September 11 and the World Conference Against Racism

I was at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa in August 2001, working as a consultant with non-governmental groups. I lived in Canada at the time. The conference was an amazing, volatile, tumultuous and revolutionary gathering. Besides the usual crowd of non-governmental groups were large movements of landless peoples from South Africa, Dalits from India, Indigenous Peoples from the South Pacific and reparations for slavery movements from the US. One thing that became so clear during the conference is that racism structures global politics in a multitude of ways, and there is a general lack of a strong comprehension of the complexities of race and racism nationally and globally. The conference ended on September 9, 2001. I returned to Canada on September 10. I wrote this essay on September 17.

Durban, Canada

The manichean world view that unfolds in response to the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is not unlike the world view that prevailed throughout the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) negotiations in Durban two weeks ago: North versus South, East versus West, Jew versus Arab, Christian versus Muslim and the thinly veiled civilized versus barbarian. The civilized world has been attacked by fanatical Oriental zealots who hate us because we are free, we are told. It is a crime against humanity, we are told. This is the story told by those who would not participate in declaring the brutal enslavement of sixty million Africans a crime against humanity. This is the story told by those who would not acknowledge that colonizing peoples on the basis of their perceived racial identity is racist. This is the story told by those who would not agree that injustice marks the flow of capital, goods and people.


These were among the more sensational refusals that dominated media reports on the WCAR. However, there were quieter, but no less disturbing, negotiations on seemingly less contentious issues like affirmative action, immigration policy and indigenous claims at the WCAR that forecast a less respectful, more intolerant climate for racialized people in Canada and elsewhere. Coupled with the state's renewal of our collective license to fear and loathe the Other in response to the hijackings, we can predict that it will not be the Canadian government that offers an anti-racist voice in these troubled times.

Canada had imagined that it would walk hand in hand with civil society at the WCAR, to showcase the made-in-Canada solutions to the problem of multiculturalism. In fact, civil society came with quite the opposite plan: to compel the Canadian government to acknowledge the multiple ways that institutionalized racism impacts the lives of racialized peoples here and to seek solutions. Rather than imagining that citizens from a broad spectrum of the population might have some reasonable claims to make, the negotiators entrenched and retreated, embarking on a course of watering down the governmental agreement in ways which should be disturbing to all Canadians.

For example, in a paragraph referring to affirmative action policies, Canada argued to remove any mention of the potential benefactors. In a paragraph stating that immigration policies should not be administered with discrimination on the basis of racial, national or ethnic origin, Canada argued (about a legal document) that we need not mention the grounds of discrimination because "it is a conference on racism, we all know to what the paragraph refers." Canada supported the inclusion of paragraph 27 which undermines the decades-old global recognition of the rights to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples. Lest we believe that Canada acts at the behest of powerful allies, it was clear that we were witnessing made-in-Canada policies, especially when their amendments were not supported by the usual friends. Government negotiators from several like-minded countries were mystified about Canadian intentions in the negotiations. It is usually Canada that introduces language to protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, we heard. It is usually Canada that introduces language on affirmative action, they said. Scores of witnesses were growing curiouser and curiouser, asking Canadians: what is going on in your country? Canadian NGOs witnessing the negotiations shared profound discomfort and collective misgivings about returning to Canada after Durban, even though it is our home, the place of our birth for many and the only home many of us have. And yes, we have all heard the bigoted invitation to "go back to where you came from if you don't like it here". We know what the options are, thanks very much. Somehow we have to live here and somehow we have to demonstrate that to live in bigotry, no matter to whom it is directed, is a soul-destroying existence for all inhabitants. Now, more than ever, as Canada prepares for war along with its allies of "western civilization", as immigration polices and border controls prepare to overtly prohibit the free movement of particular racial or ethnic groups, as people perceived to be Muslim or Arab or simply Other are the recipients of hate messages, death threats, fire bombs and beatings, it is urgent that we resist the vengeful manipulation of our fear, grief and compassion and stand vigilant against this new wave of old racism, unleashed on us all.

Liz Philipose attended the World Conference Against Racism by invitation of the South African NGO Coalition, WCAR Secretariat.