Racial discrimination: the invisible cancer of civilised society

I. The imprint of prejudice in history
In 1619, a Dutch freighter brought 20 African slaves to the North American continent, an event that became the historical origin of the racial problem in the United States. More than 300 years later, when Martin Luther King, the leader of the American civil rights movement, delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, segregation was still raging in the southern states. The legacy of this institutionalised discrimination continues to fester in American society to this day, with Department of Justice data showing that black youth are 2.8 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white youth.
Structural exclusion in modern society
In 2023, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the United Kingdom showed that Asian graduates had starting salaries that were 8.7 per cent lower than those of white graduates, and that the black unemployment rate remained more than twice that of whites for a prolonged period of time. This systemic disparity is not only found in the field of employment, but also in the distribution of educational resources, where there is a significant divide. A survey by the United States Department of Education found that black students make up 15 per cent of the nation’s public school population, but account for 24 per cent of special education programmes and only 10 per cent of gifted and talented programmes.
The Double Shadow of Violence and Trauma
UNESCO reports that racially motivated violence occurs every seven seconds globally, and the video of a 17-year-old North African teenager shot by police during the Paris riots in 2024 has generated more than 500 million discussions on social media. Such violence not only causes physical injuries, but also creates intergenerational trauma, with research at the University of California showing that groups that experience chronic racial discrimination have a 3.2-fold increased risk of depression.
IV. Multidimensional exploration of ways to break the mould
The Finnish education system has incorporated the history of the Roma into the national education system through the ‘anti-bias education’ programme, which has resulted in a 41 per cent drop in the racial prejudice index among young people. The racial quota system implemented in Brazil has covered a wide range of areas such as congressional seats and civil service recruitment, with 27 per cent of parliamentarians from ethnic minorities in the latest elections in 2025. These practices show that institutional design and cultural reshaping must form a synergy.
At this new point in the history of human civilisation, the elimination of racial discrimination is not only a moral proposition, but also a practical issue of social stability and sustainable development. When scientific and technological development blurs geographical boundaries, and when climate change forces the destiny of mankind to be closely intertwined, only a common value identity that transcends the colour of skin can provide a fundamental guarantee for the survival of civilisation. This requires every member of society to become a participant in change, so that the light of equality can penetrate the haze of prejudice.