What is Institutional Racism - How it Operates Secretly In Liverpool :
By: Wayne Leon Learmond BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
'Four hundred years of shackles and chains, four hundred years of racist names, and institutionalised racist games, Slavepool's history has got to change.' {Eugine Lange {AKA Muhammed Khalil}
Institutional racism is more insidious, more devious and more evil - than overt racism could ever be. Institutional racism camouflages itself in 'respectability'. It fools the many into believing and thinking that all is well within society, when it clearly is not. Institutional racism is recognised straight away by those who suffer it and they also recognise it for what it is. However, those who do not suffer with this evil against their fellow human beings, very rarely notice it...unless it is pointed out to them.
Institutional racism exists in every society were the majority happen to be one colour or the other. As much as anti-racist laws are brought out to combat racial discrimination within the workplace and society as a whole, institutional racism is still rife within society. An example of this is the European city of Liverpool.
Liverpool is one of the most important cities in England, and was one of the major cities that involved itself in the slave trade. With Liverpool being a port, slave ships would come into the city, dock, and the slave owners would trade and sell their human cargo on Liverpool shores. This was a trade that Liverpool has since apologised for, to the African continent as a whole. Yet, the legacy of the slave trade still resounds with forceful clarity within Liverpool.
Street names are named after slave owners, and the many civic buildings and homes within Liverpool, were all built on the proceeds of blood money - the slave trade - as well as the land that they were built on, bought and sold through the proceeds of blood money. At one point there were calls to change the street names and bring them more into keeping with Liverpool's view of how it wanted to be perceived by the rest of the world. The term ' World in one City' was routinely used during the city's European Capital of Culture celebrations. And, although Liverpool had {and still has} many nationalities within its border, there is an overbearing sense of institutionalised racism.
Because of Liverpool's trade links with the rest of the world - with the city being a port - there has been immigration into the city and emigration out of the city. Liverpool has been shaped by immigration, different people and cultures coming into the city and setting up businesses and homes.
So, one may think that Liverpool owes a lot to immigration and the trade and skills that the new immigrants had brought into the city, and she does. But this is far from the case. Black seamen who came to the city during the 40s and 50s tell a different story, they tell of racist attacks, both verbal and physical, and even of black people being chased down the streets of Liverpool and beaten to a pulp. Liverpool likes to portray itself as 'welcoming' were everyone gets on with everybody else, despite colour or creed. Yet, walk into Liverpool City Centre, and institutional racism hits you in the face.
There is not one black, Chinese, or Indian face working within the major stores in Liverpool City centre, its museums and galleries, on public transport or the ferries. Many Asian people have their own stalls, where they sell clothing, trainers and such like, but none are to be found employed in the major stores, such as Comet, WH Smith, Waterstones, Rapids, and other major stores.
The same can be said for black people - who were born and bred in Liverpool. Generation after generation of talent has been lost to Liverpool, because of racist views that 'black people were lazy', and 'black people did not want to work.' These comments were used like a chant and were followed up by high unemployment of young black kids, who had no hope, no chance of employment, because of their skin colour, and no chance at all within Liverpool.
This was confounded by the fact that there was, and still is a kind of 'unofficial apartheid' that sees people of different colours and nationalities sticking to their own area within the city. Black seamen, when arriving in Liverpool, gravitated toward South Liverpool, and in particular the district called 'Toxteth'.
Toxteth, at one time was one of the richest districts throughout the whole of Liverpool, and many Victorian houses and buildings are to be found within the area. In fact Toxteth,and Liverpool as a whole, has some of the finest Victorian and Georgian buildings to be found outside of London. But the fact remains that black people felt safe in Toxteth, as there were many horrific accounts of outright racist attacks - and deaths - against black seamen, and black people as a whole who would dare leave the boundaries of Toxteth.
Consecutive Liverpool councils were very fond of reminding the rest of the world that Liverpool was a 'World in One City'. What they failed to mention however, was that Liverpool born black people were 'herded' into their own little area. City Councils would often spout on about how Liverpool had the oldest Afro-Caribbean community in the whole of Europe, and the oldest Chinese community in Europe {Chinese seamen when arriving in Liverpool all those years ago, made their own district of Liverpool {which is now known as Chinatown.}
Yet, despite having the oldest black and Chinese communities throughout the whole of Europe, there is not one black or Chinese person, even now in 2011, working in the major stores of Liverpool. There is only one reason and one reason alone for this disgrace, and that is institutionalised racism. When decades pass, with still not one person of colour working within the major infrastructure of the city, then there is only one conclusion one can come too.
This is what is known as institutional racism. When doors are closed in front of your face, when shop assistants pretend that you are invisible while serving on everyone who does not happen to have a Chinese, black or Indian face; when time after time employment opportunities within Liverpool, are closed to those of a certain colour or nationality.
This apartheid has been going on for years, and the city of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, has turned a blind eye to the disgraceful way none white people are treated. This is the evil of institutional racism at its worst and it is alive and well in the 21st century - as it was during the 20th century...nothing changes.
Institutional racism exists in every society were the majority happen to be one colour or the other. As much as anti-racist laws are brought out to combat racial discrimination within the workplace and society as a whole, institutional racism is still rife within society. An example of this is the European city of Liverpool.
Liverpool is one of the most important cities in England, and was one of the major cities that involved itself in the slave trade. With Liverpool being a port, slave ships would come into the city, dock, and the slave owners would trade and sell their human cargo on Liverpool shores. This was a trade that Liverpool has since apologised for, to the African continent as a whole. Yet, the legacy of the slave trade still resounds with forceful clarity within Liverpool.
Street names are named after slave owners, and the many civic buildings and homes within Liverpool, were all built on the proceeds of blood money - the slave trade - as well as the land that they were built on, bought and sold through the proceeds of blood money. At one point there were calls to change the street names and bring them more into keeping with Liverpool's view of how it wanted to be perceived by the rest of the world. The term ' World in one City' was routinely used during the city's European Capital of Culture celebrations. And, although Liverpool had {and still has} many nationalities within its border, there is an overbearing sense of institutionalised racism.
Because of Liverpool's trade links with the rest of the world - with the city being a port - there has been immigration into the city and emigration out of the city. Liverpool has been shaped by immigration, different people and cultures coming into the city and setting up businesses and homes.
So, one may think that Liverpool owes a lot to immigration and the trade and skills that the new immigrants had brought into the city, and she does. But this is far from the case. Black seamen who came to the city during the 40s and 50s tell a different story, they tell of racist attacks, both verbal and physical, and even of black people being chased down the streets of Liverpool and beaten to a pulp. Liverpool likes to portray itself as 'welcoming' were everyone gets on with everybody else, despite colour or creed. Yet, walk into Liverpool City Centre, and institutional racism hits you in the face.
There is not one black, Chinese, or Indian face working within the major stores in Liverpool City centre, its museums and galleries, on public transport or the ferries. Many Asian people have their own stalls, where they sell clothing, trainers and such like, but none are to be found employed in the major stores, such as Comet, WH Smith, Waterstones, Rapids, and other major stores.
The same can be said for black people - who were born and bred in Liverpool. Generation after generation of talent has been lost to Liverpool, because of racist views that 'black people were lazy', and 'black people did not want to work.' These comments were used like a chant and were followed up by high unemployment of young black kids, who had no hope, no chance of employment, because of their skin colour, and no chance at all within Liverpool.
This was confounded by the fact that there was, and still is a kind of 'unofficial apartheid' that sees people of different colours and nationalities sticking to their own area within the city. Black seamen, when arriving in Liverpool, gravitated toward South Liverpool, and in particular the district called 'Toxteth'.
Toxteth, at one time was one of the richest districts throughout the whole of Liverpool, and many Victorian houses and buildings are to be found within the area. In fact Toxteth,and Liverpool as a whole, has some of the finest Victorian and Georgian buildings to be found outside of London. But the fact remains that black people felt safe in Toxteth, as there were many horrific accounts of outright racist attacks - and deaths - against black seamen, and black people as a whole who would dare leave the boundaries of Toxteth.
Consecutive Liverpool councils were very fond of reminding the rest of the world that Liverpool was a 'World in One City'. What they failed to mention however, was that Liverpool born black people were 'herded' into their own little area. City Councils would often spout on about how Liverpool had the oldest Afro-Caribbean community in the whole of Europe, and the oldest Chinese community in Europe {Chinese seamen when arriving in Liverpool all those years ago, made their own district of Liverpool {which is now known as Chinatown.}
Yet, despite having the oldest black and Chinese communities throughout the whole of Europe, there is not one black or Chinese person, even now in 2011, working in the major stores of Liverpool. There is only one reason and one reason alone for this disgrace, and that is institutionalised racism. When decades pass, with still not one person of colour working within the major infrastructure of the city, then there is only one conclusion one can come too.
This is what is known as institutional racism. When doors are closed in front of your face, when shop assistants pretend that you are invisible while serving on everyone who does not happen to have a Chinese, black or Indian face; when time after time employment opportunities within Liverpool, are closed to those of a certain colour or nationality.
This apartheid has been going on for years, and the city of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom, has turned a blind eye to the disgraceful way none white people are treated. This is the evil of institutional racism at its worst and it is alive and well in the 21st century - as it was during the 20th century...nothing changes.
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