Europe Can't be Racist?

We settled into our seats on the bus to look up and see MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Wait huh? We proceed to spend the bus ride talking about American politics, voting, and how terrible America is. The weird thing was the person with the hat began to clench their fists and put the hat on, and (assumingly) the mother grimaced and started facing the window. We heard them speaking a little bit of UK english and another language and realized they understood us... Obviously we started talking louder.

But the hat --Europe --progressive… no Europe cannot be racist too?

Time and time again I heard students in Kansas talk about their escape to Europe, how much better it would, ignoring the fact that that alone is already a very privileged mentality. I will not deny the education and healthcare systems in a lot of places are substantially better, that does not mean any of these places are more tolerant or socially aware. Malta sits between North Africa and Europe, and is a focal point when talking about immigration. But people are still very nuanced with their conversations on immigration and race... It is different on the surface but has the same foundations in white supremacy and western European superiority. Our human rights law professor keeps making comments like America is the only place where bigotry happens. But, ignores european colonialism and assimilation. Ignores it despite taking us to an “asylum seekers center” where they informed our class that Malta, along with other countries is actively advertising and telling people from Africa not to come to Europe.

It was no surprise to us, not that we experience racism (we are white and have a lot of privilege abroad). It was no shock because these places that continually promote the superiority of the West, whether the United States West or western Europe all have power from white supremacy and colonization. Even if times are changing this does not mean that people are not clinging to this ideology and fighting for a re-establishment of the status quo.

We all like to point fingers without accepting the role we play in types of bigotry and discrimination.

*Malta is a little complicated, I do not know a lot but would argue most of the racism and xenophobia is directly from the British who colonized the island and a desire to make themselves more “european”