Country: The United States of America
Topic: Combating Xenophobia and Racism
Delegate: Kristian Rica, Troy High School
Racism and Xenophobia both have had their occurrences in the history of the United States and the entirety of the Western Hemisphere. With the imperialist governments that ruled less than 3 centuries ago up to quite recently, discrimination and prejudice have been an unfortunate stain in multiple countries’ histories, such as slavery, discrimination of immigrants both pre and pst-WW2, etc. Most countries have had at least some cases of racial segregation or hatred towards people of different nationalities, although some have changed for the better.
The United States have had a long history of racism, both discriminating towards other races earlier on, and long, hard fought civil rights movements against it relatively recently. With Jim Crow laws and citizens’ discrimination towards people of color long after Slavery being abolished in the late 19th century, areas of the USA have had unfortunate racism, both De Jure and De Facto later on. Although these occurrences hinder the US’ past history, major strides against racism have been made by the American people and government since the 1950s in order to give the people of color the same opportunities and no discrimination. With the milestone Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the US had its first major overturn regarding racism and the previous court case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) which claimed that segregation was fair game in the constitution. After this, many laws, such as the Civil Right act of 1964 which outlawed work discrimination based on race, religion, sex or nationality were passed making racism, and as a result, xenophobia an unacceptable thing in the US.
In the last century, the United States has made very progressive changes to its government, which have made discrimination by race or nationality not a choice for anyone. Without infringing on individual rights, the US has figured out a way to give everyone who is willing to work equal opportunities through anti-discrimination laws and social programs, but the fight isn’t over yet. There are dozens of countries across the world that still have discrimination as bad as slave trades that should be unacceptable to the UN in today’s day and age, and the US has expressed its commitment to help in the international community with such cases.
“US Racism on the Rise, UN Experts Warn in Wake of Charlottesville Violence.” OHCHR, 16 Aug. 2017, https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21975.
“Psychological Causes and Consequences of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerances” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/programs/racism/un-conference-plenary.
“5 Ways to Fight Racism and Xenophobia.” UNICEF USA, 16 Nov. 2018, https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/5-ways-fight-racism-and-xenophobia/34567.
- Kristian Rica