When it comes to thinking about our identity, as young people, we cannot dissociate definitions such as race and history. We are built and socialized by those notions, even if unconsciously. Now more than ever, it is essential to realize that our behaviour, our world perspective, our choices, and opportunities are directly affected by the racial context that surrounds us.

 

Understanding this specific context requires a sharpened awareness and a comprehensive approach to the social, economic and political systems that continuously seem to restrain freedoms, suppress information and extinguish liberties—further justifying oppression and discrimination. The inequalities that still divide people nowadays are real and the more that they are ignored, the more difficult it becomes to end them.

 

Culture normally reflects history and from what we know about history, inequality has always existed. Even before we had a word to describe it, inequality has already selected its targets by criteria related to vulnerability and social marginalization. Indeed, prejudice has color, social class, an age group, and a gender. The more of these aspects you have, the more subject you become to being neglected and undervalued in society.  However, being born with a specific skin color should not be a synonym to becoming more vulnerable and exposed to violence than others. 

 

While all of these issues are uncomfortable to read about, they are even more painful to live. The global community, especially youth, must create awareness to the fact that racism has been a cruel reality in the past and still affects peoples’ lives. There is a segment of the world’s young people whose own skin color seems to carry their sentence. We must unite in our efforts to resist the idea of a future in which race remains as a determinant in the equation of who gets to survive and how they get to live.

 

In light of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, established by United Nations General Assembly in 1966 on 21 March— the day of the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa that killed 69 people demonstrating peacefully against the apartheid "pass laws" in 1960— we are reminded of our role in the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.

 

Dandara Palmares, Desmond Tutu, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ruby Bridges, Nelson Mandela… these are only some names of those who, as history shows, denied conforming to injustices and who refused to live in a society where people are subjugated by race. Apart from those people, there are many others with “invisible” names who must be recognized and remembered— those who have contributed in the past and who are still contributing for the realization of freedom and whose histories are untold by books and unknown to many. Their legacy is still alive, echoing that inequality is a matter of priority for us as individuals, and collectively as a society, and that dignity must be our generation’s anthem.

Racism masks hatred and intolerance, erases the memories and silences the voices of its victims. It is not compatible with human rights. The inhumanity of racism cannot coexist with justice, and as time passes to the rhythm of our actions (or lack thereof), one virtue may prevail over other. And hopefully, it will be justice.

 

On 21 March 2017, we should  reaffirm our humanity seeking a future in which other people's existences will not only be reminded by a special date of the month but instead as worthy of as much dignity and respect as is deserved every day. The structures that aggregate prejudice must be dismantled by women and men who refuse to condone the silence and will condemn the wounds of racial discrimination. Together, we can shape the present and build a new future of opportunities, dialogue, and understanding for everyone regardless of race, because tomorrow matters to everyone.

 

 

About Jade Christinne da Costa de Paula dos Santos : 

Jade Christinne da Costa de Paula dos Santos, age 20, is from Brazil. She is a “Youth Ambassador”, selected through the Youth Ambassadors Programme, which is a partnership between the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Brazilian company Caixa Seguradora, established with the purpose of empowering young leaders to represent their communities and local interests. Jade is presently a participant in the academic training program of the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the United Nations in New York and also studies Law in University of Brasília. As an afro-descendant, she has been a youth representative at the regional workshop on  “Youth Policies and Inequalities in Latin America” (2016), the ECOSOC Youth Forum (2017) and the CSW Youth Forum (2017).  She is the founder of a blog, youtube channel and social movement called “Garota Sem Fronteiras” (“Girl Without Borders”, in Portuguese).