*By John Letzig<\/p>
\u201cDiscrimination is not as bad as the media makes it out to be.\u201d<\/p>
That\u2019s one of the statements prospective jurors were asked<\/a> to weigh in on before the trial now under way<\/a> of a police officer charged with murdering George Floyd<\/a>.<\/p> Those who were inclined to reply \u201cstrongly agree\u201d might take note of the many tangible ways racial discrimination impacts the economic well-being<\/a> and health<\/a> of people around the world \u2013 whether it\u2019s Asian Americans subjected to horrific violence<\/a>, or Indigenous Australians <\/a>condemned to a lower socioeconomic status.<\/p> Discrimination takes many forms, some more subtle than others. For example, negative portrayals<\/a> of people of colour in popular entertainment \u2013 or their complete erasure<\/a>. According to a report<\/a> published recently by McKinsey, Black talent is largely shut out of senior creative positions in film and TV in the US; while they make up 13% of the population, they accounted for just 6% of directors between 2015 and 2019, and 4% of writers.<\/p> That\u2019s just one of many things to ponder during the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination<\/a> this Sunday. The annual observance is meant to help foster a global culture of tolerance, equality, and anti-discrimination.<\/p> It\u2019s a timely notion. In addition to the killing of George Floyd, the 12 months since last year\u2019s observance have seen an inordinate COVID-19 impact on people of colour in the UK<\/a> and elsewhere, outrage over the indiscriminate beating<\/a> of a Black man in Paris, efforts to suppress<\/a> the Black vote in the US, racist abuse hurled at Indian cricketers<\/a> in Australia, and violence<\/a> directed at Black demonstrators in Cape Town.<\/p> Just five days before this year\u2019s observance, six of the eight victims of a bloody rampage<\/a> at spas in Atlanta were Asian American women. Authorities didn\u2019t immediately determine a motive, but the killings are part of an alarming increase in violence directed at people of Asian heritage, corresponding with an uptick in racist rhetoric<\/a> about the pandemic \u2013 and not just<\/a> in the US.<\/p> The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination falls on 21 March for a reason \u2013 in 1960, that was when 69 Black South Africans protesting against being forced to carry the \u201cpassbooks<\/a>\u201d required of all non-whites were killed<\/a> by police officers.<\/p> Some progress<\/a> has been noted since then, and there are signs of hope for the future. \u201cYouth standing up against racism\u201d is the theme of this year\u2019s international day, and there are indications<\/a> that young people are increasingly less racist than their elders \u2013 and more willing to acknowledge injustice that doesn\u2019t directly affect them.<\/p> According to a survey<\/a> conducted in the US last year, 60% of white respondents aged 18 to 34 said Black people are treated less fairly in interactions with police, compared with just 37% of white respondents over 65.<\/p> And in response to a survey<\/a> question put to a respondents in the UK last year about whether they\u2019d be happy for their child to marry someone from another ethnic group, 88% of those 18 to 34 \u201cstrongly\u201d agreed, compared with half of the respondents over 65.<\/p> In the wake of George Floyd\u2019s killing last May, Black Lives Matter protests calling attention to racial injustice multiplied in cities around the world<\/a>. In Indonesia, for example, Papuans juxtaposed<\/a> the image of a local man<\/a> who\u2019d been brutalized by police with those of Floyd.<\/p> Many of these protests were organized and heavily attended by young people. According to a survey<\/a> conducted in the US about a month after Floyd\u2019s death, 41% of the people who said they\u2019d recently attended a protest focused on race were younger than 30.<\/p> For more context, here are links to further reading from the World Economic Forum\u2019s Strategic Intelligence platform<\/a>:<\/p> About the author: <\/strong>John Letzig is Digital Editor for Strategic Intelligence at the World Economic Forum. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" *By John Letzig The International Day for the Elimination of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[3781],"class_list":["post-29584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-racism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29596,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29584\/revisions\/29596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}