My name is Mary.

My talk is called ,Is racism worse in Europe than it is North America?

There are two main sections I want to talk about today. The first section is about difference
between the US and Europe, the second part includes the answer of my topical question

There is a big difference between the US and Europe: most slavery took place outside of Europe.
Most European countries were involved, but most of it took place outside their own home
countries. Black people in Europe are mostly immigrants into Europe. They may have been
(children of) slaves abroad, but in Europe they were immigrants.

So the position of black people is very different in Europe. The history of their presence in
Europe is completely different.
Therefore the shape that racism takes is different too.
Whereas here grandparents of white people had slaves themselves and were used to seeing
black people being viewed as lesser human beings, Europeans only profited financially from
slavery and did not have a whole lot of experience with black people.
So the difference is that with Europeans racism has a lot to do with unfamiliarity and
prejudices, in the US it has a lot to do with the dealings in the past during slavery. I think that
because of this racism in the US is deeper ingrained and harder to get rid of.
Europe has never had a civil rights movement, some kind of change where the voices of the
minorities came together united and said we will not take it anymore.

Europe isn't even wiling to talk about it because most Europeans think they're countries have no
race problem. When I don't get allowed into a nightclub by bouncers because of the color of my
skin, it's not a race problem? On the flipside, a lot of these 1st generation immigrants have been
living in the country for 30 years and still don't speak the language.
To my knowledge, I've never experienced or heard of that kind of blatant racism in the
states. If it is blatant, it'll be dealt with by lawyers or the police. America has a history with
racism and it's had to face some ugly truths and come clean about a lot of things. American
racism was different then than European racism now.

I see minorities doing big things in the U.S by and large limited only by the amount of effort they
are willing to put in. Europe locks you in as an immigrant by and large, for life.
Europe failed at dealing with multiculturalism. Although racial tension is a reality in the states, it
is clear that minorities in America are more respected as active members of society and they
have accomplished a lot in terms of civil rights.
In Europe you see a clear division between "Euro descendents" and the rest in most countries.

Finally, I want to show a video about racism. In fact it is an experiment done by two
young men in Russia one white and one black. The film is composed of two parts. the
first part contains the people's reaction to a maltreatment as a black man and the
second reaction to a case of maltreatment to a white man. you will be very surprised
with the attitude that you will see. Many of you this film will put thoughts. So better get to
work.