Like many others, I have followed attentively and painfully recent events marking the fallout from the callous murder of George Floyd perpetrated by insensitive members of the US repressive state apparatus. I had been filled with revulsion and indignation at news and footage of the act.

This is the latest in a series of acts of violence against African-Americans harkening back to slavery and its aftermath, the Jim Crow laws, subsequent murders (lynching etc) and humiliation of black people in the US. Quite recently we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the shooting and killing of black students in Jackson State College. 

These remembrances provide an opportunity to reflect on racism throughout the world and within our own shores.

Malta alas has not been immune to cases of overt violence, in addition to many forms of symbolic violence, against black people in a variety of places, sometimes resulting in the killing of innocent people ostensibly because of public disturbance but, more likely, because of cases of white or ‘shades of white’ supremacy over, and antipathy towards, people of a particular skin colour.

All this culminated in the wanton killing of Lassana Cisse, originally from the Côte d’Ivoire, for the alleged sport of people belonging to the country’s armed forces.  The very same people who are meant to protect human beings from incidents of racism were, just over one year ago, the alleged perpetrators of this very same racist murderous act. 

This event evokes Shakespeare’s famous lines from the blinded Gloucester, in King Lear, “Like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport” – although there is nothing remotely godly about this act. It reflects the warped mindset which regards ‘white supremacy’ as the norm and certain people, as, in Edward Said’s expression, “lesser beings”.

I am proud to belong to a faculty which has been promoting anti-racist education since the early 1990s- Peter Mayo

It is terrible enough that stray dogs and cats were allegedly hunted as game by the accused, let alone full breathing human beings whose skin colour is different from that of the alleged perpetrators. This hearkens back to the slave trade and the depiction of certain people as ‘sub-human’, a category also attributed to indigenous peoples, especially in Tasmania in the 19th century when they could be killed with impunity.

Accounts of the 2019 Malta murder chillingly recall the scene from Schindler’s List where Amon Leopold Göth (played by Ralph Fiennes) shoots down camp inmates,  from his window, at will.  The recent US events and the historical baggage they carry have a particular resonance in our country which is relatively ‘new’ to the issue of race relations. 

I am proud to belong to a faculty which has been promoting anti-racist education since the early 1990s and continues to be committed to this aspect of society in Malta and Gozo. 

With my colleague, Carmel Borg, I have been berated in sections of the media for purportedly “inventing an issue that does not exist”. 

This occurred in late 2000 because of a much-cited article we penned on anti-racist education that appeared internationally, first in an academic journal, subsequently in a volume Globalisation of Racism and, later, in a compendium of writings on Race and Racialisation. Essential Readings (included without our prior knowledge) published in Canada.

University colleagues and I have also been victims of right-wing attacks, on web pages and other places, for our pedagogical and other political stances on the issue.

I belong to a faculty that seeks to prepare students in anti-racist, multicultural, multi-faith based education, at both the theoretical and practical levels. We know, however, that these efforts are never enough.

We need to intensify our efforts against the racist scourge and drive home the point that anti-racist education should be a feature of all levels of education in Maltese society, from schools to adult and higher education and across all sectors of the country, including prisons, law courts, the health sector, transport services, housing services, employment agencies, continuing professional development programmes, journalism (print, broadcast and online), advertising and so forth.

I should think that people in our faculty, specialising in this multifaceted area, are ready to work with all those interested in contributing to an ongoing all-embracing effort in this regard.

Although it does not and cannot change things on its own, education can still make a positive and crucial contribution to a broad effort in tackling racism head on. Black lives matter and ought to be dignified and valorised.

Peter Mayo is Professor, University Faculty of Education.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.