The protest began at 1pm on Sunday at Gare du Nord. At 2pm, the demonstrators marched towards Mont des Arts, before ending up at Jeu de Balle. The protesters sang chants such as “solidarity with the peoples of the world”, “stop discrimination”, and “hatred, we’ve had enough. Racists, we’ve had enough. Fascists, we’ve had enough. Terrorists, we’ve had enough”.

The protest -the second of its kind in as many years- was organised by Platform 21/03. Its stated intention was to highlight the fact that, while the International Day against Racism and Discrimination took place on Thursday, March 21, racism is still all too often part of the daily experience of numerous people across the world.

“Racism still exists very much at the structural level, as well as at the level of discourse, and divides rather than unites people,” said Esther Kouablan, director of the Movement Against Racism, Antisemitism and Xenophobia (MRAX). “This protest was aimed at ensuring that we are part of an inclusive social and political process, rather than an exclusive one.”

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If you’ve followed Belgian news last week, you have surely heard about Cécile Djunga. The RTBF weather-caster has indeed for months now been subject to offenses related to her origins and skin color.

Since then she has decided to post a video on her Facebook profile, concretely explaining the offenses she has had to face and to share her views and feelings on that. The video has been very successful on social media, generating a wider debate on racism and xenophobia in Belgium.

The issue is surely something the political leaders have to deal with, as politics and policies are (supposed to be) key stakeholders when it comes to education and public awareness. This is why more than 20 of them gathered at the Press Club last Friday, to say “NO” to racism and racist offenses in Belgium. They are all French-speaking Belgian politicians with ethnic origins and they belong to the main French-speaking political parties (MR, PS, Écolo, CDH, Défi).

The movement is being led by Gisèle Mandalia (Défi), the only person of color to be part of the government from 2004 to 2007. The point is quite clear: they want “zero tolerance” with regard to sexism, racism, antisemitism, and homophobia. A decree on racism which was adopted in 1981, and is still in force today, they call for stricter implementation.

Although racism has always been an issue in Western societies, people don’t fear sharing their racist views on Twitter or Facebook nowadays. Politicians across Europe are also part of the issue, as the anti-migrant policies have definitely been linked to racism.

This new movement is now keen to welcome Belgian politicians with no ethnic origins on board.

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Victim of a racially-motivated hate crime

Hate crimes are criminal acts that are committed on the basis of a discriminatory. We refer to a hate crime when one of the reasons motivating the perpetrator is related to a characteristic – whether supposed or real – of the victim, such as the nationality, skin colour, and national or ethnic origin.

Hate crimes are different from other crimes: the victim is attacked because he or she belongs to a specific group. The perpetrator often seeks to intimidate not only an individual, but also an entire group. A hate crime can be physical or psychological, verbal or sexual: the goal is always to control the other person, to dominate him or her. Intimidating behaviour (intimidations, blocking movement, etc.) can also be considered an act of violence.

The act of violence can occur in the private sphere, such as the home, or in a public setting, such as the workplace or in the street.

This information can be found at the Brussels Capital Region website. The Region implemented a campaign in order to promote dialogue and tolerance between the different communities over the last months.

There is a growing and worrying rise of racism in Brussels the recent years. Even among our politicians we can unfortunately listen to harmful speeches – such as the one from Theo Francken.

Brussels a multicultural city

« With an impressive diversity of citizens, ideas, cultures, talents and identities, Brussels is a decidedly multicultural and heterogeneous metropolis ».

This is the introduction of the campaign « Reach to racism » launched by the Brussels Capital Region. For this platform, « diversity represents a crucial asset to the dynamic and potential of our Region, but also a number of challenges in terms of social cohesion and equal opportunities. Specifically, racism and discrimination based on racial criteria – such as nationality, skin colour, ancestry and national or ethnic origin – remain all too present ».

A call for proposal was opened last March 21, providing the opportunity to the organisations and stakeholders involved in antiracism to apply for a grant.  The central theme of this call for projects was combating racism and discrimination in the Brussels-Capital Region. Ten projects were selected (for a budget of approximately €100,000). The call for projects was open to proposals from associations wishing to organise an event on this theme between 20/11/2017 and 10/12/2018 (included).

• Stay tuned to React to Racism agenda

Discrimination is a crime

This website underlines an important fact to the community: discrimination is a crime. In principle you are discriminated against if, because of your nationality, skin colour, ancestry or national or ethnic origin, you are more poorly treated than another person in a similar situation. « You can report discrimination to Unia not only as a victim, but also as a witness! » explains the organisers. In order to do report a discrimination a specific platform named UNIA stands available to help. Anyone in Belgium who has been the target of discrimination or a witness to it can turn to UNIA.

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