"RACISM: A HISTORY"

A programme titled “Racism: A History” which examines the impact of racism in the 20th century was aired yesterday on BBC Four at 9pm.

The insightful programme discussed various issues such as slavery, stereotypes of black people in the media, African-Americans, colonisation, South African apartheid, Government legislation, Enoch Powel’s “Rivers of blood” speech, the civil rights movement in America, Race riots in Britain, the National Front movement, the tragic Steven Lawrence murder and the McPherson report.

The programme showed disturbing images of lynched and burnt black people in America and discussed their experiences of racism. “Racism: A History” also discussed that the humiliation and suffering of African-American’s was mirrored in Africa due to colonisation.

King Leopold was discussed also during the programme who realised the immense wealth of Africa, he deceived people by claiming to want to “educate and civilise” Africans. He created a 90,000 strong army to enforce his cruel regime. One of Leopold’s lieutenants wrote “the only way to civilise the Africans is by the whip”.
Colonisation led to an enormous loss of human life where the population of Africa was slashed from 20million to 10 million.

Dr Bambi who spoke on the programme talked about Human zoos where Africans where put on display like animals.

The Congolese genocide where 10 million people died which is greatly ignored nowadays despite the large loss of life, was voiced on “Racism: A History”.

Viewers were also enlightened about the origins of racism as a term. We were told that the word racism came about with the Nazi’s horrific treatment of the Jews.

The programme also talked about the current state of the world, how inequality still persists as those in India and Africa are living in poverty. It was said that in the United States most African-Americans are also living in poverty with the unemployment rate too times higher for black people than whites.

Lee Jasper, Senior Policy Advisor on Equalities for the Mayor of Greater London also featured on the programme in which he said: “We are still seeing an impact on black people’s lives due to racism.”