The Cost of Racial Discrimination

The killing of George Floyd has led to protests across the U.S. and other parts of the world. Modern racism as examined by Mangai Balasegaram (Star, Sunday 14 June 2020), is skin colour based, unlike the Romans of old!

The narrative that dark-skinned humans are inferior was probably propagated after abolition of slavery in the British colonies in 1833/34 and the U.S. in 1865. Slaves were “stupid” and “lazy” just like natives who need to be colonised. So ideas like white supremacy persist. Systemic racism traps people of colour making social mobility difficult.

It is alive in the U.S., as recent events testify, it is alive in England, and many other parts of the world. We are no exception. In Malaysia, people of Indian origin account for one in four deaths in custody. And Indians make up on 7% of the population. N Dharmendran, Kugan and others have died in custody. Many are displaced people who end up in crime and gangs.

How did it come to this? One may examine history and we have indentured labour coming from India to Malaysia, close to 200 years ago. Who did this? The British of course! After slavery ended, plantation owners looked to India for replacements. The indentured workers were desperate, impoverished peasants burdened by British taxes who had little choice but to work in plantations of Malaya, Fiji, Mauritius, or the Caribbean. They were treated as slaves – pay withheld, poor sanitation, shoddy housing, no education and violence from British raj.

In the 1980s, when some plantations closed or were fragmented (for housing projects), more than 300,000 Indians were evicted. They had no skill (other than tapping), no education and no housing. Now, 40% of the Indians in Malaysia are in the B40 group. There is no poverty eradication programme, except those that are on paper or blueprints. What does this group need? Education, employment, entrepreneurship and health (3Es+H). Many governments have promised solutions before an election, but quickly forgotten until the next election. Meanwhile, they lead gangs or drug-related ventures.

Of course, there is other institutionalised discrimination that needs to be costed.

What is the cost?

A study in Australia by Dr Amanuel Elias puts the figure at AUD44.9 billion annually for the Australian experience. He used number of healthy years of life lost or Disability Adjusted Life Years (“DALYs”) into a monetary value. One DALY is one year of healthy life. For Australia, the cost was 285,228 DALYs every year. Then you are able to scope the cost of anti-discrimination intervention. The recent pandemic has manifested subtle and institutional discrimination in Australia. One in five Australians experience racial discrimination.

Perhaps someone could do a similar study in Malaysia?

References:

1. The Deep Historical Roots of Racism, Mangai Balasegaram, The Star, 14 June 2020

2. The Cost of Racial Discrimination, Dr Amanuel Elias, Researcher, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation