: INTERVIEW: ‘Break the bonds of shame’ about slavery – UN rights experts #IndiaNEWS #International 31 August marks the International Day for People of African Descent, on which the UN calls for

INTERVIEW: ‘Break the bonds of shame’ about slavery – UN rights experts #IndiaNEWS #International
31 August marks the International Day for People of African Descent, on which the UN calls for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against persons who fit this description. Ahead of the Day, UN News spoke to Dominique Day, and Verene Shepherd, two experts on the subject, who want to raise awareness about the links between the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the global economy.

Dominique Day is a human rights lawyer, and the chairperson of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. Verene Shepherd is a social historian, and the chairperson of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
The rights experts sat down with UN News, to talk about their experiences of racism, and why there needs to be a wider acceptance that today’s global economy was built on the oppression of Black people.
UN News Dominique, you say that “everyday racism is normalized�?. What do you mean by that?
Dominique Day The idea that I cant always get a taxi in New York City, the lengths my parents went to, to make sure that I was super educated, to be able to counter the ways I might be misinterpreted or mischaracterized by a world that sees my skin and comes to a different interpretation than who I actually am.

Dominique Day is a human rights lawyer, and the chairperson of the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. , by OHCHR/ Gabriel Alcaine

UN News So you internalize it and you and you just say this is life, thats how it is?
Dominique Day Well, not so much “thats how it is�?, but to actually confront every episode of everyday racism you experience from teachers, judges, police, regular society, even people your friends. The idea that casual racism is so normalized in our society means that, for us to survive it, we actually need to be very thoughtful about the ways we engage.
For those of us who work on racism, we have an opportunity to do advocacy and awareness raising. For example, on a country visit, I will talk about racism I may have experienced in that same country, but may not have confronted as directly because my sanity, my equilibrium matters.
This everyday casual racism has actually been so interwoven into our society, we not only fail to see it, but theres a really active culture of denial that operates transnationally.
UN News Are you seeing acceptance of the idea that there could be some form of reparations?
Dominique Day I think that, like any other topic, talking about it helps. Uplifting examples help. New arguments are being brought forward by people operating in a number of professional spaces. So, the discourse is evolving.