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THE STATE OF (IN)VISIBLE BLACK EUROPE: RACE,

RIGHTS & POLITICS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND 

COOPERATION IN EUROPE

ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

APRIL 29, 2008

Printed for the use of the

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

[CSCE 110–2–10]

(

Available via http://www.csce.gov 

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

HOUSE SENATE

ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida,

Chairman 

LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER,

New York 

MIKE McINTYRE, North Carolina 

HILDA L. SOLIS, California 

G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama 

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania 

MIKE PENCE, Indiana

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland,

Co-Chairman 

RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin 

CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut 

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York 

JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts 

SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas 

GORDON SMITH, Oregon 

SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia 

RICHARD BURR, North Carolina

EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS

David J. Kramer, Department of State 

VACANT, Department of Defense 

David Bohigian, Department of Commerce 

(II) 

THE STATE OF (IN)VISIBLE BLACK EUROPE: 

RACE, RIGHTS & POLITICS 

APRIL 29, 2008

COMMISSIONERS 

Page 

Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Chairman, Commission on Security 

and Cooperation in Europe ..................................................... 1

Hon. David J. Kramer, Executive Branch Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights 

and Labor ................................................................................. 3

Hon. G.K. Butterfield, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe .............................................. 6

Hon. Christopher H. Smith, Ranking Member, Commission 

on Security and Cooperation in Europe ................................. 16

MEMBERS 

Hon. Barbara Lee (D–9) a Member of Congress from the 

State of California ................................................................... 6

Hon. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D–13) a Member of Congress 

from the State of Michigan ..................................................... 15

Hon. Donald M. Payne (D–10) a Member of Congress from 

the State of New Jersey .......................................................... 32

WITNESSES 

Joe Frans, Vice Chair, United Nations Working Group on 

People of African Descent, and former Swedish Parliamentarian ........................................................................................ 3

Gary Younge, British Columnist, The Guardian Newspaper .. 7

Philomena Essed, Antioch University, the Netherlands, 

Equal Treatment Commission ................................................ 16

Allison Blakely, Author and Historian, Boston University ..... 19

Clarence Lusane, International Race Politics Author, American University ........................................................................ 22

APPENDICES 

Prepared statement of Hon. Alcee L. Hastings ........................ 39

Prepared statement of Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, Co-Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe . 41

(III)

Page

IV

Prepared statement of Hon. G.K. Butterfield ........................... 43

Prepared statement of Joe Frans ............................................... 44

Prepared statement of Gary Younge ......................................... 46

Prepared statement of Philomena Essed .................................. 48

Prepared statement of Allison Blakely ...................................... 56

Prepared statement of Clarence Lusane ................................... 59

Prepared statement submitted for the record by Boris 

Kodjoe, Actor ............................................................................ 61

Material submitted for the record by: 

Brima Conteh, DIASPORA AFRIQUE .................................. 62

Initiative Black Germans (ISD) .............................................. 68

Black European Women Congress ......................................... 71

(1)

THE STATE OF (IN)VISIBLE BLACK EUROPE: 

RACE, RIGHTS & POLITICS 

April 29, 2008

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE

WASHINGTON, DC

The hearing was held at 9:58 a.m. in room B–318, Rayburn 

House Office Building, Washington, DC, Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, 

Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 

presiding. 

Commissioners present: Hon. Alcee L. Hastings, Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon. G.K. 

Butterfield, Commissioner, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; and Hon. David J. Kramer, Executive Branch Commissioner, Department of State. 

Members present: Hon. Barbara Lee (D–9) a Member of Congress 

from the State of California; Hon. Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (D–13) a 

Member of Congress from the State of Michigan; and Hon. Donald 

M. Payne (D–10) a Member of Congress from the State of New Jersey. 

Witnesses present: Joe Frans, Vice Chair, United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent, and former Swedish Parliamentarian; Gary Younge, British columnist, The Guardian 

Newspaper; Allison Blakely, Author and Historian, Boston University; Philomena Essed, Antioch University, the Netherlands, Equal 

Treatment Commission; and Clarence Lusane, International Race 

Politics Author, American University. 

HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON 

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. HASTINGS. Good morning. Let me call the hearing to order. 

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your answers in this morning hearing focused on the experience of Blacks in Europe. 

For many years I’ve traveled through Europe as a tourist, Member of Congress, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, 

and now as Chairman of the Helsinki Commission. On those trips 

I’d also meet other Black people living or traveling in Europe, who 

were thrilled to meet another Black person. 

This was especially true when I was traveling in the former Soviet Union. Not always so thrilling were the stories they would 

share with me of the racism they faced. 

And worse, I, too, was the victim of racial profiling by authorities 

and blatant discrimination, such as when I was refused service in 

several establishments in different places in Europe. My memory 

2

serves me several times at the Frankfurt Airport, in Madrid, and 

in other places that one would not normally expect that to occur. 

In this regard there are a number of similarities between my experiences as a Black American and those of Black Europeans. So 

one central goal of this hearing is to highlight and address the very 

real problems of racism and discrimination faced by Black Europeans. 

Another goal is also to recall the contributions Blacks have made 

to Europe and the world by removing the cloak of invisibility that 

for so long has shown as a shroud. 

Recognizing and d-mythologizing the roles of Blacks in European 

history and modern day society has become a necessity, given the 

rise of virulent anti-immigrant campaigns that target non-Whites 

in the aftermath of 9/11 and the London bombings. Whether Blacks 

were forced or chose to assist in Europe’s development, they did 

play a role that should be noted. 

As globalization continues to bring the world closer together, how 

European countries choose to define themselves and their peoples 

affects all of us and will most certainly affect how I am viewed, as 

well as others, and treated within Europe’s borders. 

The third goal of this hearing is to then develop partnerships 

with those overseas committed to addressing these problems. Too 

often we highlight the problems within countries without noting 

the efforts that are being made, be they government, civil society 

or even the private sector. 

The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, as well as 

the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, has compiled reports on European countries’ positive initiatives, ranging from affirmative action 

to housing and education and desegregation. 

These are all efforts that have already been tried in the United 

States, and we need to be asking ourselves how we can best extend 

a helping hand so that Europeans don’t repeat some of the mistakes we made here in developing and implementing these programs. 

The fourth point, which requires us to be honest with ourselves, 

is that there are a number of very real barriers to addressing inclusion goals for Black Europeans, ranging from the small size of 

some communities to a need for differences in approach for recent 

migrant versus more established communities. 

I’m glad to have such esteemed witnesses here today to present 

thoughts on all these issues and I’d like to introduce Mr. Joe Frans 

from Sweden and Mr. Gary Younge joining us from the U.K. via 

New York to speak about their work. 

Unfortunately, due to scheduling constraints around Mr. Kodjoe’s 

schedule—he’s in the Broadway play, ‘‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’’—he’s 

been unable to be here today. He has, however, indicated his support for this and future initiatives on Blacks in Europe and asked 

that I enter his statement in the record, which I will. 

I would also at this time like to enter the statements of some of 

our European friends, the Initiative of Black Germans, the Diaspora Afrique, and the Black European Women’s Congress. 

We’ve been joined by Assistant Secretary of State, my colleague 

and Commissioner, David Kramer, who is the Assistant Secretary 

3

of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Commissioner Kramer, I give you the floor. 

HON. DAVID J. KRAMER, EXECUTIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONER, 

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEMOCRACY, 

HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR 

Sec. KRAMER. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. It’s good to 

be with you this morning. Thank you very much for convening this 

hearing this morning on a very important subject and I very much 

look forward to hearing the witnesses. I appreciate your opening 

comments, and I think without further ado, I turn it over back to 

you. 

Mr. HASTINGS. We will start, then, with Joe Frans, who is the 

Vice Chair of the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent and a former Swedish parliamentarian. 

Mr. Frans, I didn’t have much time this morning, but I imagine 

you know Go ̈ran Lennmarker, who was my immediate successor in 

the Parliamentary Assembly and he will be followed by Gary 

Younge, who is a British columnist at the Guardian Newspaper 

and their resumes are on the table outside, so I won’t go into all 

of their curriculum vitae. 

So, Mr. Frans, if I could start with you, please, sir? And then we 

will have our second panel come up. 

JOE FRANS, VICE CHAIR, UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP 

ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT, AND FORMER SWEDISH 

PARLIAMENTARIAN 

Dr. FRANS. Thank you, Chairman Hastings, Commissioner Kramer, ladies and gentlemen. It is indeed a great pleasure and honor 

to be with you here today, and I’m very, very pleased that you have 

chosen the topic of African diaspora of Blacks in Europe for this 

particular hearing. 

It is a timely intervention and a most relevant one. This is simply because Europe is currently undergoing a soul searching experience of its own and I think this dialogue can contribute to that. 

A few weeks ago a good friend of mine from Sweden, the mayor 

of Sodertalje, was here to witness, and I’d like to say that I endorse 

every bit of what he said and also I am very thankful that the 

Chair raised the issue on the floor of he House, which I wish to 

thank you for. 

I’d like to begin this brief presentation by paying tribute to the 

millions of African people abducted and enslaved and to those who 

sacrificed their lives in fighting for national liberation in Africa and 

in the diaspora. They have inspired us, and they have inspired our 

thinking and indeed generated our current desire to contribute as 

a diaspora to the development of Africa and to the people of humanity as a whole. 

The African diaspora consists of people of African origin living 

outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality, and who are willing to contribute to the development of the 

continent of Africa and the building of Africans. 

Today there are over 3.3 million people of African descent living 

in Europe. This is according to the Eurostat, but we know that it 

is much more than that. 

4

Mr. HASTINGS. Could you repeat the figure again for me? I’m 

sorry. I was distracted. 

Dr. FRANS. This is the figure from the Eurostat. It states that 3.3 

million people of African descendant, out of which, I should say, 

over about a million come from south Sahara in Africa. 

In the post-World War II area, the need for cheap labor to rebuild Europe resulted in the influx of Africans to Europe. The postindependence era further generated an inflow of African students, 

and political conflicts in Africa itself, the cold war and the related 

global competition for economic development have also generated 

an inflow of asylum seekers and refugees and in addition, there has 

been a steady stream of African-European families who have chosen to settle in Europe as a matter of choice. 

Today, beside the above reasons, the benefits of the trickle of migrants are double-sided. On the one hand, the reserve of cheap 

labor, often described as unwanted, is viewed by the regulator as 

being in the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean in scanty 

boats and with life itself at stake and literally swimming the last 

mile. 

On the other hand, the question of whether attracting and 

sourcing highly skilled migrants from Africa to Europe are needed 

to sustain gains for Africa must be weighed. Basically, African 

countries are funding the education of their nationals, only to see 

them contributing to other countries’ growth and development, 

with seemingly little or no return on their investment. 

Yet at closer look, Africans are contributing to the development 

of Europe’s identity and European identity and of the African continent itself. Some estimate that the Africans working abroad send 

home some $45 billion a year. That’s bigger than the total development aid and also bigger than the total current direct investment 

in Africa. 

What we need to do is to galvanize this amount into something 

that one could term as diaspora direct investment to make it more 

visible and to use it in the development of Africa. 

However, the challenges of integrating the new work force in Europe itself remain. After the concluding session of the European 

Congress at [inaudible] in 2002, a political declaration was adopted 

by the Ministers of the Council of Europe member states, and in 

that document the government concluded that the continued and 

violent occurrence of racism is an issue of concern and that challenges of integrating young people, immigrants and other groups 

remain, especially in the labor market, where discrimination is 

present. 

A report presented by the British Trade Union Congress had 

views that at every level of working life, many Black workers are 

being denied training opportunities, despite often being better 

qualified than their counterparts. 

Discriminatory practices at work are still preventing too many 

workers in Europe of African descent from fulfilling their potential. 

However, statistics in the public domain to support arguments of 

violence and discrimination in the workplace in Europe are embarrassingly lacking. Without official statistics, effective responses 

cannot be devised. 

5

One of the most common indicators of labor market inequality is 

the rate of unemployment of former immigrants and minorities. In 

2005, it was reported that the unemployment rates for such groups 

were all significantly higher than for the majority population in 

many European countries. 

It is quite clear that there are thousands of Africans, people of 

African descent, living in miserable conditions in Europe. Those 

without legal documents have no access to the welfare state, are 

exploited as cheap labor, and have no human rights at all. 

Quite clearly, then, racism and discrimination are relevant to understanding the commonality of challenges of people of African descent in Europe. 

The most important sectors, I believe, which we need to address 

in coming to terms with the everyday racism, but also structured 

racism and discrimination, still remain within the sectors of housing, of education, in the criminal justice system and in the health 

sector. 

Yet, Mr. Chairman, let me say that there are also positive stories 

to tell about the integration of Blacks in Europe. There are also 

success stories to talk about. All countries have constitutional 

frameworks against discrimination, and there are institutional organizations like the Ombudsmen and other institutions in Europe 

that work and are working actively to combat racism and discrimination. 

There are many successful legal stories in politics and policy dialogue in business and education. 

Yet I have chosen to focus my brief presentation on those issues 

that demand our attention in framing policy—those issues that 

need solutions, those issues that need debate, and those issues that 

will define our future in defending the integrity of the human creation as such. 

Those issues are integration, migration, discrimination as such, 

and development as a whole in shaping the new European identity. 

I think we cannot but have to deal with these issues in those sectors that I have mentioned; otherwise, we will come to a situation 

where the society will come into conflict with itself. 

Mr. Chairman, one policy idea that could benefit from your support is the promotion of what I call the transatlantic dialogue on 

the experiences of African descent. 

I think Black Europe could benefit from that kind of dialogue on 

how our brothers and sisters here in the United States have done 

and share the experiences and together help to create and formulate new ideas and help structure a new European identity. 

I would welcome both your support and assistance in making 

this happen. Thank you. 

Mr. HASTINGS. I’m very pleased to have been joined by my good 

friend and colleague from California, Congresswoman Barbara Lee. 

Congresswoman Lee is not a member of the Helsinki Commission, 

but she is a distinguished internationalist serving on several committees, including the Foreign Affairs Committee, and has had substantial involvement in the issue at hand. 

If you have anything that you’d like to say at this time, Congresswoman Lee, you’re welcome to do so. 

6

HON. BARBARA LEE (D–9) A MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM 

THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA 

Ms. LEE. Well, Congressman Hastings, let me first thank you 

very much for your leadership and your vision and your insight, 

which led to putting this forum together today. 

For me personally this is so important. I had the privilege to live 

in England in 1964 and 1965. In fact, my oldest son was born in 

London and it was during that period that I met, of course, Africans in the diaspora, people from the West Indies, from all over, 

the continent, and especially from Africa. 

It was glaring that we face many of the same problems as African Americans here and I often thought wouldn’t it be powerful if 

people of African descent came together to seek solutions to our 

common problems, to address what the realities are, based on what 

our witnesses are talking about, and come together to really turn 

the big issues that we’re addressing into real opportunities? And 

the power of that would be very awesome. 

So thank you very much. This is a moment to behold. 

I want to welcome our witnesses and thank all of you for being 

here. I came back from California late last night so I could be here 

for an hour or so before I move on, and I really appreciate that. 

Mr. HASTINGS. I thank you so much. When we planned this hearing, we thought we would be in session, and obviously members 

have to make adjustments accordingly, and I appreciate you having 

done so. 

Ms. LEE. This is so important. 

Mr. HASTINGS. We have also been joined by Commissioner G.K. 

Butterfield, my good friend from North Carolina. 

G.K., we’ve just heard from one witness, but in light of the fact 

G.K. is a Helsinki Commissioner and also a well traveled individual that I’ve had the good fortune of traveling with abroad on 

numerous occasions, if you have any opening comments, we would 

welcome them. 

HON. G.K. BUTTERFIELD, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON 

SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. I don’t have very many, Mr. Chairman. Let 

me just thank you for convening this hearing today. Like Congresswoman Barbara Lee, I came back this morning as well for this 

hearing. I looked forward to this day all week. I did not realize that 

we would not be in session today, but we made the effort, and we 

are here, despite the fact that we had a United States Senator in 

my district last night. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Who would that be? [Laughter.] 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. We were with him until about midnight. So 

thank you very much for the hearing, and I look forward to the remaining witness. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you very much. 

Congresswoman Lee, you spoke of my vision and insight and you 

know me—about people that work with us in these offices, actually 

I’d like to credit just for the record Dr. Mischa Thompson, who 

really has been our brain trust in this matter and I did not know 

that one of our persons that works with us—just recently in Vienna 

posted there—is Winsome Packer and I looked out and just hapVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
7

pened to see her out there. Winsome also has been helping the entire Helsinki staff. 

Dr. Younge? I haven’t gotten away from you yet, so please, sir. 

GARY YOUNGE, BRITISH COLUMNIST, THE GUARDIAN 

NEWSPAPER 

Dr. YOUNGE. Chairman Hastings, distinguished members of the 

Commission, thank you very much for inviting me and convening 

this meeting. 

I want to start with a personal story, which is about my mother, 

who came from London from Barbados in the early 60s with a British passport and two A levels in European history and English literature. She could quote from ‘‘A Winter’s Tale,’’ but you seek a 

hurricane. 

Before she left the islands, she was given orientation classes to 

prepare for her life in Britain and they told her to wear flannel pajamas and a woolen hat, but they said nothing about people shouting abuse at her in the street. 

My mother came of her own free will, but she also came because 

she was asked by the British Government, who paid her way and 

she was asked to build one of the nation’s most cherished institutions, the National Health Service. Racism and cold aside, two of 

the things that would strike her when she arrived were that most 

British people seem to know very little about their own country 

and even less about the nations their country had occupied. 

In the words of Gilbert, a Jamaican immigrant in Andrea Levy’s 

award-winning novel ‘‘Small Island,’’ ‘‘I had just one question. Let 

me ask the mother country just this one simple question, ‘How 

come England did not know me?’ ’’

Well, these elements of my mother’s stories are going to form the 

basis of my testimony today, because they draw on some of the central threads of the Black European experience as it stands in difference and similarity to the American Black experience. 

Europe did have a civil rights movement, and it took place at 

roughly the same time as the American civil rights movement, and 

around the same issues, by and large—the right to vote, opposition 

to segregation and a more equal share of resources. 

It did not take place in Europe. For the most part, it primarily 

took place abroad in Algeria, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Congo, 

and so on. That’s left the local White indigenous population in Europe with little understanding of a sense of historical responsibility 

to those whom it once colonized. 

The screams of the oppressed tortured by colonialism were actually continents away and neither heard nor heeded at home. So it’s 

been little in the way of moral reckoning with our past and when 

it comes to domestic matters, there is little in the way of historical 

literacy that would explain either European power or the presence 

of non-White people in Europe. 

In the words of the venerable Director of the Institute of Race 

Relations in Britain, Ambalavaner Sivanandan, ‘‘We are here because you were there. If you didn’t know you were there, how could 

you understand why we are here?’’

Ignorance can and has led to severe racial antagonism, which 

over the past 20 years has reinstalled itself as a permanent fixture 

8

in European political culture. Fascism, or at least a xenophilebased racist and nationalist trait that [inaudible] allow manifestation, has returned as a mainstream ideology in Europe. 

Its advocates not only run in elections, but win them. They control local councils and sit in parliament. In Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, and Italy, hard right nationalist and anti-immigrant 

policies regularly receive more than 10 percent of the vote. In Norway, it’s 22 percent; in Sweden, 29. 

In Austria, the Right wing are in government; in Switzerland, 

the anti-immigrant Swiss People’s Party, which is the largest 

party, is still in government, and after recent elections, they’re 

about to return to government again. 

Now, a central point of these parties’ platforms rests on the notion that each European nation is its own mono-racial and monocultural unit into which non-White people have only recent come 

and must on entry either conform or be banished. 

This, of course, is hinged on an entirely mythical notion of wide 

European uniformity, historical illiteracy about the length of time 

that non-White people have been in Europe, and a mistaken desire 

to defend Europeanness against the uncivilized and the unwashed. 

Conversely to this trend on a daily level of cultural interaction, 

it is actually difficult to imagine a continent without non-White 

people. In literature, music and sport particularly, we have become 

so inextricably intertwined into the national fabric that to unpick 

us would make the whole cloth unravel. 

In Britain rates of racial intermarriage are high. One in two Caribbean men and one in three Caribbean women have relationships 

with White people. Political culture and popular culture are in dislocation and moving in contradictory directions. 

It’s difficult to imagine Europe with non-White people, but that 

has not stopped many from trying. Particularly since September 

11th, the push to assimilate some into a society that one has to 

educate, employ or respect them has become particularly intense. 

Like many, my mother, who took a low-paid, steady job, the industries that non-White people came into depended largely on the 

countries they went to and came from, but they took the jobs that 

the local people did not want and the industries and sectors our 

parents went into have for the most part, shrunk or been decimated, leaving relatively little opportunities for their children. 

In Europe there is no Black middle class as such. There are 

Black middle class individuals, but not class. For their children, 

the dislocation between our race and our color and our place where 

we are appears at times unshakable. Those who have been in 

France or Germany for generations are still called immigrants. 

On that note, Mr. Chairman, I will end with a conversation I had 

with an older man in Edinburgh while I was at university about 

8 or 9 years ago, who asked me where I was from. ‘‘Stevenage,’’ I 

said. ‘‘But where were you born?’’ ‘‘Hitchen,’’ I said, which is the 

town next door to Steven. ‘‘Well, before that,’’ he asked. ‘‘Well, 

there was no before I was born,’’ I said. ‘‘Well, where are your parents from?’’ ‘‘Barbados,’’ I said. ‘‘Well, you’re from Barbados, then,’’ 

he said. ‘‘No,’’ I said, ‘‘I’m from Stevenage.’’

Mr. HASTINGS. Very poignant. Thank you very much. 

9

Assistant Secretary Commissioner Kramer, I’ll turn to you for 

any questions you may pose to our witnesses. 

Sec. KRAMER. Chairman, thank you. 

My sincere thanks to both witnesses for very powerful presentations here this morning. 

If I may, let me ask you to survey the situation in Europe, which 

country do you see as or consider providing the most protection 

from the wave of discriminatory movements that we read about, 

hear about, live within Europe? Which countries do you see as providing the greatest protections for non-White communities in the 

European continent? Which ones could be viewed as models in the 

European Union? 

Dr. FRANS. Thank you, Commissioner Kramer. 

The question—trying to point out which country provides the 

greatest protection is a difficult one to answer in the sense that on 

the face of it, all countries of the European Union have adequate 

protection constitutionally, institutionally and otherwise. 

So it is a difficult one to answer, and the communities are also 

concentrated in different places but let me say this. Those countries that I see acknowledging the graveness of the issue would certainly be Holland on the one side. 

I see that there’s a lot of discussion in the United Kingdom, 

where the Black community is a very strong one, and also showing 

that the Council for Racial Equality was created and the Race Act 

was also enacted a long time ago. 

This is also where there are big concentrations of Black people. 

Suddenly, in the country in which I live and work—Sweden—I 

think there is also some protection. 

The answer would be that there are bits and pieces here and 

there, but on the whole, a lot needs to be done everywhere. 

Dr. YOUNGE. I would largely agree with Mr. Frans in terms of 

the [inaudible] protection is everywhere and de facto there is a 

great deal of flux. Holland has traditionally been one of the better 

places, and yet in the last, I would say, 4 or 5 years there has been 

an alarming rise in xenophobia. 

And one of the particular aspects of the Black experience in Europe is that it’s very difficult to remove it from the broader nonWhite immigrant experience. So when Islamophobia is on the rise, 

there is going to be a general rising of racism and xenophobia. 

There are places where there are stronger Black communities 

and where there are more liberal—Britain would be one of those, 

and Holland would be one of those—and then there are places 

where there is a more liberal mindset that makes it easier and 

most of Scandinavia I would camp in that. 

In the last 4 years or 5 years there has been such a huge degree 

of flux—Denmark being a good example, with the cartoons of Mohammed—that it has become a moving target. 

In general what I would say in Europe is that we think we’re at 

a stage where it has generally been recognized by the constitution 

or institutionally and politically that racism is bad. It has yet to 

be acknowledged that anti-racism is good as the antidote. So moving from one state to the other is the moment that we’re in here. 

Sec. KRAMER. If I could ask you, Mr. Frans, you’re a former 

member of the Swedish Parliament. I’m curious about the level of 

10

political participation in the Black communities throughout Europe. How would you describe it? Active? Not very active? 

Dr. FRANS. Oh, very low. I think that there are individual islands 

of Black citizens here and there but generally, political participation is very low and you’d find one or two people here and there, 

but the inclusion in the mainstream politics of Black people is 

something that is still in its very embryonic status, I would say. 

Those who say that recently, because of the triangular shift in 

policy from some political parties, many political parties in Europe 

have shied away in embracing popular participation, they are told, 

so as to attract a wider public. 

The number of Blacks going into politics and being part of the 

political and trying to shape the political agenda is growing. So you 

may want to differentiate also from political participation in terms 

of voting, as opposed to representing the whole and being part of 

the agenda creating. 

Voting—obviously, there is a trend. It is lower than the host communities or the White communities in Europe but it is actually 

very high in some communities. But political participation is not 

only voting. It’s much more than that. 

Sec. KRAMER. One more, if I may, Mr. Chairman, to Mr. Younge, 

if I can, particularly as a journalist—the role of the media and how 

you’d describe that. 

Dr. YOUNGE. It has generally been quite inflammatory. The best 

example, really, is the Jyllands-Posten in Denmark. Now, some of 

the back-story, which is they published these cartoons of Mohammed. What was not widely known is that the year and a half before, they had turned down a similar set of cartoons about Jesus 

at Easter because they say it would upset the Christian leadership. 

It can still sell papers. It had to be packaged in a certain way, 

but asylum seekers in particular and the framing of non-White people as immigrants and criminals is still very common. 

The underlying message from the media is that there is an immigrant problem, but immigrant doesn’t necessarily mean people who 

moved only recently. 

Conversely, for almost every trend that you can say is getting 

worse, you will find a kind of undercurrent, which is not as strong, 

but nonetheless encouraging. It’s been getting better. 

Suddenly, in Britain, which is the journalistic culture I know 

best, there is an increase in non-White journalists. There’s been an 

increase in Muslim journalists in particular. 

I believe that is becoming true in other countries and also, if you 

take the wider media—particularly if you take literature—there 

has been a kind of real renaissance of Black writing in Europe, 

which is also encouraging in an age where actually lots of people 

don’t read newspapers. 

Ms. LEE. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Frans, good morning. Let me ask you about the United Nations Working Group on People of African Descent. Could you talk 

a little bit about who’s involved on this working group, if there is 

African American participation? Oftentimes and historically, some 

of us remember Malcolm X talking about African Americans having 

a presence at the United Nations. 

11

I believe—and I’m not sure if this is still the case—that the 

NAACP for a while had a presence at the United Nations and I’ve 

often thought that it made a lot of sense for people of African descent in America to come together at the United Nations with other 

people of African descent to work on our common agenda to address the issues head-on from a global perspective, and I’d like to 

find out a little bit more about that from your position a vice chair. 

Dr. FRANS. Thank you, Ms. Lee. 

The Working Group on People of African Descent is a working 

group that will need much more support from people of African descent around the world. I believe that there are some African 

American organizations that participate, but the level of participation is absolutely too low and we could do much better. 

We need a lot of support. We’ve done quite a lot of working, looking at the access to justice and making recommendations on how 

to come to terms with housing policies to increase integration. 

We’ve done work on education, and so we’ve done quite a lot and 

presented a lot of recommendations. 

But at our working group meetings, which are open to the general public and to all organizations, I find that the program is that 

because of the cost involved, most civil society organizations oftentimes do not have the possibility of participating. So what I have 

been proposing over the last year is that maybe the working group 

should be traveling to and holding these meetings in other places 

instead. 

But, of course, that would depend upon invitations from the 

states and this is a situation where the working group cannot travel to countries by itself, but needs to be invited. We have sent out 

a request to the states to be invited, and we are waiting. The only 

country that has been forthcoming has been Belgium and we’ve visited Belgium and any other member states that invite us we will 

be more than happy to travel and hold these in. 

Ms. LEE. So you’re actually housed now at the United Nations 

in New York? 

Dr. FRANS. We’re based in Geneva. 

Ms. LEE. You’re based in Geneva. OK, you’re based then in Geneva actually. OK, OK. 

Dr. FRANS. Technically speaking, we need to be invited to a country, to a member state, in order to be able to hold our meetings in 

that country. 

Ms. LEE. OK. 

Well, Mr. Chairman, maybe we could talk about this as a followup. I think it would be very interesting. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Would you yield just one moment on that point? 

Ms. LEE. Yes, I will. 

Mr. HASTINGS. What’s your funding structure? And how much 

are we talking about? 

Dr. FRANS. The funding structure is voluntary contributions to 

the Office of the High Commissioner and there are five experts of 

the working group, so actually the cost of bringing together the 

working group itself is not so high. It has been difficult for civil society organizations to travel to Geneva and stay there for a couple 

of days, and that has been a problem. 

12

There is no trust fund or other mechanisms of a trust fund where 

they can fund civil societies’ participation. We do not have that, 

and so that is the problem. 

Ms. LEE. It’s very important work, and I look forward to working 

with you, Mr. Chairman, on the followup to this. 

May I ask Mr. Younge one question? 

Again, good morning. Where are you living now? Where are you 

from? 

Dr. YOUNGE. I live in New York now. 

Ms. LEE. You do live in New York. 

Dr. YOUNGE. I’m the New York correspondent. 

Ms. LEE. OK, OK. I wanted to ask you—in Europe, though, with 

regard to the role of religion and, of course, we’re talking now in 

our own country with regard to the Christian religion coming from 

the Black experience, emanating, of course, from slavery, oppression. All of the issues that African Americans historically have addressed, of course, are manifested in the Black church. 

How is religion addressed, for instance, in England now in terms 

of African descent? Is the Church of England, the Anglican Church, 

the main church where Black people attend? Or how do people 

bring forth their own experience through their religious background? 

Dr. YOUNGE. First of all, I would say that religion plays a different role in Britain, so it’s not as front and center as it can be 

in Black American politics. It doesn’t draw so much of a political 

class from religion, because paradoxically, given that we have an 

established church, religion in general plays a much less kind of 

stock role in Britain. 

In terms of the breakdown, I would say that most Black Britons 

are some form of Protestant, whether that’s Anglican or not, so 

there’s a large increase in Pentecostal and those kinds of religions. 

That’s particularly true among those of African descent, as opposed 

to Afro-Caribbean descent. 

If there’s a development, then that’s where it’s coming from, the 

increase in the kind of new churches—Pentecostal churches—which 

are on the rise. But in general they play a far less significant role 

in our political lives than it does here. 

Ms. LEE. I see. So you wouldn’t say that there is a Black church 

movement or there’s a Black church in England or anything in Europe? 

Dr. YOUNGE. No and there are individual Black church leaders, 

who have played significant political roles. I’m thinking of Reverend Wilfred Wood and Bishop John Sentamu. Reverend Wood 

was the first Black Anglican bishop. So there are individuals who 

play significant roles, but not movements as such, as there are 

here. 

Dr. FRANS. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to add that it is true 

that people of African descent in Europe generally now, of course, 

are organizing themselves oftentimes around Pentecostal churches 

and this paradoxically plays two roles. 

On the one hand, it plays the role of making integration harder 

in the sense that people get together. On the other hand, it plays 

the role of helping make integration better, you get together, idenVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
13

tify what you want to achieve, see the issues you share in common 

and go on. 

It is increasing. In Germany, in Holland, in Sweden and also in 

England, you have large congregations that are now beginning to 

buildup. For example, in Sweden now there is the Christian Council of Black Churches, which has been organizing itself. There is 

one in Germany, and there is one in Holland. 

So there is some sort of a movement, and I would say that I 

agree with Mr. Younge that it is the Pentecostal churches that are 

taking the lead there. Also, the Bishop of Europe is from Uganda. 

Ms. LEE. OK. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you, Ms. Lee. 

Mr. Butterfield? 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Again, I thank both of you for coming today. It’s been very informative, and I must confess to you that I have not read all of the 

material, and so I am at somewhat of a disadvantage and so I just 

want to ask you some very basic questions. 

Tell me, if you will, what the Black presence in Europe is. Could 

you quantify it for me and give me an estimated number in all of 

Europe, East and West Europe? Was that a good question to ask? 

Dr. FRANS. No and yes. Yes, no. East and West Europe makes 

it complicated in the sense that with West Europe, those countries 

of the European Union have some degree of data collection, and so 

you have it in the Eurostat and those figures are generally 2 or 3 

years old, so 3.3 million is the official figure you’d receive, but we 

know that if you add now, then, East Europe and then also add the 

number of people who we call the sans papier, people without legal 

documents, then you’ll be getting up to 4 or 5 million, even. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Under either approach, it’s a small minority 

within Europe. Would that be a correct statement? 

Dr. FRANS. Well, it would be a correct statement. In England it 

would be somewhere between 2 and 4 percent. 

Two and 4 percent—is that the significant figure? 

Dr. YOUNGE. All right. For people of African descent, it’s that 

point. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. And would you make a comparison between 

East and West? Where is the concentration? 

Dr. FRANS. So the concentration of people of African descent, or 

Blacks, in Europe generally——

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Eastern Europe. 

Dr. FRANS. Eastern Europe—I would say maybe Czechoslovakia, 

of course the former Soviet republics used to have a lot of Black 

people who were studying there. Most of them have moved, but 

they remain focused, and there are still students there also. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. With respect to those who are active and participate politically, who participate by voting, are there any legal 

or structural problems that you can tell us about that prevent full 

participation in the political process? 

Dr. FRANS. In Europe as a whole? 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. In Europe as a whole. Are there impediments 

to voting, as we saw in this country 35 years ago? 

Dr. FRANS. No, I mean constitutionally, I think——

14

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. I’m sure you know American history. You 

know about the literacy tests that we had 40 years ago and all of 

that. Are there problems here? 

Dr. FRANS. No, I think generally we have good frameworks. Now, 

we get into the discussion of how you define impediments. In Denmark, for example, the inspection of Danish tests to become a citizen—would that be an impediment? Yes, I would say, because if 

you don’t pass the test, you may not be granted citizenship. 

And so, certainly, impediments from the fact that there is the unemployment, the racial profiling, and all that impacts on people in 

a sense that it impacts on them socially and psychologically in that 

they may decide not to take part. 

Structurally, I don’t think that there are impediments in that 

sense. 

Dr. YOUNGE. I would just say one slightly different way of understanding the concentration is in a smaller sense, because it’s almost entirely urban. So London, for example. One in 4 people in 

London are not White. Oxford—I would say about 16 percent, 1 in 

6, would be of African descent. 

So if you go to the major cities—Paris, London, Frankfurt, Hamburg—it would be almost impossible to avoid them. If you go to the 

countryside, then you may not know that anything’s changed over 

the last 30 or 40 years but in the major cities, it’s a sizable, significant number. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Among those who actually participate and 

vote in the electoral process, is there some degree of cohesion 

among those of African descent? Or is their political viewpoint fractured and splintered? 

Dr. YOUNGE. For the most part, they would lean toward the liberal left—for the most part. That said, in England not quite to the 

extent that African Americans lean toward the Democratic Party in 

America, but that’s probably because in Europe there are more parties but on the whole, to the liberal left. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. One thing we’ve learned in this country is 

when you’re in the minority, cohesion becomes absolutely important politically. 

Dr. FRANS. It’s correct, because typically you have four or five 

parties, even seven, in any given country and therefore, you don’t 

see that and also the concentration of Black people in the cities 

makes it also quite obvious that in those areas that they lead, they 

have some sort of influence on the agenda of the political parties. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. I think I’m about to run out of time. My final 

question to you is, are there significant outreach efforts from Black 

organizations in Western Europe with Black populations in Eastern Europe among the organizations and the people of Eastern Europe? Is there any outreach or any type of organized activity? 

Dr. FRANS. Organized—I would say no. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. OK. 

Dr. FRANS. That would be the shortest answer. However, I would 

say that in the discussions that are centered around the European 

Network Against Racism, also in the discussion that is centered 

around the African Diaspora Policy Center, there are discussions 

on that. 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD. Let me encourage that to continue. 

15

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you very much, Mr. Butterfield. 

I’m going to forego questioning the two of you. I consider your 

testimony to be most poignant and critical for the establishment of 

this record. 

Dr. Frans, if nothing more, I have gathered from this, particularly in light of Ms. Lee’s question, the great need we have here 

at the Helsinki Commission to work more with the working group. 

I believe that there are opportunities. We are not necessarily any 

greater resourced, but at the same time might be able to bring to 

bear some hearings. 

One that comes to mind would be to have something similar to 

this in yet another of the countries and to work with you in trying 

to get more of them to ask us on board. 

Showing continuing interest in the subject, of course, we’ve been 

joined by the chairlady of the Congressional Black Caucus from 

Michigan, my dear friend and colleague, Congresswoman Carolyn 

Kilpatrick. 

And following her is the Ranking Member of the Helsinki Commission, just joining us this moment, who has spent a considerable 

amount of his career dealing in a tangential way with a similar 

subject. He deals specifically with matters that are germane to 

those who are trafficked, particularly women and children, which 

comes in this same aegis in yet another way. So you would find 

him on record in patterns of migration in Europe and the things 

that do not speak well for overall society. He has tracked that. 

Additionally, a member who is not with us, but has an interest, 

is Hilda Solis, who has the portfolio in the Parliamentary Assembly 

of dealing with migration. 

But Chairman Kilpatrick and Commissioner Smith, if you would 

have anything you would like to say before I call up the next panel, 

I’d appreciate it. 

HON. CAROLYN C. KILPATRICK (D–13) A MEMBER OF 

CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN 

Ms. KILPATRICK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you for 

your foresight and your leadership—Helsinki couldn’t be better 

with your stay there; thank you so much—and for calling us together today. I had a meeting in my district this morning before 

I could fly out, so I am happy to join you. Please forgive my tardiness. 

I don’t have a question at this time, sir. I just wanted to thank 

you and thank the panelists. We are going to build a record—the 

Congressional Black Caucus specifically, but the Democratic caucus 

in general, as witnessed by the committee. We have this jurisdiction, and I’m very interested in better relationships and ties. 

We believe that the world is global. Two clicks of the mouse, and 

you can be anywhere. We no longer have to go from country to 

country and we want to build that, to build a better world, a safer 

world for God’s children. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

16

HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, RANKING MEMBER, 

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to 

thank you for holding this hearing. I would ask unanimous consent 

that my statement be made a part of the record. 

I welcome our witnesses. I apologize. I didn’t get to hear your 

testimonies, but I will look at them later on. 

I did want to just note, and I appreciate you bringing up the fact, 

that there are modern day slave routes going, especially from 

places like Nigeria into Rome and into other areas in Europe. 

I have been to a number of shelters in Rome itself, where Nigerian girls are being sold like human chattel. It was outrageous. 

Thankfully, there were people on the scene, both government police, as well as non-governmental organizations, seeking to rescue 

these women. 

I also was able to visit a number of shelters in Lagos and Abuja 

and was really touched by how robust those efforts were, but also 

how inadequate the funding and the resourcing was for those girls. 

There were a number of Nigerian girls, and these were the lucky 

ones, who actually made their way back from Europe, and to hear 

them tell their stories was heartbreaking in the extreme and so I 

think that is a part of the degrading, and it’s a form of racism, certainly. It certainly is a misogynistic view when it comes to women. 

I want to thank you for what you’re doing. And again, Mr. Chairman, this Commission has been, I think, talking for years, starting 

in the Parliamentary Assembly in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the 

late 1990s, on the issue of human trafficking. 

Hopefully, the lessons learned from chattel slavery in the United 

States, as new forms of slavery manifest themselves, will be 

learned and combated with extreme prejudice in the positive way—

fighting it. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you very much, Chris. 

Gentlemen, thank you. Please stay, if you can. 

We will call up our second panel now: Dr. Philomena Essed from 

Antioch University, The Netherlands Equal Treatment Commission; and Dr. Allison Blakely, author and historian from Boston 

University; and Dr. Clarence Lusane, the International Race Politics author at American University. 

I’m particularly pleased now that Dr. Blakely and Drs. Lusane 

and Essed are here and Dr. Blakely—we had it up; I don’t know; 

the map that’s not there—but Dr. Blakely has done the immense 

studies on where the numbers are. And so, G.K., I think he would 

be able to empiricize for you on many of those matters. 

I’d like to start with Dr. Essed, and as I said with reference to 

the other witnesses, their extraordinary curriculum vitae and biographies are on the table outside, and I invite persons who are with 

us to pick them up, as they see fit. 

Dr. Essed, if you would like to start, please, ma’am? 

PHILOMENA ESSED, ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY, THE 

NETHERLANDS, EQUAL TREATMENT COMMISSION 

Dr. ESSED. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for inviting me to this 

hearing. My written statement made for the occasion, called ‘‘An 

ABC on People of African Descent in Europe’’, consists of an alphaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
17

betically organized list of content areas that might be relevant and 

useful for understanding experiences and conditions of people of African descent in Europe. 

Here, I will highlight just a few items from the list in view of 

further discussion and questions you may have. 

The first letter I would like to point to is the ‘‘i’’ of Identity. Even 

when you can formally categorize 3 to 5 million people in Europe 

as of Afro descent, not all identify as such. 

Many identify not often even in terms of color or race, but in 

terms of the country they came from or the country they migrated 

to. This is an important difference compared to African Americans. 

It should be noted in this respect that there are also many African Americans in Europe, tourists, students, in particular in the 

cosmopolitan cities. 

The ‘‘c’’ of Colonialism: for many people of Afro descent, the historical contexts of reference are colonialism and post-colonialism, 

rather than slavery, even when they might be descendants of 

enslaved Africans, as people from Caribbean are of American background. 

Many came to the so-called motherlands in Europe with European passports—for instance, people from Surinam and the Dutch 

Antilles; the French from Martinique. 

Colonialism, its economic, social and psychological implications 

and consequences, are largely ignored in European countries. Colonial relations, however, continue to exist, including the inequalities 

involved. For instance, the Dutch Antilles are still colonies, and 

they are a popular tourist attraction for mostly White Dutch. 

For the local population, the reality is different. Extremely high 

unemployment numbers in the Dutch Antilles, unrealistic ideas 

about ‘‘rich’’ lives in the Netherlands, or the desire to reunite with 

family members have caused high numbers to migrate to the Netherlands and that was the same for people from Surinam in the 

1970s. 

Insufficient care, social indifference, lack of schooling and job opportunities, racial prejudice and a sense of anonymity in the Netherlands contribute to violence and criminality among Antilleans, in 

particular young men. 

In response, the Dutch state seems to entertain controversial and 

probably unlawful ethnic data bases on Antilleans, on the basis of 

which enhanced security and preventive law enforcement interventions can take place. 

Among Antillean women, teenage pregnancies are a problem, 

often a result of a combination of factors, including physical or 

emotional abandonment at home, racial discrimination and ignorance. 

To conclude briefly on the issue of colonialism, the consequences 

of colonialism have not been dealt with in Europe. I am referring 

to dependency mentality, and a sense of powerlessness among formerly colonized. 

But neither has been addressed the remnants of European colonial mentality, the paternalism and the creation of second-class 

citizens, which happened in the U.K., and which is happening in 

the Netherlands as well as in France. 

18

This brings me to the ‘‘e’’ of Everyday Racism. Racism is integrated in the routine practices of everyday European cultures and 

institutions, resulting in informally segregated neighborhoods, for 

instance, in the U.K., in France and in Germany. 

Informally sanctioned segregated schools—the so-called Black 

and White schools—in the Netherlands are an example. In neighborhoods harassment of refugee families is not unusual. For instance, Spain or a recent case concerning a Liberian family in the 

Netherlands, where the local government was completely informed 

social workers were informed, but nobody was doing anything. 

Eventually, the family, desperate, had to leave the neighborhood. 

There is police violence against people of African descent. Austria 

is a case in point. 

Among the most damaging forms of everyday racism are those 

involving individuals in positions of authority, whose decisionmaking power has the potential of making and breaking school careers or professional opportunities. 

Due to the public taboo, however, on mentioning racism and the 

emotional, if not aggressive, response to accusations of racism from 

the side of White Europeans, many Afro descendants are neither 

aware of racism, nor sufficiently equipped to resist. I’m saying 

many; I’m not saying all. Resilience and awareness can be a function of whether and how people are involved—for instance, in community activism. 

Frequently, those exposed to racism experience powerlessness in 

the face of the accusation that they are just oversensitive. The degree of denial of everyday racism can hardly be overestimated in 

Europe. 

We need to address the impact of racism on the lives of Black 

and brown people in Europe. This should be an issue for European 

policymakers as well. 

The ‘‘f’’ of Fortress Europe—increasingly tight borders since the 

signing of the treaty are not preventing economic and war refugees 

from risking their lives in search of a better future in Europe. 

Many die prematurely in the passage between North Africa and 

southern Europe—young men, women and children. 

In the meantime, middlemen are making blood money. The construction of illegality has different impacts on men and women. Little is known about the particular conditions of illegal immigrants 

who try to survive as street vendors, mostly male, mostly in southern Europe; as domestics, mostly women; or in prostitution, mostly 

women but also including young Moroccan men. 

Which brings me to the ‘‘g’’ of Gender. Race is not gender neutral. Perceptions of Afro descendants—men and women—are 

shaped by many factors, including histories of colonialism, the 

‘‘White male-native mistress’’ experience, imagined exoticism and 

Black women perceived as sensual and sexualy accessible and recurrent media images of African wars on poverty, highlighting 

male aggression. Of influence as well are stereotypical images of 

African Americans. U.S. media are global. 

The sex trade and abuse of African women have been reported, 

among others, in Belgium. In the Netherlands, where prostitution 

is legal, women of Afro descent end up in the lowest paid and most 

risky sectors of sex work. 

19

Beauty norms are another gender issue. Little is known in Europe about the impact of White beauty norms on women of Afro descent. For instance, skin bleaching has been found to be a problem 

among women of Ghanaian background in the Netherlands. 

Circumcision of girls occurs among refugees from Somalia. Policymakers have not been successful in including the women of 

these communities, which is so important, in endeavors to put an 

end to this practice. 

Finally, in schools, Afro descendant girls of Caribbean origin 

families—and it’s a point that it’s not all bad news—are outperforming male counterparts in the Netherlands. I think that is the 

case also in the U.K. 

The percentage of highly educated women among the Afro-Caribbean Dutch is more or less equal to that of highly educated White 

Dutch women. This does not, however, translate into equal representation at higher levels on the labor market. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you so much, Dr. Blakely. I was going to 

come to you and ask Dr. Lusane, since he’s younger-looking——

[Laughter.] 

ALLISON BLAKELY, AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN, BOSTON 

UNIVERSITY 

Dr. BLAKELY. Thank you, sir, and good morning. Chairman 

Hastings, other distinguished Commissioners and Members of Congress, ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to first add my expression of 

gratitude for your showing recognition of the seriousness and importance of this issue. 

I’ve been researching this subject area now for some three decades, and so for me this is almost like a mirage, a dream come 

true, just to have this degree of attention from people such as yourselves. 

As a historian and a comparative historian, my contribution to 

this discussion is, I think, going to be the most general. I’m looking 

at Europe as a whole. My doctorate is in Russian history, so I have 

a special interest in that part. 

In diaspora studies, I really am looking at Europe as a whole. 

The history of Blacks in modern Europe is converging with the 

present situation to create an unprecedented level of Black population in Europe proper. The size and significance of this Black 

presence are not yet widely recognized, neither by scholars nor the 

general public. 

I am the author of this map that you see coming and going up 

there [on the screen before you] at times. Those who don’t happen 

to have a paper copy, I’d be glad to discuss it with you later. 

My findings are that there is a population of over 5 million 

Blacks in Europe that can be documented closely with census data. 

My belief is that, in fact, there is probably something approaching, 

if not over, 1 percent of the total European population, which is 

around 750 million or so. 

More importantly, the Black population is growing. If you don’t 

believe that, take a tour of urban public schools. You’ll see the 

same phenomenon that you see in our urban centers. You’ll be startled in the case of Europe, because if there’s only a half percent, 

20

as some are saying, why do you find the majority Blacks in some 

of the elementary school classes? 

The answer is simple. Just look at the same phenomenon, the 

United States is experiencing with recently our State of California 

recording a less than 50 percent population level for the traditional 

White population. Texas is just on the horizon, and the numbers 

will grow. 

There is declining population across Europe in terms of the traditional population. And so, in a sense, the handwriting is on the 

wall. You’ll have a greater colored Europe of various cultural and 

colored complexions. It’s just a question of how the Europeans are 

going to cope with it. 

My one driving concern, in terms of the implications of the kind 

of research I’ve done, is that Europe may—I hope they don’t—but 

they may resort to that old tried and proven Black identity as one 

way of establishing what would be a cheap labor force in the future, even in a society where the Black population does increase to 

a point where no one will say that it’s insignificant. 

I am also concerned, because recently the Islamic vs. Western 

cultural clash has tended to overshadow this other, more longstanding kind of cultural clash just as well. 

Literally, some of the individuals and groups in what would be 

the traditionally defined Black population may fall through the 

cracks because of the lack of special interest because of this other 

admittedly extremely important other kind of cultural clash that’s 

taking place. 

One thing that I have concluded is that finally the European 

Black population has reached a level where some comparisons 

might be made with the Black American experience. Ideally, I 

would hope that they may learn from some of our mistakes and decide against repeating those. 

For centuries, millions of Black African descent people were subjected to domination in the leading European colonial empires; but 

technically in Europe now, is that in these European democracies, 

those former colonials are being brought in and supposedly integrated into a situation where they should at least have equal opportunity. 

That kind of a transition is not easy in human affairs, where the 

lines were clearly understood of hierarchy based on color and 

wealth and power in the colonies; and now suddenly the Europeans—in some cases, who have tended to think that those colonials had nothing to do with them—now, because of labor shortages 

and so on, they’re having to learn to live with the former colonial 

people, who are subjects or citizens. 

The kinds of comparisons that I’m alluding to with the Black 

American experience can be seen in the fact that if you look at the 

recent outbreak of violence in France a couple of years ago, especially, the kinds of issues that have been identified as explaining 

that kind of outbreak, they read just like the Kerner Commission 

report or the Scarman report about similar violence in the 1980s 

in England. 

So there’s no mystery here that some of the same elements, same 

dynamics are potentially there. I would also point out that the 

21

American-style ghetto may not be as visible in European society, 

but it definitely is there. 

For 4 months at the end of last year, I was in Europe and deliberately visiting predominantly Black neighborhoods in Lisbon and 

London, France, and the Netherlands and I even looked into the 

history in Hamburg, which is an especially interesting case. Although they don’t look the same, many of the same kinds of problems are in these different countries. Their potential dangers, if not 

already manifest, need to be dealt with. 

A major component in all of this is the legacy of negative stigmatization of blackness and the stereotypes that have come down 

to us from that, that are still very much with us. You only need 

to look a little bit below the surface in the media and other aspects 

of European, as well as American, culture to see. 

What I am raising is the question of whether even now in the 

21st century we can get beyond those kinds of stereotypes. I’m really encouraged by the fact that you have Lady Valerie Amos, who 

has served as the head of the House of Lords in England. 

We know what we celebrate in this country in terms of visibility 

of Blacks in much higher places and so on and yet in Europe you 

have multimillion-dollar soccer players having to experience having 

bananas thrown at them on the field and racial epithets. So just 

because there may be some progress on one level doesn’t mean that 

the problems have gone away. 

I conclude that the main reason that the image and status of 

Blacks continues to suffer is economic. I don’t think there’s any 

kind of innate belief in the dominant society that Blacks are inferior. I think that this kind of notion has been reinforced over the 

centuries mainly for economic reasons. 

First, to justify the slave trade and the employment of slave 

labor. Now, because these are the images that sell—the media, advertising industry, sports—that’s what sells. That’s what’s profitable, and that’s what keeps it going. Otherwise, I think we could 

escape from some of this over a generation or two. But as long as 

there is that economic motivation underpinning all of this, I think 

we have a problem. 

There are many questions ongoing: Are those stereotypes of 

Blacks still relevant? Or am I just kind of a dinosaur, still talking 

about things that don’t exist anymore? Are people of Black African 

descent in Europe considered European? Or are they still considered primarily Black? 

How do Black people—people I’m calling Black—self-identify in 

Europe? That’s a very important consideration. The question of solidarity has been raised. My sense is that there would be a tendency 

not to even want to seek solidarity. 

I’m descended from sharecroppers in Green County, Alabama; before that, slaves. My ancestors didn’t define themselves as Black either. That was something that was imposed on them. 

What I’m sensing about now is that the Europeans might have 

a chance to skip that stage and move on into true integration without all the fuss; but because of the way economic conditions are 

conspiring against that, I’m just not sure that’s going to happen. 

22

I am encouraged by all the Europe-wide organizations, the national human rights organizations, and so on. That may help. We 

did some of this. 

But in my own area of specialization, for example—Russia—I’ve 

had to cancel recent trips, because friends have warned me, ‘‘Just 

don’t go.’’ I can’t ride the metro. I can’t go out by myself anymore. 

I first visited Russia in ’65, and I was safer under Soviet Communism—for the wrong reason. They protected with the police 

state, and they wanted foreign currency, and so they rigidly enforced protection of individuals. 

Now there is no motivation anymore to protect Black people—

neither Black orphans from the tens of thousands of Africans who 

were there and have now gone, not just Black visitors, male or female. 

A more authoritarian regime there now, in some ways, than in 

recent years, has clamped down on the media, so there’s not even 

active reporting anymore of all the victimization that has taken 

place. Although the government recently—I think it was Hitler’s 

birthday—did provide the African students with provisions so that 

they could stay off the streets for that period, because in Eastern 

Germany and in Russia in particular, that’s the way it is at 

present. 

I’ll conclude my formal presentation now. I’ll be glad to engage 

in any questions. 

Mr. HASTINGS. Thank you, Dr. Blakely and I note that you were 

going through your prepared statement, and I’d invite you to, after 

your summarization, include your full statement in the record. 

Then I would say to our audience, as well as all of you, we will 

continue a full report regarding this matter. I have the misfortune 

of having an appointment at 11:30 and Dr. Lusane, I mean no offense. I’ll leave during the course of your presentation. 

I also apologize to my fellow Commissioners and our colleagues 

and ask them to please stay. The Ranking Member has indicated, 

our friend Chris Smith, that he will conclude the proceedings for 

us. 

I invite you to our Web site, those of you that are interested, and 

I can say unequivocally, Dr. Frans, you will hear from us, and Gary 

Younge, as well as all of you. We owe you a debt of gratitude. 

I did not ask any questions. I would send to you, and ask for 

your followup for our report, any question that I may have, if you 

would present it to us in writing. 

Dr. Lusane? 

CLARENCE LUSANE, INTERNATIONAL RACE POLITICS 

AUTHOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 

Dr. LUSANE. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Hastings and 

honorable men and women of the Commission, as well as to our audience and to my colleagues. 

I want to echo the sentiments that have been stated and also 

thank the commission for providing this historic and what some 

would even say is earth-shaking opportunity to discuss what is 

emerging as one of the most important issues confronting the future of Europe: the status and means of social inclusion of people 

of African descent. 

23

For more than 20 years, I’ve worked with minority communities 

and NGOs in Europe, including people of African descent, focused 

on issues of human rights, immigration, racial equalities, and intolerance. 

Similar to Congresswoman Lee, I also had the wonderful opportunity to live in England for a number of years, and that work included a number of years working as Assistant Director of the 1990 

trust of Black human rights organizations based in the U.K. 

In that capacity I worked with governments, regional institutions, such as the European Union and the Council of Europe, 

around these concerns. I also would note that I wrote a book called 

Hitler’s Black Victims, which looks at the experiences of people of 

African descent under Nazism, which I will also submit to the 

Commission for the official record. 

Although the oldest skull ever found in Europe belonged to an 

African, and even though African Americans have been in England 

since at least the late 1800s, for most people in Europe, a settled 

presence of Black people is viewed as a relatively new phenomenon. 

In fact, there have been several waves of Blacks in Europe since 

the end of World War II. In England, France, the Netherlands and 

other countries, Black migration was critical to the rebuilding of 

Europe. Waves of Blacks came to Western Europe to drive the 

buses, to nurse the sick and to sweep the streets of the great cities 

of that region. 

In Eastern Europe Communists states from Russia to Poland to 

the former Yugoslavia welcomed African students, scholars, artists, 

and other professionals as part of an effort to aid liberation movements in newly independent states. These new populations merged 

with older and smaller Black communities. 

However, in both Western and Eastern Europe, Blacks and other 

minorities were never fully integrated into the society. The evidence is overwhelming. 

First, they have often been the targets of violent racist attacks. 

As my colleague just mentioned, in Russia and a number of places, 

skinheads and neo-fascist organizations in Russia, Austria, Germany, and other states have specifically targeted Blacks, and a 

number of individuals have been murdered in recent years. 

In fact, according to research by Searchlight magazine, a number 

of these organizations also have direct links with racist and neofascist organizations in the United States, including even the Ku 

Klux Klan. 

Second, there remain persistent disparities in the social arena. In 

housing, education, health care and other areas, Blacks in Europe 

are at or near the bottom. In the U.K., which is one of the few 

countries in Europe that actually keeps statistics, Black students 

are failed at two to three times the rate of White European students. 

Blacks have an unemployment rate that’s 18 percent lower than 

the general population and Blacks are 50 percent more likely to die 

of a stroke. As you will note, these statistics are similar to the statistics facing many African Americans in this country. 

Third, racial issues are also acute in the realm of criminal justice. Police violence, deaths in custody, and disproportionate incarVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
24

cerations are major concerns in England, France, Spain, Germany, 

Italy, and a number of other states in the region. 

Again, in the U.K. Black people are six times more likely to be 

stopped and searched by the police and three times more likely to 

be arrested than Whites. In France police-Black community tensions sparked the deadly riots that occurred in 2005. 

The racialization of crime and the criminalization of a race are 

both having devastating impacts on Black communities in Europe. 

Fourth, Blacks are also suffering from the harsh, unfair, and discriminatory immigration policies that exist in the region. Anti-discrimination sentiments are rampant and are not just restricted to 

the far right. In fact, not only are conservative parties adopting 

these positions, but so are formerly social democratic parties. 

There are a number ways outside of this to move beyond these 

conditions. 

First, it is important that states begin to collect social and economic data on the situations of racial and ethnic minorities in the 

region. Understandably, the history of Nazism, fascism and ethnic 

cleansing has generated a reluctance to gather racial data, but the 

lack of the empirical data continues to hamper the development of 

concrete policies that can effectively address the social exclusion of 

Europe’s minorities. 

This is also relevant to the issue of, as my colleague mentioned 

earlier, identifying how people of African descent in Europe actually see themselves. 

There are a number of different categories of people of African 

descent. There are those who are citizens, for example, and those 

who have become citizens in a number of different ways. 

Some were born in Europe and became citizens. Some have become naturalized citizens. You even have those who were adopted, 

for example, from Brazil and a number of other places, who have 

dual citizenship. You have those who are legal residents, who 

aren’t citizens, who may be in the categories of asylum seekers or 

refugees and then you also have those who are undocumented. 

So all of these are important statistics to gather so that there is 

a realistic understanding and sense of what the demography of people of African descent actually constitute, as well as there are ways 

to find out how people identify themselves. 

Second, there’s a need to strengthen the content and enforcement 

of anti-discrimination laws and policies. The 2000 race directive 

from the European Union provided a foundational framework for 

constructing policies that can address discrimination. However, the 

legislation only covers EU member states and is only focused on 

anti-racism. 

Legislation must begin to address the issue of racial equity and 

means by which progress can be made to close the disparities that 

currently exist and are growing. 

Third, along these lines it’s critical to establish effective and empowered government agencies that are focused on anti-discrimination and anti-racism. These entities should be built in such a manner that they maintain independence from political parties and 

narrow government interests. 

The United Nations has outlined specific guidelines in creating 

these types of independent government-related bodies. 

25

Last, and perhaps most urgent, there is a need to include the 

voices of Black communities in development of anti-discrimination 

and anti-racism and equality policies. A wide range of Black and 

anti-racist NGOs have developed over recent years, but have too 

often been excluded from the policy debates that are critical to the 

communities that they seek to represent. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your testimonies and for 

being here. 

This is an historic hearing. To the best of my knowledge, we have 

not had a hearing that’s so focused on the experience of Africans 

in Europe, so I think your testimonies will become part, I think, 

of a record that will be read very widely. 

So thank you again for the contributions you are making to the 

knowledge of the Commission and hopefully toward mitigating and 

ending racism forever. And it certainly is a dream that all of us 

have. 

Let me ask, first, Dr. Blakely, I looked at your map, and again, 

I appreciate your testimony. You note that in France there are 

some 2.5 million Africans in France. 

We ran into a real problem, on the whole issue of anti-Semitism 

in France as well, in the collection of data. There was a reluctance 

almost like a wall, and it seems to me if you want to combat a long 

evil, you need to collect data, and you need to be as specific as possible. 

We found that on the anti-Semitic issue that when swastikas appeared on gravestones that had been overturned in Jewish cemeteries or are on places of worship, it was just dismissed as 

hooliganism. So a lot of us pressed very hard that you need to collect data to adequately combat a crime and to categorize it as a 

hate crime for what it is. 

I’m wondering what your experience has been, if you could, on 

the whole issue of France and this reluctance to collect that kind 

of data. 

Let me ask Dr. Essed—is that the way it’s said? 

In the Netherlands we have an ongoing argument with the 

Dutch Government, since they have legalized prostitution. Amsterdam certainly has large numbers of women who are being degraded 

and exploited each and every day in their brothels. 

There was one rapporteur who suggested that upwards of 80 percent of those women are foreign born and also are there through 

coercion or deception. They had not gone there voluntarily, even 

though if you talked to them in a way that is not in a safe place, 

where they might be fearful of retaliation, they’ll say, ‘‘Oh, I’m here 

voluntarily,’’ but that’s not the case. So many of these women are 

being exploited cruelly. 

So my question would be what has been your experiencing in 

pushing back? It seems to me that prostitution and the line of demarcation between that and trafficking of women for sexploitation 

is very, very thin indeed, and that there are many women who are 

right on that line, and they certainly are being exploited, and that 

ought to be a cause of concern. 

Finally, a question about what I consider to be an active racism 

that happens all over the world. It happened in the United States 

26

and it has in large part its genesis in writings that began at the 

same time that the Germans were beginning their eugenics movement and racial politics, the Aryan race and all of the hate that 

came out of that. 

Margaret Sanger is the founder of Planned Parenthood, and unbeknownst to large numbers of people—I’ve read many of her 

books; one of her books is called The Pivot of Civilization—in it she 

has a chapter that’s called ‘‘The Cruelty of Charity.’’

She talks—and I actually gave a floor speech on it recently—

about how the new government program—and then a lot of philanthropists were getting involved with helping indigent women who 

were suffering from poverty, who were pregnant, and people were 

trying to provide maternal care to them—she saw that as cruelty. 

And she said it without any ambiguity in her writing. 

She said, ‘‘Such benevolence is not merely superficial and nearsighted. It conceals a stupid cruelty. Aside from the question of the 

unfitness of many women to become mothers, aside from the very 

definite deterioration in the human stock that such programs 

would inevitably hasten, we may question its value even to the normal through unfortunate mothers. For it is never the intention of 

such philanthropy to give poor, overburdened and often undernourished mother of the slum the opportunity to make a choice for herself.’’

It goes on, ‘‘The most serious challenge that can be brought 

against modern benevolence is that it encourages the perpetuation 

of defectives, delinquents and dependents.’’

In the United States a woman who is African American is three 

times more likely to have an abortion—300 percent higher abortion 

rates than among Caucasians or even Latinos. In my State of New 

Jersey, for every three pregnancies, two are aborted of the African 

American, 40 percent for the Latinos, and about one-third are Caucasian. 

I see it as a massive loss of babies’ lives, as well as an exploitation of those women. But my question really goes to the heart of 

a bias that focuses on these vulnerable people. When we should be 

surrounding these women with love, compassion and outreached 

hands, they are being shown to an abortion clinic. 

I’m wondering if the African experience—and before I ask, all of 

you might want to answer this—Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. 

Martin Luther King, has had two abortions. Dr. King has spoken 

out very strongly that there is a racial tinge to all of this and has 

said, and I quote her: ‘‘How can a dream survive, if the children 

are murdered?’’

So my question to you is is that something that is happening in 

Europe as well? My deep concern is for the babies. Whatever their 

color, they need to be protected and it seems to me that there’s a 

disproportionality and a focus on African babies and the question 

would be is that also happening in Europe? 

Dr. BLAKELY. Commissioner Smith, thank you for your question. 

I’ll address the one concerning France and the ethnic and racial 

designations. As a historian, this is very problematical, because, for 

example, if you go into the library and you try to do research, using 

the standard means, categories don’t exist. You have to almost go 

in already knowing where what you’re looking for is. 

27

I should also preface my remarks, I guess, by saying that I have 

a tremendous amount of respect for France and its republican tradition, of which the French are very proud but I disagree strongly 

with their notion that if you don’t name something, it doesn’t exist. 

Part of the practical problem—with the attitude that we don’t 

have ethnic categories—there’s actually a law against having official categories—is when you have something like what occurred at 

the end of 2005, you don’t even have a vocabulary to talk about it 

and that’s very problematical. 

I think France is not the only country in that category but there 

are ways of getting information—local social work organizations, 

for example, and in the communities themselves and their institutions but I think it’s unfortunate that there isn’t a greater acceptance of the necessity to at least acknowledge the true-to-life experiences of the people in order to address the needs of society as a 

whole. 

Dr. LUSANE. Yes. I want to echo those comments, because it is 

a problem in Germany. It’s a problem in Spain. It’s a problem in 

Italy. It’s a problem across the region. And it manifests itself at one 

level in just getting basic social statistics. 

So, for example, is there a disproportionate number of people of 

African descent in the prisons? If you don’t see that as a category, 

and you don’t do that kind of counting, then you don’t address the 

issue. 

In the U.K., where they do keep this kind of accounting, there’s 

a massively disproportionate number for Black women, for example, who constitute probably 2 to 3 percent of the population, constitute probably 20 percent or more of the prison population so that 

means that you can’t just generally address the issue, but you specifically need to look at what’s going on. 

A similar case can be made in France, where independent researchers from the University of France and Sorbonne and some 

other places, have gone into the prisons and literally just counted 

people and found these kinds of disproportionalities but because 

the state itself doesn’t collect this data, it becomes very difficult to 

develop policies. 

It really is a regional problem, not just in France, and one that 

really is critical to develop any kind of policies that can address the 

disparities and discriminations that exist. 

Dr. ESSED. I would briefly add that, for instance, in the Netherlands one can register where individuals or their parents are born 

which is an indirect way of registering race and ethnicity. Sometimes it’s done voluntarily, and sometimes not. The numbers are 

often unreliable, and there are cases where researchers just counted ‘‘colored’’ faces—face value, basically. 

I would like to address the issue you mentioned about abortion. 

I’m not aware that there is a special focus on people of African descent in relation to abortion. 

What happens is that none of the countries, as far as I know, has 

been out to promote abortions, but to making something possible 

as a last resort, because I don’t think there’s any woman who likes 

to have an abortion in the sense of looking forward to that. 

I think it’s an awful experience—but sometimes women opt for 

abortion because they think an alternative would be even worse. 

28

In countries where abortion was legalized, as in the Netherlands, 

the numbers dropped, and it has been dropping for decades. There 

are still concerns about the relatively higher number of abortions 

among immigrants, in particular from the Caribbean, from Morocco 

and Turkey, where many young people lack access to sex education. 

Among the second generation born and raised in the Netherlands 

the abortion numbers are lower. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Lee? 

Ms. LEE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don’t want to continue this 

abortion debate, but I just want to say for the record some of us 

believe that a woman should have a right to privacy, a woman 

should have a right to choose, and the government should not 

interfere in decisions that are being made which should be made 

between a woman, her family and her health care provider. 

And I just wanted to say many of us believe that part of what 

we have to do is provide comprehensive sex education at a very 

early age so that women and girls know how to protect themselves 

from getting pregnant and from the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and infections. 

Let me go to, I guess, Dr. Blakely and ask you with regard to 

the fact you mentioned the cheap labor now that’s taking place in 

Europe with people of African descent. How does that factor in, in 

terms of the brain drain from especially Africa and the Caribbean? 

It’s my understanding that people working abroad, immigrants working abroad are remitting back maybe $45 billion a year to 

their home countries. However, the continent of Africa and, of 

course, the Caribbean still are underdeveloped. And so what’s the 

relationship between cheap labor and the brain drain on the continent of Africa? 

Dr. BLAKELY. Well, it’s a very complicated question, as you know, 

Congresswoman Lee. 

And my mind was racing as you were completing your question, 

because actually now another issue has just arisen, which is seeing 

in some instances Eastern Europe immigrants actually replacing 

Blacks in Europe as the cheap labor of choice, so to speak. And so 

that’s another kind of factor that’s beginning to show itself. 

The other development is that the European countries have in 

recent years started restricting immigration and trying precisely to 

only accept people with real skills, with the kinds of skills that you 

might put under the category of a brain drain. 

And it’s a very difficult—at least at the moment—and insoluble 

problem, I think, for African countries, poor African countries, because things are in turmoil at home. The opportunities for those 

people to realize their dreams are not there at home. They prefer, 

I think, to stay in Africa. But as long as there are those opportunities in Europe, that really doesn’t seem to be anything that’s going 

to change. 

Ms. LEE. Thank you very much. Let me followup and just 

ask——

Oh, did you have a response, Dr. Lusane? 

Dr. LUSANE. Yes, I just wanted to add to that that the big paradox in Europe is that even as [inaudible] sentiments kind of arise, 

the reality is that Europe needs labor. And studies from the United 

Nations and the international labor organization studies done by 

29

the E.U. have shown that Europe will needs tens and tens and tens 

of millions of workers over the next 50 years, and they will come 

from the developing world. 

There just are not going to be enough people coming from Eastern Europe, which is actually not all that welcome either. But certainly, there will be a big need. 

So some of the forward thinkers in Europe, particularly at the 

European Union level, really are recognizing this, and so immigration policy really has to start to prepare itself for dealing with the 

new demographics that are necessary, given the aging population 

in Europe and the low birth rate among European Whites. 

Ms. LEE. Thank you. 

And, Dr. Essed, yes, did you have a response? 

Dr. ESSED. Just to briefly answer this. It also should be seen in 

relation to the amount of money immigrants send back home. This 

is a source of development income for these countries. So I think 

it’s complex, and there is some sort of balance. 

South Africa is a different matter, but I’ll not go into that, for 

the sake of time. 

Ms. LEE. Thank you. 

And just very quickly, what I’m hearing from all of you is because of the lack of data collection and statistical gathering and the 

fact that the numbers aren’t quite there yet, we don’t really know 

what the impact of racism and discrimination is, other than by 

knowing. 

And so here in America, of course, we have had affirmative action policies that have helped in some ways to level the playing 

field, although now they’re actually being eroded and turned 

around, and people now are being shut out of employment, contracting opportunities, opportunities for higher education. 

In my State, for example, there was a proposition that totally 

eliminated affirmative action, so we’re back to ground one. 

In Europe is affirmative action seen as a possibility? Does it 

make sense, if in fact the numbers were ever there or the data was 

gathered to be able to begin to develop policies to turn some of 

these recognizable conditions around that we as African Americans 

feel and understand and live with every day here now? 

Dr. ESSED. Can I reply? There has been some positive action, 

which is not exactly the same as affirmative action, but what it 

boils down to is the idea that if you have two applicants who are 

equally competent, then you take the applicant of color, that is, or 

the woman. 

Positive action programs have been applied in the U.K. in the 

1980s, and in the Netherlands in the 1980s as well. Research indicates that positive action did have some corrective impact on the 

more open forms of discrimination, but it certainly did not lead to 

any preference for Black candidates. 

Dr. BLAKELY. One development that is occurring as things 

progress is that there are consciously Black organizations taking 

shape. For example, in France there is an organization—well, the 

acronym is CRAN. It’s the representative council of Black associations. 

Its leader, Patrick Lozes, is a pharmacist, has political aspirations, but he actually has carried out the first major survey a couVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00033 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
30

ple of years ago, both in terms of trying to get a more accurate population count and in terms of the kinds of issues that concern 

Black people. 

He’s consciously modeled his organization after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He claims to have 

300 chapters. 

Ms. LEE. I really want to thank you for coming. This is the beginning of a long, historical journey that we must take to rebuild 

the world, and I appreciate your study, your professionalism and 

all of that. 

As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, I just want to give 

you a little data on us. We have 43 Members from 21 different 

States. We represent over 40 million Americans. Eighteen of our 

members represent less than 50 percent African Americans. Five 

percent of our members represent less than 15 percent. So we represent all of America. 

We have millions more who are not represented by an African 

American, but who come to us and work with us from all over the 

country. We represent Latinos, Asians. We represent Europeans, 

Native Americans. The gamut is who we are as members of the 

Caucus, and we’re proud to do that. 

When Congressman Hastings talked about having this session 

and building a commonality that we might come to, it was to [inaudible] and most instructive. I always believed—and I’m a grandmother and an educator by profession—education is the equalizer 

in the world. It always has been and always will be. 

Whenever you have good schools, and children and young people 

participate and grow, then they have more options, and not only 

their family, their community and the world is better. You all 

achieved that, and I’m sure that those you work with have, too. 

And seeing the countries—we haven’t really gotten into that now, 

but I hope we will, as we move forward—they, too, are the count 

to tens or others of color who have gone on to become professionals 

and educated. 

Economics, the other ‘‘e,’’ is also in America—education, economics—and it sounds like in other countries of the world, those are 

the two things that are the equalizers. 

As chair of the Caucus, I’m here today to hear from you, and I 

thank you very much. And then I want to move the ball to how we 

go from here. What would you recommend—each of the three of 

you—that today—not only put on the record, but as members of the 

Caucus and the Democratic Congress, as well as the entire House 

of Representatives, what one or two things would you say we work 

on today? 

Dr. ESSED. I would definitely say active and proactive anti-discrimination laws. Formally, things are in place, but the way it 

works out is not sufficient. 

Even when there is, for instance, at least in the Netherlands, the 

reversal of the burden of proof, it remains very difficult to deal 

with cases where you have the kind of subtle racist acts that buildup from day to day and where it’s the whole process, and not one 

thing that you can point to and ‘‘prove’’. 

As an advisory body which also assists in implementing the antidiscrimination law the Dutch Equal Treatment Commission, is 

31

highly valuable, because often members of the judiciary have not 

really focused on issues of race. In addition, the Commission is fairly accessible as well for people without much formal education. But 

more needs to be done than the Commission alone can do. 

Ms. LEE. How can we impact that? They’re all independent 

states, independent governments. They’re the E.U. They’re the 

United Nations. They’re the Congress. How do we interact internationally so it will impact that? 

Dr. ESSED. Keeping at the European case to promote diversity, 

especially in the workplace. It’s education and work. If you don’t 

have jobs, you’re damaging the future of generations. If you don’t 

have education, you don’t get jobs because of the increasingly higher requirements for obtaining work. 

In the workplace racial discrimination is rampant in many of the 

European countries and it doesn’t matter what your level of education is—you hit a glass ceiling. More cross-Atlantic cooperation 

might be helpful, for instance, in relation to the experience of African Americans, who might not be in the ideal situation, from what 

I hear, definitely not, but there is more experience in resisting racism. We can learn from the mistakes that have been made here 

and we can learn from the gains that have been made here. 

Second, keep at the case of each and every European country. Is 

there diversity in the workplace? What example does the government display, in this respect? How many Black people are employed by the government? 

Particular attention is needed for the protection of people of African descent in Eastern Europe, who are under physical attack 

every day. 

Dr. BLAKELY. I think we do have to respect other nations’ sovereignty, but on issues such as censorship, for example, such as I 

mentioned with Russia, I would think there is already acknowledgement that the new Russia may be leaning in the wrong direction right now with respect to true democracy. 

If we could just keep that kind of issue on the table, encouraging 

our Russian allies to remember that there’s supposed to be substance behind those kinds of ideals. 

With respect to the question of encouraging more European countries to acknowledge that there may be a problem to address with 

respect to some of these issues—France or Germany, for example—

there must be some polite way to sort of keep constant pressure to 

try to, if nothing else, use our example. Don’t make the mistakes 

we did and don’t be in denial about very real kinds of societal problems until you have violent explosions. That’s not the way to deal 

with it. 

Dr. LUSANE. Yes. I’m a very strong believer in people-to-people 

relations. And I think probably most critical is that we really need 

to look for our counterpart. I really want to thank you for your 

overview of the Congressional Black Caucus. 

As you know and other members know, I believe it was probably 

little more than a decade ago, the Congressional Black Caucus was 

very critical in the launching of the Parliamentary Black Caucus 

in the U.K. Now, that experiment failed for a number of reasons, 

but the impulse behind it was important. 

32

So there is a need for Black elected officials in the United States 

to be in touch with Black elected officials and aspiring Black elected officials in the U.K. I tell my students all the time, they need 

to be in touch with students over there. 

So we need that kind of ongoing exchange, that ongoing dialogue, 

so that we are learning from each other’s experiences. 

Second, I think we raise that to a more strategic level when we 

look at a number of issues. When I was in the U.K., one of the 

things I wanted to organize, but never could, was an international 

conference on Black voting rights to look at how people around the 

world, but particularly in Western Europe, the United States, and 

Canada, are experiencing voting rights. What can we learn? What 

can we share? What seems to work? What seems to not work? 

So there are a number of concrete steps that we can take that 

bring African Americans in direct connection with people who are 

doing similar efforts over in Europe. And in that way we begin to 

institutionalize our relationships, and we begin to have ongoing, 

long-term kinds of relationships that can turn into projects and 

turn into concrete changes. 

Mr. SMITH. We are joined by the distinguished chairman of the 

Africa Subcommittee, the Africa Global Health Subcommittee of 

the Foreign Affairs Committee, Donald Payne, my good friend from 

New Jersey. 

HON. DONALD M. PAYNE (D–10) A MEMBER OF CONGRESS 

FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY 

Mr. PAYNE. It’s really a pleasure to be here, and I really enjoyed 

the little bit that I’ve heard. My plane was delayed coming down, 

and so I apologize. 

Nice to see you again in the United States, Dr. Lusane. The last 

time I think I saw you was in the Netherlands. 

However, I’ve listened with interest, and I think that it’s really 

appropriate that we start to raise the issue of people of color in Europe. When you look at the fact that colonization was a part of the 

European experience and the exploitation that Europe did varied 

with different colonial powers and others—I guess Belgium was the 

worst—but all of them were degrading in many instances. 

As a result, we see many states that are still grappling in Africa, 

for example, to have some governance and it’s the legacy, I think, 

of slavers. 

As a matter of fact, we created and passed a bill to create a commission on the bicentennial abolition of the slave trade, which occurred in the United States in 1908, voted into law in 1807 and 

signed by President Jefferson, I think, in 1808, became law a year 

after Britain did it under the leadership of Mr. Wilberforce. 

They had a year-long celebration in Britain, where they studied 

the impact of transatlantic slavery. I think they had all kinds of 

foundations—it might have been as much as $100 million—that 

went to schools, where they had a total discussion of the impact of 

transatlantic slavery and what it had. 

I’m hoping that our Commission will be able to do the same 

thing. We’ve been unable to get funding, but we’re going to still 

struggle to see if we can at least match Great Britain—just Britain 

now. 

33

I do believe that with the different phases of Europe, at one time 

African Americans felt it was the place to go—to France—the entertainers, and they saw less discrimination. I think maybe when 

numbers grow, then perhaps things change, because that was back 

when Josephine Baker and Ray Robinson, the boxer, and those people were going to France in particular. 

Europe tended to embrace people of color more so during the 

time of a lot of discrimination in the United States. It appears, 

though, that things may be changing. Of course, a lot of, I think, 

racism started at World War II when White soldiers portrayed 

Black soldiers as different and started stereotypes during World 

War II. 

That was an area that I spent a lot of time studying. My uncle 

was in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day, and so his experiences 

there were kind of interesting to me as a young boy, hearing him 

talk about what happened there. 

I do think that there is some affirmative action that is going on, 

of course, in Northern Ireland—not between races, but with the 

McBride principles that say you have to hire a Catholic anytime 

you hire a Protestant, if they’re doing business with the United 

States. 

There are the new policing laws in Belfast in the north of Ireland, where there’s a quota. You can’t hire a Protestant policeman 

until you hire a Catholic policeman, because in Northern Ireland 

98 percent of the police department were Protestants, and 98 percent of the prisoners were Catholics, and so they felt there might 

be a little something wrong with that formula. 

So affirmative action is really in play in Northern Ireland, like 

I said, on the religious front. So these are really some issues that 

may be brought into Europe as we focus more on the question. 

In Latin America there was a lot of attention in 2002. The Afro 

Latinos came to the Congressional Black Caucus and started to tell 

us about the plight of African descendants in the Americas and we 

kind of created a working group. And as a result, there have been 

a lot of activity and changes in Brazil. They’ve moved forward with 

trying to have a strong affirmative action program. 

In Colombia President Uribe has come to my office several times 

and has made cabinet level positions and even in the government 

focusing on even in higher education. In Peru they’re looking at the 

whole question—even in Mexico, Mexicans of African descent. 

Of course, they have a long way to go, but there is now a realization that there needs to be some kind of affirmative action on the 

part to discuss the legacy of discrimination in their countries. 

I do recall when they had a Congressional Black Caucus in Britain. I visited them in ’95 and spoke in several cities with the president or chairman of the Black Caucus. It was a mixture of Indian 

and Blacks. 

At that time we were dealing with the British police’s choke hold 

where in prison there were a number of deaths by the manner in 

which the British police would restrain—and not even restrain, but 

just it was a practice—and there were a number of deaths, all of 

minorities, that died with the choke hold and we had discussions 

on that. 

34

I guess my question is do you think that some similar kind of 

group as we have in Latin America—of course, I think that Latin 

America probably is very much behind Europe; it definitely was the 

treatment of African descendants in Latin America in general in 

the Americas, I believe was much worse than that in Europe—but 

do you think that some similar kind of attention or thrust would 

be appropriate at this time? 

Dr. LUSANE. Yes. I think that’s an excellent idea. There are a 

number of groups in Europe: from the Black Germany Initiative, 

which is in Germany; ADEFRA, which is a Black German women’s 

organization; Diaspora Afrique, which is based in Paris; POMOSIA, 

which is based in Austria; SOS Racism, which is based in Spain 

and a couple of other countries. 

There are a large number of organizations that would be happy 

and more than willing to engage in the kind of dialogue that happened with the Afro Latino experiences. I think if we can move 

along those lines, that would be a major step forward. 

Mr. PAYNE. Great. 

Dr. ESSED. Yes, I agree with that. I also agree that it would be 

very good to learn from Brazil, for instance, where they have progressive anti-discrimination laws which, from what I hear, are also 

being implemented with some rigor. 

Dr. BLAKELY. I do think there are a growing number of resources 

in Europe. In the academic world, for example, there are more and 

more centers being established that are dealing with these issues. 

So if there were such a group, they wouldn’t have to be starting 

from scratch in terms of trying to find out what’s going on. 

Mr. PAYNE. Well, you know, that’s a great idea. As a matter of 

fact, about 5 years ago I was invited to speak at the NAACP 

branch in Germany. It was interesting. It was founded by some 

American Black that moved to Germany 25 years ago, and they 

have an NAACP chapter, and I found it very interesting. 

There will be a followup to the Durban conference on racism and 

xenophobia and so forth. Of course, we may recall that the first 

conference became hijacked, more or less, by an issue of the Palestinians and Israel—and it diverted the whole intent of the convention, which was to deal with racism in the world. 

It was unfortunate that a group of radicals destroyed the opportunity, really, for a legitimate discussion and debate on what the 

conference was really supposed to primarily focus on—on racism. 

I’m hoping that the followup to Durban could have the full participation of all the countries, but somehow box that or eliminate 

the hijacking of this very important convention, because I think the 

people of African descent all around the world suffered because of 

some extremist anti-Israeli proponents that hijacked this conference and made it about what it wasn’t supposed to be about. 

So I am hoping that can be eliminated, so this whole question 

of racism around the world—because Durban is the only forum 

that’s ever been created for this, and unfortunately it was tarnished and actually not fully participated in, especially by the 

United States and other countries, so I don’t know if any of you all 

are going to participate in the Durban II, but that would be a 

forum, I think, that if it’s done properly, could really be a real 

sounding board. It’s going to be scheduled for 2009, although preVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
35

paratory meetings are being held in Geneva, as we speak, as a 

matter of fact. 

Dr. LUSANE. I would agree with you. I think it was very unfortunate circumstances that ultimately occurred. 

At the regional level, things were much better. I was working in 

Europe at the time and helped the work on the European regional 

preparatory conference for Durban, and that was really an opportunity for bringing together groups who were working on racism, 

immigration issues, anti-Semitism, kind of across the board. 

That process hopefully will be emerged around 2009 and particularly focused on the national action plans that were agreed upon 

by most member states that attended the conference. 

There has been some followup, but it’s wilted a little bit, and so 

the process of heading toward 2009, hopefully, at least at the European level, will re-ignite the energy around pushing some of the 

states, and particularly some of the new states that have come into 

the EU, to followup either on the national action plans they agreed 

to, or something along those lines around policy dealing with antidiscrimination and anti-racism. 

Mr. PAYNE. Just a last question. I know that in the athletic 

realm with the soccer or their football, I guess, as you call it there, 

that there have been more and more stars of African descent and 

from what I understand, there have been sort of racial attacks by 

fans. 

Of course, it seems—I don’t want to prejudge any group—but 

seems like kind of hooligans kind of follow those big games and it 

seems that drinking and all of that becomes as much a part of the 

game, and so before the game is over, I don’t even know if anyone’s 

really watching the game or they’re just out fighting or brawling. 

At one time one country barred another country from coming to 

the game. It’s just gotten out of control. 

But as relates to Black soccer stars and the name-calling that occurs, has that been a problem more at the side, or was it an issue? 

Dr. BLAKELY. It’s still very much an issue. Within the last year, 

there have been really horrible incidents reported in the press. For 

example, there was incident in Germany where a Nigerian soccer 

star was taunted by fans, and bananas were thrown, and he became so upset that he raised a Hitler salute. 

It turns out this against the law in Germany, so he was brought 

up on charges. Nothing was done to the fans. And that sort of says 

where things are, except there have recently been measures taken 

by a couple of countries to crack down on that kind of violence. 

As you know, law enforcement doesn’t necessarily change hearts 

and it’s still a tradition in some countries. It’s sort of been, in varying levels of intensity—they thought they’d gotten control of it by 

the 80s, but then there was another upsurge again with the ultranationalists and the skinheads and so. 

So the jury is still out, whether or not that’s going to be held 

completely in check. 

Dr. LUSANE. What I would add to that, though, is that coming 

out of the 80s and 90s, there are actually some excellent policies 

that are in place in a couple of countries, like the U.K., for example, working with the football teams, working with local jurisdictions. They have put in some models of how to address the issues. 

36

And there are some organizations, like Keep Racism Out of Football, that also exist. What doesn’t exist is at the European level 

and leadership from the E.U. on this particular issue that would 

begin to propose a directive or something that would give some 

strength to what are fairly good policies that exist in a couple of 

countries but in other countries, as Dr. Blakely said, there’s virtually nothing solved. 

Mr. PAYNE. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Just very briefly, if you could tell us what countries you think 

are the best in Europe in terms of combating racism? And second, 

has the European Court of Human Rights been used with any effectiveness by people whose rights have been infringed upon? 

Dr. LUSANE. In terms of the first question——

Mr. SMITH. You might add what countries are the worst. 

Dr. LUSANE. Oh, there are a lot of worst countries. But in terms 

of countries that are doing best, in terms of overall framework, I 

would say the U.K. and the Netherlands. 

What they have put in place, particularly in the U.K. as a result 

of the Race Relations Amendment Act in 2000, is that it not only 

addresses anti-discrimination, but equality. 

For example, all public bodies—and there are over 40,000 in the 

U.K., from local councils to local health care centers—are all required to do an analysis of their policies to see how those policies 

impact on race relations. 

So there are some advanced kinds of thinking that went on in 

public places similarly in the Netherlands but in a number of 

places, you simply have nothing that approaches that at all. 

The second question was——

Mr. SMITH. The European Court of Human Rights. 

Dr. LUSANE [continuing]. The European Court of Human Rights. 

The big problem with the European Court of Human Rights is that 

under the European Convention, Article 14, which is the article 

that specifically deals with discrimination, is not a stand-alone article and it can only be invoked in association with another violation under the Convention. 

There is a protocol that has been proposed, for now probably 8 

or 9 years, that would resolve the issue, but only a few states have 

signed on to it. 

The European Court of Human Rights can actually be a very 

positive environment and a number of rulings from the court have 

had a reverberating impact across the region and so it takes quite 

a while to get a case through, but when the cases do go through, 

they impact on all the member states, because all 43 countries 

larger than the E.U. are members of the Council of Europe. 

So it can be an instrument, but right now the major problem is 

getting Article 14 to be a stand-alone and pushing for Protocol 12 

to be passed. 

Dr. ESSED. I want to qualify which country you take as an example. I would say in the U.K. the combination of well organized and 

long time community resistance has been very important and the 

U.K. is advanced in that. 

37

As for the Netherlands, anti-discrimination policies are fairly 

well in place, but the Netherlands has the highest degree of exclusions from the labor market. Take that as a measure and they end 

up at the bottom. 

I continue to emphasize, it’s important to look at what actually 

happens on a day-to-day basis and not to be fooled blinded by progressive policies or nice words only. 

Mr. PAYNE. Would you yield? 

Mr. SMITH. Yes. 

Mr. PAYNE. Ireland has been the country that is the new engine 

of Europe—the E.U., when they came in with their plan of upgrading the south of Europe to fix bridges and roads and so forth, and 

somehow Ireland caught on fire. They were maybe 10 millionaires 

20 years ago, but now there are several hundred—just almost the 

highest per capita income. 

However, I understand that it is more difficult in Ireland for a 

person of African descent to even get an appointment at the Irish 

Embassy that would handle that. 

Have you or anyone looked at what’s happening in Ireland and 

how strong the racial discrimination, with all the battle between 

sectarianism and trying to resolve Northern Ireland—of course, 

that’s another country—but Catholics and Protestants and knowing 

what all the problems were for Ireland? 

I’ve spoken to some of the Sinn Fein people, former IRA folks, 

who are very disappointed. They’re in the north of Ireland, very 

disappointed in what is happening in Ireland. 

They just can’t believe that racial discrimination would happen, 

because they went through so much religious discrimination in the 

north of Ireland, and they’re just so displeased with the government of Ireland. I mean, even today we’re going to have the 

Taoiseach who’s going to address the Congress, I think, today. 

Has anyone studied or know specifically about the Irish experience that’s going on right now? 

Dr. BLAKELY. I have, in fact, been giving special attention to Ireland, in part because the recent influx of African population has 

been so sudden—about 30,000, seemingly, over less than a decade—and apace with that, unfortunately, has been the rise of discrimination. 

There have been a couple of Black elected officials, though, even 

along with that. It’s difficult to say exactly which way things are 

going right now, because things are in flux. But they’re at least 

aware in Ireland that there is a problem, and I think they are trying to move to address it. 

That would also determine my ranking of how the other countries are doing. I think those who acknowledge that there is a problem are way ahead of the game and that’s why I do place England 

and the Netherlands on the top in that respect. 

The ones who are still denying that they want to deal with those 

kinds of categories, I think, are not going to move toward any resolutions of the very real problems. So I think that that’s really the 

main factor. It’s an attitudinal question about are you going to address these issues or not. 

One other country I would mention with respect to that, another 

country with a sizable population, about half a million, is Italy, 

38

which actually looks pretty bright, although there are problems 

there but, again, attitudinally I think there was a conscious decision by the Italian authorities that they’re going to avoid some of 

these problems that are happening elsewhere. 

There is also the historical tradition there and the proximity to 

Africa and other kinds of factors that play a role in this. 

Mr. PAYNE. Right. Just reclaiming for a second, I think you’re absolutely right, and I think that in Ethiopia and Italy there’s been 

a long kind of relationship—many times adverse. 

The thing about Ireland is that it’s so new. Ireland has been a 

country that has had a net loss for 150 years. No one ever went 

to Ireland. They all left Ireland, as you know, from the 1848 potato 

famine all through the years, because the economics were so bleak. 

Now it has turned around, where you are starting to have a big 

net increase. As a matter of fact, Irish Americans, came on home. 

You’ll get a better deal over here than you’ve got over there. 

But I think that the newness of this immigration that they’re 

confronted with now, with the economics just off the charts, is 

something that I think might be more than they can even come up 

to grips with. 

I hope that they take advantage of countries like Britain or others—the one that you say is the best—to follow what they’ve done 

to try to avoid really being caught up in something that’s 20, 30 

years ago that other countries have dealt with. 

Mr. SMITH. I want to thank you for your testimonies, for your incisive answers to questions posed by the panel and there may be 

some additional questions. If you could get back in a timely fashion 

to us, that would be greatly appreciated, so it could become part 

of the record. 

But thank you again. 

The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 12:21 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

39

APPENDICES

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE 

Good morning, ladies and gentleman. Thank you for your interest in this morning’s hearing focussed on the experiences of Blacks 

in Europe. For many years, I have travelled to Europe as a tourist, 

Member of Congress, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and now as Chairman of the Helsinki Commission. 

On those trips, I would often meet other Black people living or 

travelling in Europe, who were thrilled to meet another Black person. This was especially true when I was travelling in the former 

Soviet Union. 

Not always so thrilling were the stories they would share with 

me of the racism they faced. Worse, I, too, was the victim of racial 

profiling by authorities and blatant discrimination, such as when 

I was refused service at European establishments. 

In this regard, there are a number of similarities between my experiences as a Black American and those of Black Europeans. So 

one central goal of this hearing is to highlight and address the very 

real problems of racism and discrimination faced by Black Europeans. 

Another goal is to also recall the contributions Blacks have made 

to Europe and the world by removing the cloak of invisibility that 

for so long has served as a shroud. 

Recognizing and demythologizing the roles of Blacks in European 

history and modern day society has become a necessity given the 

rise of virulent anti-immigrant campaigns that target non-Whites 

in the aftermath of 9/11 and the London bombings. Whether Blacks 

were forced or chose to assist in Europe’s development, they did 

play a role that should be noted. 

As globalization continues to bring the world closer together, how 

European countries choose to define themselves and their peoples 

affects us all and will most certainly affect how I am viewed and 

treated at and within Europe’s borders. 

A third goal of this hearing is to then develop partnerships with 

those overseas committed to addressing these problems. Too often 

we highlight the problems within countries without noting the efforts that are being made—be they government, civil society, or 

even the private sector. The OSCE’s High Commissioner on National Minorities as well as the EU Fundamental Rights Agency 

have compiled reports on European countries’ positive initiatives 

ranging from affirmative action to housing and education desegregation. 

These are all efforts that have already been tried in the U.S. We 

need to be asking ourselves, how can we best extend a helping 

hand so that Europeans don’t repeat some of the mistakes we made 

here in developing and implementing these programs? 

A fourth point, which requires us to be honest with ourselves—

is that there are a number of very real barriers to addressing inclusion goals for Black Europeans ranging from the small size of some 

40

communities to a need for differences in approach for recent migrant versus more established communities. 

I am glad to have such esteemed witnesses here today to present 

thoughts on all of these issues. I would therefore like to introduce 

Mr. Frans joining us from Sweden and Mr. Younge joining us from 

the UK via New York to speak about their work. 

Unfortunately, due to scheduling constraints around Mr. Kodjoe’s 

role in the Broadway play ‘‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,’’ he is unable 

to be here today. He has however indicated his support for this and 

future initiatives on Blacks in Europe and asked that I enter his 

statement in the record. Which I hereby do. I would also at this 

time like to enter the statements of some of our European friends, 

the Initiative of Black Germans, Diaspora Afrique, and the Black 

European Women’s Congress. 

Now, because the issue of Afro-descendants in Europe touches on 

so many aspects of the Helsinki Commission’s work—human 

rights, security, migration—I am also planning to introduce legislation recognizing Black Europeans and calling for initiatives within 

the OSCE to address their plight. Your thoughts here today will be 

central to those efforts. 

I would also like to thank my fellow Commissioners for being 

here and would welcome your remarks at this time.

41

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, COCHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION 

IN EUROPE 

As we commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the abolition of 

the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the 40th Anniversary of the 

death of Martin Luther King Jr. this year it is only right that we 

take a closer look at the state of race relations in this country, as 

well as determine where other countries are in their commitment 

to uphold and respect fundamental freedoms and rights without 

distinction. 

The nooses of Jena, Louisiana and, indeed, in my own State of 

Maryland, tell us that despite the sacrifices of Dr. Martin Luther 

King Jr. and untold others, we still have much work to do on in 

this country. It is for this reason that I introduced legislation in 

the Senate calling for the full investigation and criminal prosecution of the hanging of nooses and will continue efforts to fight racism and its effects in our society. 

However, we must also note that the bigotry we have seen in the 

United States is not a unique phenomenon limited to the confines 

of our own borders. The OSCE, Russia’s SOVA Center, Union of 

Councils for Soviet Jews, and Human Rights First have all recorded increases in racist murders and other hate crimes in Russia 

and Ukraine. For the past few years, the European Union Federal 

Rights Agency has recorded more than 80,000 racist incidents and 

over 17,000 crimes linked to hate groups annually in the European 

Union. 

Hate crimes. Racial profiling. Rampant discrimination in employment, education, housing, and other sectors are disproportionately 

impacting African descendants and other minorities. The French 

riots alerted us to the gross disparities between those living in 

France’s suburbs, similar to the urban ghettos of the US, and the 

rest of France’s population. Chants of monkey noises amidst a hail 

of bananas raining down on soccer fields brought to the world’s attention the racism targeting Black soccer players in Europe. 

When paired with the racist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant remarks of some of Europe’s politicians, it is not difficult to understand how some Europeans might believe such behavior is not only 

sanctioned, but a part of their civic duty to push out those that 

don’t fit their image of Europe. Our own immigration debates, recent efforts to erode the gains of the Civil Rights struggle, and attempts to relegate racism as a thing of this countries’ past despite 

persistent disparities, demonstrate a need for comprehensive strategies and partnerships to combat hate and its ramifications. 

Don’t get me wrong, President Putin’s admission that racism is 

a problem in Russia, the Ukrainian creation of a special security 

unit to combat xenophobia, and President Sarkozy’s new government plan for France’s poor communities, are all steps in the right 

direction, but not enough. The hard truth is we all need to be doing 

more, including holding one another accountable. By learning from 

one another and developing sustainable partnerships, we can. 

We, as Americans, must share what we have learned to become 

a multi-racial society so that others need not repeat our mistakes. 

We also must support increased interactions between European minorities and US based civil rights organizations, assistance for EuVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
42

ropean governments in their efforts to combat discrimination, and 

parliamentary initiatives to combat hateful party politics. To paraphrase the slogan to address racism in soccer, we must kick racism 

and its ramifications out of our societies. 

I look forward to hearing our witnesses’ thoughts on what more 

we can all be doing to promote diversity and understanding while 

combating hate in all of our societies. 

Thank you.

43

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. G.K. BUTTERFIELD, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN 

EUROPE 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this very important hearing. As the son of an immigrant from a former British colony, I 

have been touched by both the colonial and migrant experience. 

Both issues are of great relevance for this hearing, as they are related to some of the often overlooked roles blacks have played in 

Europe’s development. 

My father was from Bermuda, now the oldest self-governing overseas territory in the British Commonwealth. A British colony 

formed in the 1600s, Bermuda’s economy was based on the islands’ 

cedar trees for shipbuilding and the salt trade and sustained by African slave labor. With the slave trade outlawed in Bermuda in 

1807, and slaves freed in 1834, today over 60% of Bermudians are 

of African descent. 

A number of Bermudians have migrated to the British mainland. 

However long before their migration, they and their forbearers assisted in the building of Europe’s economy and made countless 

other contributions to Europe’s social fabric. 

History is not so different for those in the Caribbean countries 

of Suriname and Curacao who migrated from their former colonies 

to the Netherlands; Haiti and Senegal who migrated to France; and 

the numerous other examples that could be cited with a number of 

these migration patterns from the Caribbean and Africa continuing 

until today. 

Despite these truths, the ills of slavery and its repercussions 

have often been a distinction solely reserved for the U.S. and its 

black population. Recent efforts in the UN and Europe commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic 

slave trade have assisted in raising the visibility of and recalling 

these histories. 

The UK constructed a replica of the Amistad, the 19th century 

ship to retrace a 14,000-mile slave route, including stops in the US, 

Africa, Caribbean and UK. A BBC website noting the impact colonialism and slavery has had on how Blacks are viewed and perceived in the world has also been erected. Athletic prowess, exoticism and low intelligence were all stereotypes used to justify slavery and colonialism, and still exist today. These stereotypes impact 

how we are portrayed in the global media, our education and employment opportunities, and why many of our contributions have 

remained invisible to the world. 

To recognize us means challenging European notions of being 

mono-racial and mono-cultural nations. To recognize us means that 

far-right parties calling to keep Europe ‘‘European’’ have no 

grounds, for we are also part of Europe. 

Today, we are being recognized. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for 

this and look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how best 

we can all work together to promote diverse societies that extend 

and protect fundamental rights to everyone. 

Thank you.

44

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JOE FRANS, VICE CHAIR, UNITED 

NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT, AND FORMER SWEDISH PARLIAMENTARIAN 

Chairman Hastings, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great 

pleasure and honour to be here with you here today. I am pleased 

that you have chosen the topic of the African Diaspora in Europe 

for this particular hearing. It is a timely intervention and a most 

relevant one. This is simply because Europe is currently undergoing a soul searching experience of its own identity. 

I would like to begin this brief presentation by paying tribute to 

the millions of African people abducted and enslaved and to those 

who sacrificed their lives in fighting for national liberation in Africa and in the Diaspora. They have inspired our thinking and indeed generated our current desire to contribute as a Diaspora to 

the development of Africa. 

The African Diaspora consists of peoples of African origin living 

outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the 

continent and the building of the Africa. Today, there are over 3.3 

million people of African descent living in Europe according to 

Eurostat. Over 1 million are from sub-Saharan Africa. 

In the post WWII era, the need for cheap labor to rebuild Europe 

resulted in inflows of Africans to Europe. The post-independence 

era further generated an inflow of African students. Political conflicts in Africa itself, the cold war and related global competition 

for economic development has also generated an inflow of asylum 

seekers and refugees. In addition, there has been a steady stream 

of African-European families who have chosen to settle in Europe 

as a matter of choice. 

Today, besides the above reasons, the benefits of the trickle of 

migrants is double-sided. On the one hand, the reserve of cheap 

labor—often described as unwanted—is used as a regulator, as 

seen in the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean in scranky 

boats with life itself at stake and who try to reach Europe by literally swimming the last mile. On the other hand, the question of 

whether attracting and sourcing highly skilled migrants from Africa to Europe are needed to sustain gains for Africa must be raised. 

Basically, African countries are funding the education of their nationals only to see them contributing to the growth of developed 

countries with seemingly little or no return on their investment. 

And yet, at closer look, Africans are contributing to the development of European identity and of the African continent itself. Some 

estimates suggest that Africans working abroad send home some 

US$45 billion a year. This is bigger than the total development aid 

and bigger than the total foreign direct investment. 

However, the challenges of integrating this new workforce remain. At the concluding session of the European Conference 

against Racism in 2000, a Political Declaration was adopted by 

Ministers of the Council of Europe Member States. In the document, the Governments concluded that the continued and violent 

occurrence of racism is an issue of concern and that challenges of 

integrating young people, immigrants and other groups remain, especially in the labor market where discrimination is present. A report presented by the British Trade Unions (TUC) Congress, arVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
45

gues that at every level of working life many black workers are 

being denied training opportunities—despite often being better 

qualified than their white counterparts. Discriminatory practices at 

work are still preventing too many workers in Europe with African 

descent from fulfilling their potential. 

However, statistics in the public domain to support arguments of 

racial violence and workplace discrimination in Western Europe 

are embarrassingly lacking. Without official statistics, effective responses cannot be devised. One of the most common indicators of 

labor market inequality is the rate of unemployment for immigrants and/or minorities. In 2005, it was reported that the unemployment rates for such groups were all significantly higher than 

for the majority population in many European countries. It is quite 

clear that thousands of people of African descent live in miserable 

conditions. Those without legal documents have no access to the 

welfare state, are exploited as cheap labor, and have no rights. 

Quite clearly, racism and discrimination are relevant to understanding the commonality of challenges of people of African descent 

in Western Europe. 

And yet there are also positive stories. All countries have constitutional frameworks against discrimination. There are many success stories in politics, policy dialogue, business and education, yet 

I have chosen to focus on those issues that demand our attention 

in framing policy. 

Mr. Chairman, one policy idea that could benefit from your support is the promotion of a trans-Atlantic dialogue on the experiences of people of African Descent. I would welcome both your support and assistance in making this happen. Thank you.

46

PREPARED STATEMENT OF GARY YOUNGE, BRITISH 

COLUMNIST, THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER 

My mother came to London from Barbados in the early 60s with 

a British passport and two A-levels in European history and 

English literature. She could quote from A Winter’s Tale, but knew 

only heat and hurricane. Before she left the island she was given 

orientation classes to prepare her for life in Britain. They told her 

to wear flannelette pyjamas and a woollen hat. They said nothing 

about people shouting abuse at you in the street. 

She came of her own free will. She also came because she was 

asked by the British government to help to build one of the nation’s 

most cherished institutions, the National Health Service. Racism 

and the cold aside, two of the things to strike her when she arrived 

were that most British people seemed to know very little about 

their own country, and even less about the nations their country 

had occupied. In the words of Gilbert, a Jamaican immigrant in 

Andrea Levy’s award-winning novel Small Island. ‘‘But for me I 

had just one question—let me ask the Mother Country just this one 

simple question: how come England did not know me?’’

These elements of my mother’s story will form the basis of my 

testimony today, drawing as they do on some of the central threads 

of the black European experience versus the American experience. 

Europe did have a civil rights movement. It took place at roughly 

the same time as the US civil rights movement and around the 

same issues—the right to vote, opposition to segregation and a 

more equal share of resources. But it did not take place in Europe. 

For the most part it primarily took place abroad—in Algeria, 

Ghana, India, Mozambique, Congo etc. That has left a local indigenous population in Europe with little understanding of or sense of 

historical responsibility to those whom it once colonized. 

The screams of the oppressed tortured by colonialism were uttered continents away and were neither heard at home. So there 

has been little in the way of moral reckoning with our past. But 

when it comes to domestic matters there is little in the way of historical literacy that would explain either European power or the 

presence of non-white people in Europe. In the words of the venerable director of the Institute of Race Relations in Britain, 

Ambalavaner Sivanandan: ‘‘We are here because you were there.’’ 

But if you didn’t know you were there, how could you understand 

why we are here? 

This ignorance can and has lead to severe racial antagonism 

which over the past 20 years has reinstalled itself as a permanent 

fixture in European political culture. Fascism—or at least the 

xenophobic, racist and nationalistic elements that are its most vile 

manifestations—has returned as a mainstream ideology in Europe. 

Its advocates not only run in elections but win them. They control 

local councils and sit in parliaments. 

In Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy, hard-right nationalist and anti-immigrant parties regularly receive more than 10 

percent of the vote. In Norway it is 22 percent; in Switzerland, 29 

percent. In Austria they have been in government; in Switzerland, 

where the anti-immigrant Swiss People’s Party is the largest party, 

they still are. In Italy they are about to return to government 

again. A central plank of these parties’ platforms rests on the noVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
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tion that each nation is a mono-racial and cultural unit into which 

non-white people have come and must on entry either conform or 

be banished. This or course is hinged on an entirely mythical notion of white European uniformity which must be defended against 

the uncivilized and the unwashed. 

Conversely on the level of daily cultural interaction it is difficult 

to imagine the continent without non-white people. In literature, 

music, sport we have become so inextricably intertwined in the national fabric that to unpick us would make that whole cloth unravel. But that has not stopped many from trying. 

Particularly since September 11th the push to assimilate into a 

society that won’t house, educate, employ or even respect you has 

become particularly intense. Like many my mother who took a lowpaid steady job—the industries that non -white people went into 

depend largely on the countries they went to and came from. But 

the industries and sectors our parents went into have for the most 

part shrunk or been decimated leaving relatively limited opportunities for their children. 

In Europe there is no black middle class. There are black middle 

class individuals. But no class as such. For their children the dislocation between our race—our colour—and place—where you are, 

appears at times unshakeable. Those who have been in France or 

Germany for generations are still called immigrants. And on that 

note, I will end with the conversation I had with an old man while 

I was at university in Edinburgh who asked me where I was from. 

‘‘Stevenage,’’ I said. ‘‘Where were you born?’’ ‘‘Hitchin,’’ I said. 

‘‘Well, before then.’’ ‘‘Well, there was no before then.’’ ‘‘Well, where 

are you’re parents from,’’ ‘‘Barbados.’’ ‘‘Ahh, you’re from Barbados.’’ 

‘‘No, I’m from Stevenage.’’

48

PREPARED STATEMENT OF PHILOMENA ESSED, ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY, THE NETHERLANDS, EQUAL TREATMENT COMMISSION 

Thank you for inviting me to this hearing on people of Afro-descent in Europe. By way of introduction I will present an alphabetical list of key concepts and notions relevant to understanding social conditions and experiences of Afro-descendants in Europe. It is 

not my intention to pretend completeness, but to provide a hopefully practical approach to a complex theme. 

AFRO-EUROPEAN

Afro-European, as a possible equivalent to the notion of AfricanAmerican, does not exist in any legal, social or practical sense. In 

Europe, European and brown/black skin color are perceived as mutually exclusive categories. Afro-descendant immigrants do not 

merge or integrate into any broader category or community of 

‘Afro-Europeans’. Afro- refers to a variety of communities and individuals, originating from different continents and countries, speaking different mother tongues and/or different European languages 

according to the country in which they reside. 

The (historical) relation to specific European countries forms another variant. The majority are the descendants of colonized people 

(Africa, South America). This group includes the descendants of 

enslaved Africans in the (former) European colonies (The Caribbean, South America). Many came to Europe as workers (North 

and sub-Sahara Africa; the Caribbean; South America) in search 

for a better future. There are individuals who migrated as students 

in the context of development cooperation (African students to 

former communist countries). There are political and economic refugees (including (Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and other war conflicted areas) who have settled in a range of European countries. 

An increasing number of people of Afro-descent are born in Europe from parents who immigrated to Europe, or from Afro-descendants and white partners. In addition, African children have 

been adopted into European families. Some people of Afro-descent 

live in communities of national/ethnic origin while others have 

been assimilated into white communities. A case in point are AfroGermans, often the children of white German women and African 

(former) students (East Germany) or African American soldiers, 

many of whom grew up with their mothers. They are culturally 

German and racially Black. There are significant numbers of culturally assimilated middles class Afro-descendants. But Afro-descendants are also overrepresented among the European poor. Depending on the context or their lives, conditions of arrival and national backgrounds, different needs and goals may be the focus of 

their struggles: citizenship, illegality, language acquisition, religious rights, economics, dealing with traumas of war, homelessness, unemployment, or glass ceilings. 

To label individuals and groups who are as heterogeneous and 

unconnected as the above with the one label of ‘Afro-descendants’ 

is not uncontroversial. Many share only (some) phenotypical, or if 

you wish, racial resemblances. Probably the only common European experience among many if not all Afro-descendants is their 

49

exposure to (a certain degree of) racism and systemic discrimination, regardless of country, socio-economic conditions, gender, age, 

or level of education. 

BLACK EUROPEAN

Different than in the US, Black as a notion is not exclusively 

used to refer to people of African descent. In particular among critical scholars and community activists the indication of ‘Black’ has 

been applied indiscriminately to targets of discrimination on the 

basis of race, culture, ethnicity, religion or a combination of these 

factors. This inclusive interpretation has been contested by Asians 

who do not want to be seen as ‘Black’, or by Afro-descendants who 

protest against the cooptation of ‘their’ identity as ‘Black’. In the 

new millennium a cross-European movement has emerged claiming 

‘Black European’ as their experience and identity. This diverse 

group of people tends to be more inclusive of others than ‘Afro-descendants, but the last word has certainly not been said about the 

question of ‘Who is Black?’

COLONIALISM

For many people of Afro-descent, the historical contexts of reference are colonialism and post-colonialism rather than slavery, 

even when they might be descendants of enslaved Africans (Caribbean, South American backgrounds). Many came to the so-called 

motherlands in Europe with European passports (for instance, immigrants from Surinamese and the Dutch Antilles to the Netherlands, French immigrants from Martinique to France). Colonialism, 

its economical, social and psychological implications and consequences are largely ignored in the European canons. 

Colonial relations continue to exist, including the inequalities involved. The Dutch Antillean colonies, for instance, are a popular 

tourist attraction for (white) Dutch. For the local population the reality is different. Extremely high unemployment numbers in the 

Dutch Antilles, unrealistic ideas about ‘rich lives’ in the Netherlands, or the desire to reunite with emigrated family, have caused 

high numbers to migrate to the Netherlands. Insufficient care, social indifference, lack of schooling and job opportunities, racial prejudice and a sense of anonymity in the Netherlands contribute to 

violence and criminality among young Antillean men. In response, 

the state seems to entertain controversial (and probably unlawful) 

ethnic databases on Antilleans, on the basis of which enhanced security and preventive law enforcement interventions can take 

place. Among Antillean women teenage pregnancies are a problem, 

often the result of a combination of factors, including physical or 

emotional abandonment at home, racial discrimination, and ignorance. 

The consequences of colonialism have not been dealt with in Europe. This holds true for the dependency mentality (passivity and 

sense of powerlessness among formerly colonized) as well as for the 

remnants of the European colonial mentality (paternalism and the 

creation of second class citizens). 

50

DENIAL OF RACISM

In the course of the 1990s racial discrimination has been placed 

on the agenda of European Union members. But in most policy and 

public discourse the application of the word racism has not moved 

beyond the 1950’s model of explicit race hierarchies (exceptions are 

a number of critical scholars and antiracism activists). Since many 

European countries reject the idea of race hierarchies on moral 

grounds, it is assumed that that ‘therefore’ there is no racism. In 

this view racism is an aberration of a few extremist groups only. 

The many subtle and cultural forms it takes (sense of European 

cultural superiority) are ignored. When it comes to accountability, 

each and every member state looks the other way: racism might be 

out there, but never here, not in their specific country. A frequently 

used, but misleading argument is that racism is an American 

thing. 

EVERYDAY RACISM

Racism is integrated in the routine practices of everyday European cultures and institutions resulting in informally segregated 

neighborhoods (UK, France, Germany), formally sanctioned segregated schools, so called Black and White schools (the Netherlands), neighborhood harassment of refugee families (for instance 

Spain, or the recent case of a Liberian family in the Netherlands); 

police violence (for instance in Austria), and so on. Among the most 

damaging forms of everyday racism are those involving individuals 

in positions of authority, whose decision-making power has the potential of making or breaking study careers or professional opportunities. Due to the public taboo on mentioning racism and emotional 

if not aggressive response to accusations of racism from the side of 

white Europeans, many Afro-descendants are neither aware of racism, nor sufficiently equipped to resist. Frequently, those exposed 

to racism experience a sense of powerlessness in the face of accusations that they are ‘just oversensitive’. 

Systemic exposure to racial discrimination is stressful, which can 

take a toll on the (mental) health of victims. Whether or not directly related, there are indications in the UK and in the Netherlands that disproportionate numbers of people of Afro-descent are 

diagnosed with schizophrenia. It remains unclear whether this is 

a result of misdiagnosis, an increase in mental health problems, or 

an increase in the number of people of Afro-decent people visiting 

mental health clinics. 

The impact of everyday racism on the lives of black and brown 

people continues to be a neglected issue among European policy 

makers. 

FORTRESS EUROPE

Increasingly tight borders since the Schengen Treaty are not preventing economic and war refugees from risking their lives in 

search of a better future in Europe. Many die prematurely in the 

passage between North Africa and Southern Europe: young men, 

women, and children. In the meantime middlemen are making 

blood money. The construction of ‘illegality’ has different impacts 

on men and women. Little is known about the particular conditions 

51

of illegal immigrants who try to survive as street vendors (mostly 

male, mostly in southern Europe), domestics (mostly women), or in 

prostitution (mostly women, but also including young Moroccan 

men). 

GENDER

Race is not gender neutral. Perceptions of Afro-descendants, men 

and women, are shaped by many factors, including histories of colonialism (white males, native mistresses); imagined exoticism (female warmth, sensuality and active sexuality) recurrent media images of African wars and poverty (male aggression) and AfricanAmerican images through the media (sports, music). 

The sex trade and abuse of African women have been reported, 

among others in Belgium. In the Netherlands, where prostitution 

is legal, women of Afro-descent end up in the lowest paid and most 

risky sectors of sex work. Beauty norms are another gender issue. 

Little is known in Europe about the impact of white beauty norms 

on women of Afro descent. Skin bleaching has been found to be a 

problem among women of Ghanaian background in the Netherlands. Circumcision of girls occurs, for instance, among refugees 

from Somalia. Policy makers have not been successful in including 

the women of these communities in endeavors to put an end to this 

practice. 

In schools Afro-descendant girls from Caribbean origin families 

are outperforming male counterparts in the Netherlands. The percentage of highly educated women among Afro-descendant women 

from the Caribbean is more or less equal to that of highly educated 

white Dutch women. This does not translate into equal representation at higher levels of the labor market. 

HISTORY

The historical relation between Africa and Europe is hardly an 

area of interest in school curricula. The historical presence of Africa in Europe has been the object of study among a few experts, but 

it is certainly not part of common sense knowledge among populations in Europe, and far from being considered a constitutive part 

of European history proper. 

IDENTITY

Even when they can be formally categorized as a person of Afrodescent, not all individuals and groups identify with ‘color’ or ‘race’. 

Many identify foremost in terms of their country of origin. It 

should also be noted that in the cosmopolitan cities such as Paris, 

London, Amsterdam there is an increasing African American presence (students, immigrants, tourists). 

JEWS

Very little is known about Afro-Jews in Europe, including, for instance, mixed race descendants from the (former) Dutch colonies of 

Suriname and the Dutch Antilles. There is reason for concern 

about sections among (North African) Muslims whose critique of 

52

Israeli state politics often is considered to transform into anti-Semitism against Jews in Europe. 

KKK 

Europe does not have a KKK, but neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups are active. 

LAWS

The European anti-discrimination laws of the 1990s have been 

important in creating procedures to deal with discrimination in organizational contexts. Different European countries have organized 

their own government funded, independent antidiscrimination 

agencies. In the Netherlands there is the Dutch Equal Treatment 

Commission the mission of which is to promote, monitor, and advise on compliance with the Dutch equal treatment legislation. One 

of the services is to investigate cases, where both the petitioner 

(one who feels discriminated against) and the respondent (the party 

who allegedly has discriminated) are being heard. In spite of the 

so called reversal of the burden of proof, racial discrimination—because often subtle and part of an everyday process of accumulating 

incidents—remains difficult to ‘prove’ with legal instruments. Many 

Afro-descendants remain hesitant about using the services of antidiscrimination agencies such as the Equal Treatment Commission. 

They are skeptical about the outcome, or fear victimization, even 

when victimization is against the law. 

MUSLIMS

A not insubstantial number of people of Afro-descent in Europe 

are Muslims. Therefore racial discrimination cannot be seen as disconnected from old and renewed religious antagonisms between 

Christians and Muslims. In the same way, everyday (verbal) aggression against Muslims probably includes a mixture of racial, cultural and religious racism. In some countries, politically sanctioned 

anti-Islam campaigns (for instance against Moroccan-Dutch) are 

taking extreme forms. Freedom of expression is too often taken as 

the right to offend. 

NEGRO

In the Netherlands, the term ‘neger’ (negro) is still commonly 

used to refer to dark skin people of African descent. Only recently, 

after years of protests, has the main Dutch dictionary included a 

qualification that some might take offense to the word as derogatory. 

OPPOSITION

In a number of countries opposition against racism is organized 

in cooperation with other communities of color and with (white) 

antiracist organizations, including those in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. 

Political backlash has followed antiracism movements of the 

1980s (UK, the Netherlands) and Sweden (late 1990s), often a result of changes in governments. In the new millennium there is 

53

growing Black (Afro) consciousness among young people, for instance, in the Netherlands, Germany and France. Urban Black 

Cultures are developing, often influenced by African American 

sports, arts and street cultures. 

PATERNALISM

Afro- descent immigrants from the former colonies in the Caribbean are often exposed to racial paternalism: you can assimilate all 

you want, but you will never be seen as good enough (always as 

‘‘not quite white/European’’) or as genuinely Dutch, French or British. The former colonized from the Caribbean are often not seen as 

a cultural threat because many are culturally integrated, which is 

also manifest in the presence of a substantial (highly educated) 

middle class. At the same time racial codes and barriers keep the 

highest levels of the labor market white. Exceptions are representatives in political parties and parliament. 

QUOTAS

Occasionally, the quest for quotas is being suggested among activists as a remedy against social disadvantages and racial discrimination. Apart from the stigmatizing consequences, quotas do 

not solve the underlying problems of discrimination on the work 

floor, glass ceilings, racialized networking, or automatic preference 

for white candidates even when highly qualified Afro-descendants 

apply. Positive Action policies of the1980s (defined as: in case of 

equal competency between a White and a Black candidate, preference should be given to the Black candidate) seem to have reduced open discrimination in some cases, but did not lead to any 

preference for Black candidates. 

RACE

Race is a legal category in European Law (antidiscrimination legislation). But race does not translate explicitly into policy making. 

For instance, race is not a formal policy category in Dutch political 

discourse. There is no formal registration on the basis of race, color 

or ethnicity. That does not mean that race is absent from cognitions and ideologies. In public discourse references to ethnicity, 

culture and religion (Islam) dominate; however, often notions of 

color are implicit. 

SLAVERY

It is significant to notice that, in contrast to the US, slave plantation systems were established outside of Europe in the Caribbean 

and South American colonies. 

In the US, knowledge about slavery and resistance has been 

transmitted from one African-American generation to another. This 

is not generally the case among Afro-descendants in Europe. Only 

recently former European slaveholding nations are acknowledging 

the wrongs of slavery (France) or integrating slavery into national 

histories (slave monument in the Netherlands). 

54

TOLERANCE

Various Western European nations consider tolerance their national trait (for instance, the Netherlands and France). This is 

often mistaken for an absence of racism. Tolerance is a positive 

value in democratic societies; at the same time an overstated positive image blinds some to the reality of racial discrimination. 

UNIFICATION

The unification of Europe has many political and economic purposes. But the racial dimension has not often been addressed. Unification can also be seen as the process of integration of white Europe. European identity builds (implicitly) on old racist theories of 

cultural hierarchies: from barbarian Moor to Muslim terrorist 

today; from black African cannibals at the height of colonialism to 

current media representations dominated by famine, corruption 

and warlords. 

Dominant perceptions of Europeans are implicitly or explicitly 

‘white’. The idea that Europeans can be Muslim, brown or black 

should not be shunned any longer. 

VIOLENCE

In Eastern Europe neo-Nazi and white pride physical violence 

against people of Afro-descent and other people of color is rampant. 

Urgent policy interventions and international attention are needed to provide better protection for Afro-descendants in Eastern Europe. 

WHITENESS

Unlike the one-drop-rule in the US, biological determinism in 

Europe has not led to formal racial segregation. White is not a formal category and in most Western European countries explicit selfidentification as ‘white’ is felt as something awkward because of 

the racial undertones. Ideologies of racial purity seem to have been 

less significant in some countries, including France and the Netherlands, where the emphasis has been more on cultural superiority. 

More research is needed, however, to make any definitive statements in this respect. It seems that systemic racial discrimination 

in Europe in the public sphere can go together with a high degree 

of racial mixing in the private sphere. This is an interesting area 

for research. 

X-ING

Crossing racial borders through interracial relations is more common in Western Europe than in the US. The Netherlands is an interesting example, where substantial numbers (I believe 30% or 

more) of Caribbean immigrants of Afro-descent—in particular, the 

generations born in the Netherlands—have white Dutch partners. 

There is a long tradition of acceptance of racial mixtures, in particular among immigrants from the Caribbean former colonies 

(Suriname a case in point), where many before immigration already 

exhibited integrated racial backgrounds (African, European, Asian, 

native American). As a result, it is not taken for granted that peoVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00058 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
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ple of mixed racial descent identify as ‘Afro-’ (only). It may well be 

that sections among Afro-descendants in the Netherlands follow 

the route of Indonesian immigrants, where next generations of racially mixed people gradually assimilate racially and culturally into 

the white dominant group. In this respect too there is a difference 

with the US. 

In the UK and in other countries new generations are claiming 

recognition of their identity as ‘mixed race’. 

YOUNG PEOPLE

In the 1970s and 1980s much has been written about second generations being ‘in between cultures’. New insights insist that ‘in between’ is not accurate in describing the experience of young people 

born in Europe, often of parents who were at least schooled in Europe. These are people who are living with, and easily switching between various cultural systems, across generations and across racial-ethnic borders, especially in the larger cosmopolitan cities. In 

the Netherlands, for instance, new languages occur among young 

people of all racial-ethnic backgrounds. High school Dutch—in particular, in the larger cities—is heavily influenced by Afro-Surinamese words and accents, occasional Berber words (Moroccans), 

overlaid with African-American rap codes, American-English expressions, and Anglo-sized Dutch words. 

A notable number of young writers of Afro-descent are contributing to local and international literature in the UK, Germany, 

France, the Netherlands, Italy and possibly other countries as well. 

The same holds true for the performing arts and music. 

ZWARTE PIET

Zwarte Piet is Dutch for Black Peter, the servant of Santa Claus. 

This Sambo looking figure, in fact a White person with blackened 

face, enlarged red lips, wooly wig and huge round earrings, is close 

to representing the Dutch national pet, or Santa Claus mascot. 

Dutch Santa Claus is celebrated on 6 December. In the month leading up to 6 December Zwarte Piet images can be found in schools, 

climbing ropes in shops, or jumping and dancing around in other 

public spaces. Many, but not all, people of Afro-descent experience 

exposure to these images as denigrating, offensive, if not racist. 

Some are called ‘Zware Piet’, at this time of the year by Dutch children. Attempts to ban this ‘Blackened Peter’ image have been met 

with fierce objections and emotional responses from white Dutch 

who feel this is their tradition, and nothing to do with racism.

56

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ALLISON BLAKELY, AUTHOR AND 

HISTORIAN, BOSTON UNIVERSITY 

The history of Blacks in modern Europe is converging with the 

present situation that finds an unprecedented level of Blacks in 

Europe proper. The size and significance of this Black presence (see 

map) are not yet widely recognized by scholars or the general public. In fact, it has recently been overshadowed by manifestations 

there of the new clash between the West and Islam. While Blacks 

in Europe themselves are only beginning to sense a degree of group 

identity—and this largely forced upon them by the shared experience of discrimination and racism—the black population in Europe 

has finally achieved a size and visibility that invites comparison 

with the involuntary definition of community that shaped the concept of Afro-America among the descendants of enslaved Africans 

in North America. 

For centuries millions of peoples of Black African descent were 

subjected to domination by the leading European societies in their 

colonies and former colonies abroad. In those settings there was a 

clearly understood hierarchy of wealth, power, and skin color; any 

Black presence in Europe was severely restricted; and European societies could pretend that those peoples were not part of their 

world. History is now converging with the present in that largely 

economic motivations are compelling the Europeans to allow into 

their midst populations earlier defined and treated as inferiors, and 

challenging what were supposed to be democratic societies offering 

equal opportunity to all for advancement. 

As a result, in all of the societies that are most affected issues 

surrounding poverty and social exclusion are becoming apparent. 

The past few years have witnessed manifestations of the potential 

this fosters for social turmoil. One example from the eastern edge 

of Europe is the documentation of hundreds of incidents of violence 

against Blacks in Russia over the past decade, including several 

hundred murders. Especially troubling is that the only constructive 

governmental response there has been to silence the press through 

intimidation so that such incidents are no longer reported to the 

public at home or abroad. 

Meanwhile, on Europe’s western edge, the ethnically charged 

protests that spread to 300 cities in France in late October and 

early November, 2005 featuring deadly violence and thousands of 

burning automobiles, easily evoked scenes from the major urban 

riots in the United States in the 1960s, or in Europe, the disturbances in 1981 in London’s Brixton district. These were followed a 

few months later by much larger disturbances in Liverpool’s 

Toxteth district. The British government inquiry into the causes of 

the Brixton disturbance conducted by Lord Leslie Scarman in November of 1981 addressed underlying causes that were reminiscent 

of the 1968 Kerner Commisssion Report on conditions in the 

United States. The Kerner Commission Report attributed the 

American riots to the failures of American society to integrate African-American rural-to-urban migrants and their descendants, 

which were reflected by high unemployment, abusive police practices, substandard housing, inadequate education, poor recreation 

facilities and programs, and inadequate response from established 

institutions. Now, a few decades later, a survey of reports emerging 

57

from several European countries read like excerpts from the 

Kerner and Scarman inquiries. In the same vein, attorneys for the 

families of the two teenagers killed in the 2005 violence in France 

filed a complaint with the courts charging what amounted to racial 

profiling and police negligence strikingly reminiscent of perennial 

complaints of police misconduct all-too-familiar in the United 

States’ inner-cities. While much of the world was more surprised 

to learn of France’s clusters of suburban (banlieue) poor than it 

was of those abandoned in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina 

earlier in 2005, such ghetto-like settlements of ethnic and religious 

immigrants in Europe are not unique to France. 

Racial thought and racist stereotypes are playing an especially 

prominent role in this scenario. For example, it is estimated that 

about 30% of the African ethnic and religious minorities involved 

in the disorders in France were black. Thus one major development 

to watch in the near future concerns the question of a Black identity in Europe. For example, is there taking shape a blanket 

‘‘Black’’ identity that is applied to all people of predominantly 

Black African descent, regardless of their place of origin, and regardless of their own self-identification? For centuries peoples of 

Black African descent have struggled to escape the designation of 

‘‘Black’’ originally imposed upon them in the course of European 

imperialism and colonialism. 

They wanted instead to retain the identities of their respective 

native cultures, or to simply be accepted as full human beings with 

equal respect in whatever culture they found themselves. However, 

it is not clear whether even now in the twenty-first century this 

has become a reality. Despite the fact that a Black woman, Baroness Valerie Amos, originally from Guyana, has served as leader 

of the House of Lords in England, and Christiane Taubira from 

French Guiana drew some 2.3% of the vote in the 2002 Presidential 

election in France, star black soccer players in Europe still endure 

having bananas and racial epithets hurled at them on the field; 

and a study in England in late 2007 found that Blacks are 7 times 

more likely to be stopped by the police than whites. 

The main reasons the image and status of Blacks continue to suffer seem to be economic. Just as the lure of profit from the slave 

trade, slavery, and maintaining a cheap labor force made it advantageous to define Black Africans into an artificial racial category, 

the profits from popular racial stereotypes in such areas as the advertising industry, entertainment, and sports have served to perpetuate color bias. The following questions merit much further research and discussion: 

• Are old stereotypes of Blacks still relevant today? 

• Are people of Black African descent in Europe considered Europeans, Africans, or simply Black? 

• How do people of Black African descent in Europe self-identify? 

• What is the most likely outcome of the identity of Blacks in 

Europe? 

One encouraging sign that responsible elements in European societies are aware of the seriousness of this problem is that both national and European Union human rights organizations are forming as are civil rights and black consciousness groups. It is also 

worth noting here that some leaders in Europe are looking to the 

58

civil rights history of the United States for guidance. For instance, 

the largest black consciousness organization in France, the Conseil 

repre ́sentatif des associations Noires de France [Representative 

Council of Black Associations in France—CRAN] is consciously 

modeled after the NAACP, and a Black History Month is celebrated in more than a dozen European countries. These efforts deserve as much support as possible, in order to promote peaceful integration of the new, multicultural Europe.

59

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CLARENCE LUSANE, INTERNATIONAL RACE POLITICS AUTHOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY 

Good morning. I want to thank the Committee for providing the 

opportunity to discuss what is emerging as one of the most important issues confronting the future of Europe: the status and means 

of social inclusion for people of African descent. 

For more than 20 years I have worked with minority communities and NGOs, including people of African descent, in Europe focused on issues of human rights, immigration, racial equality, and 

intolerance. This work included several years as Assistant Director 

of the 1990 Trust, a black human rights organization based in the 

UK. In that and other capacities I also worked with governments 

and regional institutions, such as the European Union and the 

Council of Europe regarding these concerns. 

Although the oldest skull ever found in Europe belonged to an 

African, and even African Americans have been living in England 

since the late 1800s, for most people in Europe a settled presence 

of black people is viewed as a relatively new phenomenon. In fact, 

there have been several waves of blacks to Europe since the end 

of World War II. In England, France, the Netherlands, and even 

Germany, black migration was critical to the rebuilding of Europe. 

Waves of blacks came to Western Europe to drive the buses, nurse 

the sick, and sweep the streets of its great cities. In Eastern Europe, communist states from Russia to Poland to Yugoslavia welcomed African students, scholars, artists, and other professionals 

as part of an effort to aid liberation movements and newly-independent states. These new populations merged with older small 

black communities. 

However, in both Western and Eastern Europe, blacks and other 

minorities were never fully integrated into these societies. First, 

they have often been the target of violent, racist attacks. Skinhead 

and neo-fascist organizations in Russia, Austria, Germany, and 

other states have specifically targeted blacks and a number of individuals have been murdered in recent years. 

Second, there remain persistent disparities in the social arena. In 

housing, education, health care, and other areas, blacks in Europe 

are at or near the bottom. In the UK, one of the few states where 

racial statistics are kept, black students are expelled at 2–3 times 

the rate of White Europeans, have an employment rate that is 18 

percent lower than the general population (57%–75%), and are 50 

percent more likely to die of a stroke. 

Third, racial issues are also acute in the realm of criminal justice. Police violence, deaths in custody and disproportionate incarceration are major concerns in England, France, Spain, Germany, 

Italy, and a number of other states in the region. Again, in the UK, 

black people are six times more likely to be stopped and searched 

by the police, and three times more likely to be arrested than 

whites. In France, police-community tensions erupted into deadly 

riots in 2005. The racialization of crime and the criminalization of 

a race both are having a devastating impact on black communities 

in Europe. 

Fourth, blacks are also suffering from the often harsh, unfair, 

and discriminatory immigration policies that exist in the region. 

60

Anti-immigrant sentiments are rampant and not just restricted to 

the far-right, making it difficult to pass needed reforms. 

RECOMMENDATIONS: 

First, it is important that states begin to collect social and economic data on the situation of racial and ethnic minorities in the 

region. Understandably, the history of Nazism, fascism and ethnic 

cleansing has generated a reluctance to gather racial data, but the 

lack of empirical data continues to hamper the development of concrete policies that can effectively address the social exclusion of Europe minorities. 

Second, there is a need to strengthen the content and enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and policies. The 2000 Race Directive from the EU provided a foundational framework for constructing polices that can address discrimination. However, the legislation only covers EU member states, and is focused on anti-racism. Legislation must begin to address the issue of racial equality 

and means by which progress can be made to close the disparities 

that currently exist and are growing. 

Third, along these lines, it is critical to establish effective and 

empowered government agencies that are focused on anti-discrimination. These entities should be built in such as manner that they 

maintain independence from political parties and narrow government interests. The United Nations has outlined specific guidelines 

on the development of these types of government-related bodies. 

Last and perhaps most urgent, there is a need to include the 

voices of black communities in the development of anti-discrimination and equality policies. A wide range of black and anti-racist 

NGOs have developed over recent years but have too often been excluded from the policy debates that are critical for the communities 

they seek to represent. 

Thank you.

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PREPARED STATEMENT SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY 

BORIS KODJOE, ACTOR 

Chairman Hasting, thank you very much for inviting me to participate in this very important and timely hearing. I am pleased 

that you are focusing on the experience of Afro-descendants in Europe, as this is a story that has received little attention and yet, 

is certainly a profound part of my own and the continents’ history. 

Growing up in a small town in Germany over thirty years ago, 

the situation was quite different than today. While my family and 

I may have been atypical for Germany at that time, we certainly 

did not feel unwanted. In this regard, my story may differ from 

others. There were no neo-Nazis parading through our town or farright parties such as the National Democratic Party of Germany 

(NPD) brandishing anti-migrant posters or calling for persons who 

looked like me to be thrown out of the country. We were proud to 

be Black, German, and everything else that embodies being a 

Kodjoe. It was that foundation that was also critical to a small 

town boy becoming a world famous actor and owner of the global 

fashion company Ziami. 

However, major events in world history such as September 11th 

have certainly in their wake also highlighted a more negative side 

to all of our societies. As a product of different cultures, and now 

the father of multi-cultural children—German and American, our 

emphasis must be on finding the similarities that unite, instead of 

divide us. This is the reason I have in the past been active in helping youth learn to embrace and benefit from cultural diversity and 

fight racism and ignorance. In this regard, I have also noted the 

efforts of the ‘‘Initiative Schwarze Deutsche’’ or the ‘‘Initiative of 

Black Germans.’’ Having lived in Europe, Canada, and the US, the 

countries of the OSCE region have much to learn from one another. 

I see this hearing as a major opportunity to solidify transatlantic 

linkages and look forward to continuing to work with the Helsinki 

Commission in this fight. 

Chairman Hastings, it is my understanding that you are preparing legislation related to this issue. Please consider me an early 

supporter of these efforts. 

On behalf of my family and myself, thank you.

62

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY BRIMA CONTEH, 

DIASPORA AFRIQUE 

Mr. Chairman 

Distinguished Members of the Commision 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I wish, on behalf of my organisation—DIASPORA AFRIQUE to 

extend our sincere appreciation to this commission for holding this 

public hearing on the situation of people of African descent in Europe. I also take this opportunity to warmly thank our AfricanAmerican members and sympathisers in the United States who facilitated and encouraged our participation in these hearings. 

First of all I will focus my presentation on our organisation- DIASPORA AFRIQUE, and it’s work in combating racism. This will 

be followed by a broad presentation of people of African descent in 

Europe: presence in Europe, movement patterns, issues, (integration), challenges and perspectives. Then I will look at anti-discrimination legislation with a particular focus on the EU race directive. 

Mr. Chairman, our organisation was established to promote dynamic political, economic, social and cultural actions among people 

of African descent in Europe. We lay great emphasis on the past, 

present, and future interactions between Europe on one hand and 

Africa and it’s diaspora on the other hand. The first concrete initiative to attain this objective was to map the African diaspora in Europe in it’s contemporary political, economic, social and cultural dimensions, collect data and establish the required networks. After 

five years of tours of various cities in Europe, and bilateral discussions, the organisation has established contacts and networks in: 

Austria, Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, 

Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, and 

the United Kingdom. 

Consolidation of these networks and contacts is in progress. 

Local chapters have begun to be established in some countries; 

while the mapping exercise and data gathering for the rest of Europe is being pursued. We hope to embark on solid institution 

building to advocate for our rights and coordinate our political, economic, social and cultural activities in the not too distant future. 

DIASPORA AFRIQUE has been active in Europe wide campaigns against racism and all forms of discrimination. We are 

members of the various national coordination of the European Network against racism (ENAR) and have been encouraging our networks and contacts to be part of the network. Today, there is much 

greater participation and visibility of people of African descent in 

this network . 

Moreover we share information on best practices and reach out 

to communities of African and non-African descent. Our work on 

the EU race directive: holding regular consultations in the communities in France and sharing information have been of benefit to 

the entire community. 

The growing number of hate crimes in parts of central and eastern Europe motivated us to intensify contacts with our brothers 

and sisters from these regions and link their struggles with those 

in the west. We have and still continue to encourage the participation of our brothers and sisters from Russia at the European Social 

63

Forum to give them a wider audience where they can testify about 

the everyday racism they face in Russia because of the colour of 

their skin. We equally use this forum to move the EU race directive 

beyond the traditional anti-discrimination and Human rights network and engage greater civil society. We organised a roundtable 

on the EU race directive at the 2004 European Social Forum held 

in Paris. 

DIASPORA AFRIQUE took part in the World Conference 

Against Racism in Durban and we have been actively participating 

in the deliberations of one of the mechanisms developed out of this 

conference: the UN working group on people of African descent. 

I will now come to the second part of my presentation which is 

about our presence in Europe, movement patterns, challenges and 

perspectives. 

AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EUROPE: Involuntary and Forced Migration 

Mr. Chairman, various historical accounts attest to the presence 

of people of African descent in Europe way before the 1500’s. We 

will however limit our presentation to population movements pertinent to this hearing. 

THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: BLACK CARGO TO EUROPE

(a) The UNESCO slave route project states that between 200–

300,000 slaves were forcibly deported from Africa to Europe during 

the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Their presence, inferior and degrading status and roles in European society still play a role in the way 

people of African descent are perceived. 

We can for this period quote famous names like Oladuah 

Equiano who played a leading role in the abolitionist movement in 

England and subsequent repatriation in 1787 of some of Britain’s 

Black poor to Sierra Leone—my country of origin. Others in England include Emilio Sanchez based on our conversations with Steve 

Martin. 

In France, Joseph Boulogne known as the ‘chevalier de Saint 

Georges’ born as a slave in Guadeloupe, came to France at the age 

of 7, and rose to become one of the earliest European classical musicians with African ancestry. 

We had in the course of one of our ‘‘meet the brothers and sisters 

tours’’ mentioned earlier on; the opportunity to learn from Berlin 

based African-American Historian Paulette Reed-Andersen about 

German participation in the Transatlantic Slave trade as she took 

us on a historical tour of Berlin. ‘Moorenstrasse’ a Berlin street 

where enslaved Africans used to gather and which exists to this 

day in Berlin as tangible evidence of German participation and the 

African presence. 

We hope through ‘Black Cargo to Europe’ a collaboration project 

between us and Dr. Paulette Reed Andersen’s centre—to document, 

produce, and circulate educational material about this period of African presence in Europe. 

HUMAN ZOOS—1860’S—1870’S

(b) Africans were paraded sometimes naked in various European 

cities during colonial exhibitions to give credence to and perpetuate 

64

the prevalent racist theories of the time as well as satisfy European public curiosity. 1998 French World cup champion Christian 

Karembu from French Caledonia, had his great grandfather exhibited in France. These exhibitions also called the ‘Human Zoos’ were 

at times organised by former European slave merchants. 

BASTARDS OF THE RHINELAND

(c) Between 1920 and 1923, an active and intensive campaign 

was launched against French colonial African soldiers stationed in 

the Rhineland (Germany). French Historian Jean Yves Le Naour in 

his book ‘La Honte Noire’ says African soldiers were called ‘‘monkey men of the dark continent’’, ‘‘human animals’’, ‘Black hyenas’. 

What began as a local protest in the Rhineland became national 

at first, then European and international campaign against African 

soldiers, as the press across Europe joined the fray to fan the embers of hatred and racism on a daily basis. Bastards of the Rhineland was how Hitler referred to offsprings of relations between African Soldiers and German women. Bastards of the Rhineland were 

subsequently sterilised in a bid to cleanse and purify the German 

race. 

Negritude launched by Aime ́ Ce ́saire and Le ́opold Se ́dar Senghor 

during their student days in France in the early 1930’s has to be 

seen as the Black man’s attempt to reconquer his dignity as a 

human being against this background of heavily laden prejudice 

and animalisation of his essence. The intellectual production of 

these two giants projected in the French language to the world 

stage more than any other French intellectual in the last century. 

Aime ́ Ce ́saire joined his African ancestors on April 17th 2008. 

The French establishment lined up in his native born Martinique 

to pay their hommage, respect and consideration denied to him in 

his lifetime because of his uncompromising condemnation of racism 

and colonialism. 

POST WORLD WAR 11 TO PRESENT DAY

(d) After World war II, people of African descent from the Caribbean were brought in to help rebuild devastated Europe. The 

United Kingdom for instance brought in Jamaicans and other 

English speaking Caribbeans. At the same time the number of students of African descent at European universities increased. 

As of the 60’s to the early 80’s more people of African descent 

from sub-Saharan Africa came to Europe to work, study, and or 

stay facilitated partly by the legislation on Family reunion. Structural adjustment in the third world, dwindling resources, instability, in the 80’s and 90’s created conditions for more people to 

leave Africa and the Caribbean for Europe. We can posit from these 

movement patterns that the African presence in Europe from the 

Transatlantic slave trade to the present day has largely been involuntary and dictated by the needs of European societies. People of 

African descent like other migrants to Europe were later 

criminalised and their presence in Europe used as a launching pad 

into politics by extreme right wing forces. 

65

RACISM AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION 

The fact that we as a people have been reduced at some point 

in History to the status of animals means that a lot has to be done 

to elevate us to the status of normal human beings. Post World 

War II Europe having defeated Nazism with the participation and 

contribution of the formerly colonised had a moral obligation to 

combat racism and all forms of prejudice. With prejudice, racism 

and the supposedly inferior status of African people deeply steeped 

in the European psyche and without any serious attempts to 

deconstruct these myths, various models were proposed to create 

conditions for coexistence and harmony. 

People of African descent were for instance firmly invited to ‘integrate into European society’. This model prevailed in France and 

other European countries. The rising hate crimes in eastern and 

central Europe brought in the tolerance and intolerance models. 

The tolerance and intolerance models focus on individual acts and 

prejudice and not the collective and structural aspects of racism. 

Multiculturalism and Cultural diversity are the current models in 

fashion brought about not by public institutions but by the growing 

assertiveness and physical presence of 2nd, 3rd 4th etc. generation 

children. African-American Hip-Hop culture also plays a fundamental role in this regard. 

With no serious policy programs to debunk the centuries old prejudice and myths about people of African descent, it is not surprising that we sometimes face the worst forms of discrimination 

in racial profiling, housing, employment, access to public and private services. Please allow us to repeat, there is to date no specific 

policy program in Europe aimed at combating the specific type of 

racism faced by people of African descent. Yet we are the elephant 

in the room. 

We see stark evidence of the segregated status of people of African descent throughout our ‘meet the brothers’ and sisters tours. 

In 2004, about 50 men, women, and children of African descent 

were gutted by fire because they were living in some of the worst 

squalid and deplorable housing conditions inside Paris. This tragedy occurred barely two days after Katrina in New Orleans. DIASPORA AFRIQUE present on both sides of the Atlantic organised an 

event in Paris bringing together Katrina survivors and those of the 

Paris fires. 

The plight of people of African descent is best expressed in the 

works of artists: singers, dancers, musicians, poets etc. throughout 

Europe in various languages. Celebrated UK dub poet Linton 

Kwesi Johnson for instance denounces police brutality in the 

United Kingdom in his ‘License to Kill’, and young Afroportugueese rapper CHULAZ denounces the everyday racism in 

Portugal. 

The first piece of antiracist legislation in Europe came about as 

a result of the Brixton race riots in 1976 in England. Elsewhere in 

the rest of Europe, racism was until the advent of the EU race directive not considered as issues worthy to bother legislators. As a 

result, some countries had some form of legislation while others did 

not. It was not until around 1999 that a treaty provisions addressing the question of racism and discrimination came into existence. 

66

The 2000 EU race directive introduced the principle of equal 

treatment and laid down the basics for combating discrimination 

based on racial and ethnic origin. Provisions of this directive covered: access to education, health, employment training, goods and 

services, and housing. Member states are expected to transpose the 

directive into their respective national laws, consult with their respective civil societies, build institutions to combat racism and discrimination, and the burden of proof shifted from the victim to the 

aggressor. 

The directive is the most advanced antiracist and antidiscrimination legislation in continental Europe. It is not unfortunately implemented as it should be because of a lack of political will. A number 

of Euro MP’s sensing this lack of political will launched a campaign 

to name and shame countries which do not properly implement the 

directive. The European Network Against Racism(ENAR) in a July 

28th press release expressed the organisation’s extreme disappointment with the failure of 14 member states to properly transpose 

European race equality laws into their national laws. 

We believe that the race directive properly implemented will increase confidence between law enforcers and citizens. In France 

this could have perhaps given more confidence to the two teenagers 

who ended up being electrocuted in 2005 because they were running from the police just as much as the police could have stopped 

running after the two teenagers. We all know that the tragic electrocution of these two teenagers was the trigger for the 2005 

uprisings first in the Paris suburbs then the rest of France and 

even to one or two neighbouring European states. 

CONCLUSION 

We recognise the tremendous measures taken to combat racism 

and discrimination over the past two decades in Europe by both 

civil society and governments. We believe however that more has 

to be done to combat racism and discrimination generally. 

We also recognise the efforts to focus on specific forms of racism 

and discrimination and we support and encourage the pursuit of 

such efforts. 

We would like to invite European bodies in charge of combating 

racism and discrimination to equally focus on the specific form of 

racism against people of African descent. We would to end by making the following recommendations: • Resources be allocated to organisations and individuals working on the specific issues of people of African descent 

• Research institutions be set up or encouraged to develop studies on the interactions between Europeans and people of African 

descent 

• A report on the specific form of racism against people of African descent be published in the literature of European antidiscrimination bodies such as the EUMC. 

• Greater interaction between the EU antiracist bodies and the 

UN working group on people of African descent. 

Finally, I would like to add that during the 2005 uprisings in 

France I was regularly interviewed by the BBC and other media 

groups like CNN. A BBC Journalist interviewing me for ‘The World 

Today’ programme asked if I thought the uprisings could spread to 

67

other countries in Europe. In reply I said: As long as the deep rooted historical injustices which gave birth to the current socio-economic segregation are not properly addressed, then the uprisings 

are bound to spread to other parts of Europe. Two days later incidents were reported in two neighbouring European countries.

68

* While processing our history, we found out that Africans had founded respective associations 

with the aim of assisting one another in coping with matters of everyday life and of forming 

a lobby for people of African descent in the colonies as well as in Germany since the beginning 

of the 20th century particularly in colonial metropolitan areas like Hamburg and Berlin. 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY INITIATIVE 

BLACK GERMANS (ISD) 

HISTORY OF THE ISD 

BLACK ORGANIZATION IN GERMANY—A HISTORIC DIGEST

In 2005, the New Black Movement * looks back to 20 years of its 

existence. 

20 years of self-defining, of searching, of discovering and 

of excavating of buried roots in this country, 20 years of 

networking on the personal and the organizational levels, 

locally, regionally, nationwide and internationally. 

The movement was started by Black Germans, people of African 

descent, who wanted—had to—break out of the isolation of a postNazi Germany and thereby were searching for autonomous definitions of their existence and for their own and appropriate concepts 

of life. The term ‘‘Black Germans’’, as well as the term ‘‘Afro-Germans’’ are self-definitions, which were coined in the beginning of 

the Black Movement which started to organize in the 80ies. They 

displaced all discriminatory denominations of the majority population that were effective to that date and since allowed for the denomination and evolution of a humane (self-)portrayal of black people in Germany. 

Under the name of the ISD (Initiative Black Germans), local Initiatives blossomed in cities like Munich, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Hamburg, Hannover, in big parts of NRW and in the Rhine-Main region, which individually kept on working on the main idea and 

thereby little by little changed their life coherences and their perspectives and aspirations. Even before both of the German post-war 

countries were unified in 1989, black people on both sides of the 

‘‘iron curtain had’’ contacted each other. Also in the then GDR, 

black people had organized themselves, e.g. in Berlin (east), Dresden or Leipzig. With time advancing, the Black Movement, which 

always acted and oriented itself locally and on the national level 

at the same time, grew. ISD and her sister organization ADEFRA 

(Afrogerman Women / Black Women in Germany) were always a 

driving force. ISD still remains committed to the idea of being an 

initiative, but also not to forget amidst the impetus of new efforts. 

The New Black Movement changed its self-conception following 

internal discussions reviewing the first 20 years of its history by 

becoming incorporated and adopting the name ‘ISD-Federal’, which 

captured the nationwide activities taking place since the 90ies 

under the title of ‘‘Black People in Germany’’. This was conducted 

not to forget the history of self-definition and self-assertion, but to 

build on this foundation. 

All branches of ISD have set themselves the task of creating opportunities for a self-determined dialogue of the African diaspora in 

Germany, to process black German history and generally make 

these issues as well as the general issues of the black people / people of African descent publicly heard and seen. In this sense, varVerDate 0ct 09 2002 10:41 Dec 19, 2012 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00072 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 U:\WORK\042908.TXT KATIE
69

ious publications came into existence such as Afrolook 1986–1999), 

Afrekete (published by ADEFRA during the 80s), Blite-youth magazine (published by ISD-Berlin, 1999–2002). Additionally, online 

forum like www.afronetz.de, www.afrolink.de, 

www.cybernomads.net, and www.isdonline.de emerged. 

The tradition of an annual nationwide gathering organized by 

and for black people was also established, where discussions, 

knowledge exchanges, and opinions could be formed and the community of old and young in the African diaspora could simply be 

enjoyed. From these gatherings, the Sankofa meeting emerged, a 

self-organized meeting of black parents and their children, and—

for the first time in 2004—a gathering of the ‘‘YoungStars’’, the 

black youth and hopefuls. Also legendary are the events of the 

Black History Month (BHM 1990–2001), which fostered a broad cooperation of African/black German groups. To the regret of many 

BHM tourists and Berlinians, the Black History Month slowly 

dozed off due to organizational reasons, but in 2004 the first Black 

Community Weeks once again began incorporating the respective 

experiences and successes of BHM. In the meantime, the ISD’s approach stands in solidarity with the many African associations and 

individuals across the nation, who also put the circumstances of life 

in Germany on their agenda. During annual meetings of the Black 

Community, representatives of the Black German diaspora gather 

in order to produce common concepts for political and educational 

work and to build a common foundation, which is built on mutual 

acceptance and communication. The principles of ISD and Adefra 

have fostered a strong tradition of close-knit networks. 

POLITICAL AREAS OF THE ISD 

Black Germans, who survived the Nazi regime with its humiliations, disfranchisements and (illegal) sterilizations, had learned to 

attract as little attention as possible. Despite Article 3 of the German constitution, even after the Nazi regime, the racism which had 

been established since the days of colonial aspirations, latently still 

blossomed without bumping borders. In comparison to the USA (racial segregation/civil rights movement) and the African continent 

(colonialism until the 60ies and Apartheid in South Africa until 

1989), the racist patterns of action in Germany were downplayed. 

Still, the so-called ‘‘latent’’ racism after 1945 meant, for approximately two generations of Black Germans, being deprived of their 

own voice, their own opinions and feelings, and professional and 

personal possibilities of development, in short, being squeezed to 

the edge of society. 

The racist ideological reasoning why black people couldn’t be 

Germans, was in the meanwhile replaced by an omission in written 

history. According to this omission, black people in Germany could 

not be Germans because they allegedly did not appear in German 

history. The acquisition of black German history became thereafter 

an essential instrument of emancipation. The initial lack of interest 

of the majority population enabled black Germans to develop a selfdetermined picture of black German history of their own on the 

empty field of their alleged non-history and position it against the 

established way of history writing. Thereby, writing history was 

70

analyzed as an instrument of authority on the basis of own experiences and discovered as a political area of action. 

This process was accompanied by a confrontation about citizenship. Citizenship should in a democratically oriented society not be 

defined by ‘‘volkish’’ but rather by formal criteria. Such a latitudinal policy tenor would eschew the debates about the German citizenship, about naturalization and multiple citizenship, about immigration and the immigration society and put them on more solid 

premises. German identities would no longer be queried on the 

basis of a questionable canon but would be understood as the reflection of multi-‘‘ethnic’’ equal ancestry. 

The ISD contributes with its work to unmasking two basic lies 

of the German ‘‘majority-’’society: ‘‘Racism does not exist in Germany’’ and ‘‘Germany is not an immigration society’’. With images 

of fear of ‘‘foreign infiltration’’, a modernized form of racism is 

being fueled concerning immigration and asylum policies. That in 

the meantime, immigration is also talked about as a fact is not a 

paradox. Because the debates are being carried out by different 

protagonists and progressive approaches disappear very quickly behind restrictive calculuses of ‘‘security policies’’. In everyday life, 

the face of ‘‘modern’’ racism displays itself when for example agents 

of the federal police hunt unwanted refugees at the Cologne central 

station. The pretended recognition by undifferentiated stigmatizing 

images is notorious. Regularly and first of all, such parameters 

strike black people, no matter which legal status regarding residence or citizenship they have. And this we must fight together. 

ISD represents the interests of black people in Germany vis-a`-vis 

the public and decision makers. For instance, ISD intervenes with 

public statements around debates of non-discrimination laws. ISD 

intervenes in cases of discrimination by supporting the victims and 

raising publicity. ISD qualifies internally and externally new antiracists, and serves as afro-centrist multipliers in the areas of education and training and arranges expertise.

ELEONORE WIEDENROTH-COULIBALY (ISD–BUND) and 

SASCHA ZINFLOU (ISD–NRW)

71

1The term Black European refers to individuals with ties to the African Diaspora, who were 

born and socialized within a European context. 

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY BLACK 

EUROPEAN WOMEN CONGRESS 

CELEBRATING BLACK EUROPEAN WOMEN

The existing wealth of documentation regarding the presence of 

African derived peoples in Europe points to the fact that Blacks 

have been and still constitute a growing segment of the European 

population. However, despite such documentation, the existence of 

these groups has been mainly ignored in the recording of European 

history (Earle and Lowe: 2005). Black women in particular have either been ‘‘invisible’’ or their bodies and persona pathologized within European historiography. 

Organised within the framework of the ‘‘European Year for Equal 

Opportunities’’ and initiated by Beatrice Achaleke, AFRA (International Centre for Black Women’s Perspectives in Vienna, Austria, and co-organised by Helen Felter, representative of Tiye International (The Netherlands); the Black European Women’s Congress 

(26–29 September 2007) made history by challenging what Paul 

Gilroy (2004: 141) has called ‘‘the peculiar synonymy of the terms 

European and white’’, and also offering a gendered perspective on 

what it means to be a Black European.1 One hundred and twenty 

Black European women delegates from sixteen European countries 

and the United States arrived in Vienna, Austria, for the three-day 

conference. This milestone event culminated in the formation of the 

Black European Women’s Network. The conference provided a 

space and platform for the strategic discussion of various issues 

such as migration, political participation, qualification and access 

to the labour market, identity and self- empowerment, gendered 

racism, mechanisms of social exclusion, psychosocial conflicts (particularly women and children), and the role of Black European 

women within European societies. 

The drafting of the Vienna Declaration (see: www.bewnet.eu), 

recommendations and strategic networking practices resulting from 

the conference will be used for lobbying on behalf of the needs and 

demands of Black European women on a national as well as European level. 

An international symposium titled ‘‘The Future of Diversity Management in Europe’’ is scheduled for 12 March 2008 on the premises of the Austrian representative of the EU Parliament and Commission. The symposium will precede the follow-up strategic meeting scheduled 13–14 March 2008 in Vienna, Austria. For more detailed information regarding AFRA and the Black European Women’s Network, please see both English language websites: 

www.blackwomencenter.org and www.bewnet.eu .

Æ

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