What I Learned From African Descendants in Europe

Before the 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban, I worked extensively with African descendants living in Europe. I saw firsthand what happens when governments refuse to collect racial and ethnic population data.

Several European countries resisted collecting such data. Their argument was that there was only one race—the human race—and that governments therefore should not recognize or record racial distinctions.

“There is only one race—the human race” sounded enlightened. But in practice, it gave governments a respectable-sounding reason not to document racism.

African descendants knew they were being discriminated against. They saw it in employment, housing, education, health care, policing, and other areas of public life. But when they described what was happening, government officials and members of the general population demanded statistical proof.

Those same governments had refused to collect the population data necessary to produce that proof. They created the absence of evidence and then used that absence to deny the existence of racial inequality.

African-descendant organizations were left to construct their own evidentiary record. They had to rely on individual accounts, community surveys, local studies, and research conducted with limited resources. That evidence was valuable, but it could not fully substitute for comprehensive population data.

Small studies were easily attacked. The sample was too limited. The research covered only one city. The participants supposedly were not representative. The findings could not be generalized. Some factor other than racism might explain the results.

The communities experiencing discrimination were forced to bear the financial and practical burden of proving what their governments had refused to measure.

My work in Europe taught me an enduring lesson: refusing to collect racial data does not produce racial equality. It produces plausible deniability.