragic waste of life in that he was taken from his world so brutally and inexplicably. The fact that the young man so needlessly taken from this world is a refugee from Sudan attempting to establish a new life for himself far from the horrors of his homeland should make us here in Malta, we who like to boast of our traditional hospitality, blush with shame.
Yesterday’s highlighting of the fact that institutional racism here in Malta is still the order of the day in so many areas should serve as a wake-up call to the country. Now we can reply until we are blue in the face that all the right legislation to protect these migrants among us from being discriminated against is in place, but until there is a distinct change in mentality, no amount of legislation will make up for the decency deficit rampant in so many of us.
When we, still to this day, have situations in which people would rather stand on a bus than sit next to a black person, there is something wrong. People should be embarrassed to NOT sit down, but that does not appear to be the case.
That discrimination is alive and well in Malta is a fact, and any argument to the contrary would be simply delusional. Of course, just about every society in the world holds its own inherent discriminations but the fact that it exists elsewhere is absolutely no reason for us to turn a blind eye to the rearing of its ugly head in Malta.
But acts of racism, verbal or otherwise, appear to be becoming more systematic in nature. That the majority of such incidents, both violent and non-violent, go unreported is fact, as is the fact that the victims of such discrimination do not file reports for fear of repercussions, or because they simply feel the authorities would be reluctant to act.
What is happening in Paceville time and time again is symptomatic of both the blatant and more subtle forms of racism in this country. But violence in Paceville is merely one link in the chain – what about the racism experienced by these people in the workplace, when renting accommodation, in public places, and through certain comments and behaviour?
It is these more subtle, non-violent forms of racism that give what are effectively a very small minority of violent racists in this country the feeling of empowerment that they can act as they do with impunity.
Let us not empower them no more.