I once wandered on to a Singaporean forum and you could’ve fooled my by telling me it was Storefront. Blatantly racist.
One problem is that diverse societies may have more tension because there are more chances for it, while homogenous societies won’t have the quantity but have worse private attitudes.
It depends on how you quantify it but one measure I’ve commonly seen is asking people whether they want X group as a neighbor.
For example, this one looks at “migrants,” and puts Iceland as most accepting, with Western Europe, North America, and Africa generally more accepting than Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, the Middle East.
Right. Some of the worst divisiveness is in places where most people are of the same race, but find some other excuse for discrimination and hatred, for example Ireland, Rwanda/Burundi, and the former Yugoslavia.
Iceland is an interesting case. A small population of 364,000 with few comings and goings through its history, it lacks genetic diversity and people have to be careful they don’t date someone who may be related. They even have a smartphone app to warn that you may be getting a little too friendly with a cousin. In this context a person who is clearly an immigrant with no local relatives may get an especially warm welcome.
To some degree but I dont think there was any sense of racial equality at the beginning of the 19th century. . The was aimed at eliminating a permanent Spanish upper class and to create a unified Paraguayan identity. He also confiscated royal and chirch property and gave it to indigenous people in return for military service. But it did end up making Paraguay one of the most egalitarian societies in the world at the time.
Maybe “outward” tension. When I spent several weeks hitch hiking in peninsula Malaysia, whenever I got picked up by a Malay, they would go on and on about how the Chinese were ruining the country and vice versa.
They didn’t, though, did they? They mostly happened in major and really-not-major cities in England, with a few arson attacks and attempted looting in Cardiff.
I can’t remember exactly, but I don’t think most of them were preceded by any peaceful “justice for Mark Duggan” sort of protests. And whoever killed the three Asian guys in Birmingham can’t really have thought of it as a way to improve the behaviour of the Metropolitan Police.
So I’m not completely sure they were all “race” riots, but inclined to wonder whether the events in some places were more like copy-cat looting.
Seems like there should be ways to measure some of this. For example, economic inequality BEFORE government transfers, educational attainment, number of hate crimes incidents(where that is kept track of), the ethnic makeup of the country’s prisons, etc.
It started in the aftermath of a police operation targeting an armed gangster who was shot by police. They did not deal the concerns of the friends and family of the deceased very sensitively the next day and an angry crowd developed that started smashing up police cars. The police could have nipped it in the bud, if they mustered the numbers, but they did not move fast enough. Word spread quickly that the police were not going to confront rioters. Pretty soon local teenagers decided to help themselves to new pairs of Nikes and set fire to local shops. Behaviour that spread around London and to other cities. The police were said to be busy dealing with big football matches that were taking place on the same day.
There have been other anti-police riots in London, notably in the 1980s. Many as a result of poor judgement by the police when targeting known criminals and poor use of stop and search powers. The British police are not armed and when they go after someone they suspect to have firearms, it seldom goes according to plan. They have made some bad mistakes in the past that enraged local communities. The 2011 riots left a huge amount of damage on its wake and several people died in fires. London has a problem with drug gangs feuding with each other. Sometimes they get hold of a gun, but more often it is knives and there a lot of concern over kids, teenagers, killing each other. There have been some tragic cases and the police are expected to do something about it. It is nothing like the US, but nonetheless London is a big city and stuff happens from time to time.
There are problems of racial bias but they are mainly institutional and systemic. The police have been subject to a lot of scrutiny over the years but there are other areas that need to be examined. The judicial system, prisons and the policies of the UK Home Office and behaviour of the Border Agency in the way they deal with immigration issues, asylum seekers and refugees is quite a long running scandal. Problem is that populist politicians know there are votes to be won on playing the immigration card and that panders to people who are informed by bigotry and prejudice.
The activities of the police in the US have really shocked the world and there is a lot of soul searching going on, it is big wake up call. Which is probably a good thing as long as the protests remain peaceful and energy is directed into fixing these serious problems long term.