In Geneva, Switzerland this week a political football known as the UN Antiracism Conference (or more precisely: The Conference on “Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance”) – is an example of a much needed dialog hijacked by special interests; namely, religious and cultural leaders.

The first UN Antiracism Conference was held in Durban, South Africa in September 2001. Since that time it has been stuck in a political quagmire. The fact that the UN is more of a pulpit than a forum for debate was never more evident than this 8 year struggle to define racism and discrimination.

It can be argued, that there is no other nation that has more experience dealing with racism – past and present – than the United States. So when they declined not to attend or endorse the “agreement” drafted for the conference, I decided to give this a look-see and try to understand the debate.

I think even the youngest child in the U.S. can understand racism. Not so the U.N., apparently.

Your race or gender is a consequence of birth rather than choice, culture or indoctrination. Such cultural or personal choices as religious beliefs, sexual beliefs and moral bearing, cannot, by their very definition, be addressed by a global standard of right and wrong.

In an effort to address every problem in the world – for every interest in the world – the U.N. once again misses the point. Racism and sexism are real. The reason they are so profound a problem is evident in the arguments of the special interests in the racism debate itself. Political interests want to pit religious beliefs and economic classes against each other in the name of racism.  If you do not accept our culture or abide by our religious laws,  you are racist.  It is postulated by several influential religious interests, that if one’s religion says one is allowed to be sexist or raciest or to discriminate – within their common law -  then that trumps all other arguments.  

The fact the U.S., and other nations, are boycotting this conference – rather than give it the legitimacy it does not deserve – is the proper choice in my opinion.  The only way the U.N. can now extract itself from the mess it’s gotten itself into, is to develop separate conferences. One on racial and sexual discrimination; and another on intolerance of belief, culture and personal choice. We could then see a more uniform argument on the issues facing humanity, rather than only the issues facing those that wish to control humanity.

This separation will never happen of course. The U.N. is not designed to be effective; it is designed to give political voice to those who would not otherwise be heard. A noble goal, I believe, but not very pragmatic if solutions are to be gained. It’s that whole “management by committee” thing that never results in effective governance.

Since so many of the problems of global racism are rooted in cultural and religious belief, I’m not sure we will ever adequately address the key root causes of discrimination: religious dogma and cultural tradition.  Not until John Lennon’s “Imagine” – a world without walls, religions and countries -  will we find the plateau on which humanity may one day stand.  I fear many deaths and much pain await us between now and that day.

JB

Current News:

CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/04/19/racism.conference/index.html

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8006852.stm

Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/04/200941982836646130.html