Dali Koniashvili

Racial Discrimination

Racism is the belief that there are inherent differences in people's traits and
capacities which are entirely due to their race, however defined, and which
consequently justify those people being treated differently, both socially and
legally. Alternatively, racism is the practice of certain group/s of people being
treated differently, which is then justified by recourse to racial sterotyping
or pseudo-science.

Those who disagree with the proposition that there are races or that there
are such inherent (ie. non-personal, social or cultural) differences regard any
differences in treatment of people on the basis of those criteria as being racial
discrimination. Some of those who argue that there are such inherent differences
also argue that one race is inferior over another race. In the case of institutional
racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or receive
preferential treatment.

Racial discrimination typically points out taxonomic differences between

different groups of people, although anyone may be discriminated against on an
ethnic or cultural basis, independently of their somatic differences. According to
the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial
discrimination and ethnicity discrimination.

Racial discrimination is defined as treating people differently in daily life

only because they are of different race or ethnicity. The history of racial
discrimination in the United States of America is especially appealing. Slavery,

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racial segregation, employment discrimination are just three example of thousands

of the manifestations of racial discrimination in our society.

Racial discrimination is molesting the equality principle as cited in the first

article of the Universal Declaration of Human rights: “all human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience
and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” Racial
discrimination can be defined as an abusing behavior toward the representative of
another race. I remember one situation that affected my opinion about the whole
issue of discrimination. A year ago, I accidentally crashed an Indian pedestrian in
Qatar. I called the police and the ambulance. Twenty minutes later, the policemen
came laughing and watching the Indian man crying from pain. The nurse said that
there was no any need for ambulance because the Indian man was not hurt enough
to be provided medical help. The policeman asked me to give a small amount of
money to the Indian man. At the moment, I realized that racial discrimination is
part of our daily life and many people promote discrimination openly.

There are three main effects of racial discrimination of Asians in the Gulf
countries. Firstly, physical effects are the most common and observed. Secondly,
social effects lead to inequality in society. Finally, psychological effect makes
people disturbed and scared of living in this world.

In modern society, physical effects occur in intensive and various ways.

Physical effects can be found in many countries of the Gulf region. In the Middle
East, Asians are maltreated by the local peoples only because of the different skin
of color. For instance, in Qatar, a taxi driver has been beaten severely by a local
resident in front of the passenger because he forgot to put signals while turning
left. Such locals are the source of aggression and high level of dangerous accidents
in the country. Moreover, it is important to add that the hurt Asians are likely to
join street gangs and contribute to the increased disturbances in the

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neighborhoods. For example, the Gulf news newspaper mentioned in a recent

article an incident which occurred in United Arab Emirates, Sharjah: “The 'Death
Room' gang, which consisted of three people of unknown nationalities and two
Pakistanis, the gang loitered around expensive schools and targeted children from
affluent families.” In other words, the gang was prone to aggressiveness.

Another effect of racism is suicide. The mistreatment of people can lead

them to the decision to commit suicide because they feel powerless to deal with
aggressiveness and direct attacks of people. For instance, many of the Indians
workers in the Gulf countries commit suicide because of the mistreatment and low
salary which are dictated by their race. According to the newspaper Asian
Tribunes, “cases of expatriate Indian workers committing suicides in the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are alarming on the increase”.

Secondly, the social effect of racial discrimination is the creation of

unequal and unstable environment. In Gulf countries people at work are threaded
according to their race, color and ethnicity. Furthermore, such a division affects
their employment, salary, hiring, and firing. Evidence shows that Arab taxi drivers
are paid more than Asians. Moreover, many people are excluded from certain
social groups due to their color or race. In Qatar, Asians are not allowed to enter
the city mall on weekend day. This example reveals the formalized discrimination
when people representing Asian countries are formally discriminated in their
rights. Furthermore, Asians people in the Gulf countries are not granted any
protection of their rights. They work more than eight hours per day and their
domiciles are in a very bad condition and do not include any entertainment
facilities. Ironically, crashing a pedestrian Indian is much cheaper than crashing a
camel.

Finally, psychological effects of racism maintain the disturbance among

people. The anger of Asians people in the Gulf countries toward the locals is

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accumulating. Their dissatisfaction with the current state of things is manifested in

their offensive way of talking. For example, in downtown of Doha where most
Asians live local strangers can be beaten for no reason. Nevertheless, it should be
admitted that anger is a normal reaction to discrimination. Jesse Ventura once said,
“Treat others as you'd want them to treat you.” This rule is unknown for most
people in Gulf countries. Furthermore, the mistreatment of Asians makes them
fear others. When Indians are beaten, they have the right to defend themselves but
they do not. On the contrary, they beg for mercy and cry. However, eventually the
anger and constant fear will result in a new psychologically effect - hate. Most
Asians workers hate local people. For instance, Asians riding in buses can insult
others for no evident reasons.

In conclusion, racial discrimination of Asians in Gulf countries has three

main effects. Asians are touched physically and are maltreated. They are likely to
join street gangs while many of them commit suicides. Furthermore, Asians are
affected socially because they have lower income then locals and are not allowed
to enter some places due to their skin color. Finally, racial discrimination has
psychological effect because maltreated Asians develop anger, fear and hate
toward others.