I believe Europe, and especially Spain is ignorant. A past of many wars, poverty and nationalism has left many countries on this side of the Atlantic feeling insecure and untrusty of foreigners, or “different” people. A shame, I believe. The more, and the bigger the differences amongst us, the better: the more I learn from you and the more we get to share. Racism comes from insecurity and this whole economic crisis will only exarcebate those nationalistic movements and xenophobic attitiudes.

When I lived in India, I realizd that whites are the weak race, destines to dissappear in a fewhundred years, Mulatos, mixed, half halves… that’s the future of humanity. And to those that don’t believe it, I say… well, maybe you need to travel more!

great post!

what i’m hearing from you all is that it’s the finger pointing that really bothers you; perhaps hypocrisy is a greater offense than ignorance. and maybe that is just what obama’s presidency highlights.

joie — great point about european’s attitude toward israel’s vs. their treatment of arabs in their own country.

thank you all for your thoughtful comments and opinions!

But of course if the end product of race ignorance within Spain’s borders means that minorities are denied the same education and professional opportunities than whites, it is obvious that something needs to change. Here the effects clearly indicate that there is a cause, and a troubling one at that.

And while full-blown racial prejudice in Spain is rare, what troubles me is the Spanish population (and media’s) reluctance to condemn seemingly “innocent” racial fouls that do occur.

Instead of self-examining, Spaniards still seek to deny their own “racist” attitudes and acts by justifying how much less racist they are then the British, or the Italians, or any other European country who they think have reacted worse to their foreign guests.

The collective Spanish consciousness does not include, at present, acknowledgment of discriminatory behavior. This is partly because when they look at a past of mob lynchings in Alabama, or riots in British suburbs, they are certain that they are not racist.

Whether “harmless” monkey chants (“in the spirit of competition!!”)at black players in soccer games is really less flagrant than British protests against foreign laborers, as my friend argued, is really besides the point when looking at the big picture. This picture should portray a society looking inward not outward, and using non-subjective yard-stick in the race debate.

In 2000, it is not good enough to be “not as racist” anymore.

This is such a terrific post and I have also noticed that “double standard” that you talk about. As you say, European identity has been carved out of a century’s worth of racial/ethnic/religious conflict–conflict with the “other.” Whenever I am there, I can’t help but have images of myself walking on bloody soil. If you add up the World Wars and the Catholic/Protestant, Muslim/Christian, Jewish/Christian, Armenian/Turk, Bosnian/Serb, British/Irish, Basque/Spanish etc. conflicts, you are talking about hundreds of millions of people who died because they belonged to one group or another. They died simply because they looked a certain way or believed a certain thing or spoke different languages.

I freely recognize that maybe it is because I am Jewish and my grandparents are Holocaust survivors, but I’ve also found myself really uncomfortable having conversations about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict with some Europeans. Not because I seek to deny Palestinian suffering. But I wonder why some Europeans are so quick to label Israelis as racists bigots when I almost never hear them talking about how the Arab people living in their own countries are CLEARLY marginalized and cut off from mainstream opportunity structures.

This is not to excuse inequality or racism around the world–nor do I want to silence those who seek to point it out with the objective of making the world a better place. It’s best for us all to reflect on our history of inequality and find ways to practice social justice instead of pointing the “you’re more racist” finger.

This is a great topic, Jacki. Thanks for posting!