Unlocking prejudice
Racism is on the rise again worldwide. Dinyar Godrej examines the nature of its power - and how we can break free.

More than Jimmy's taxi
Ferial Haffajee finds communities working for change in South Africa on the move.

Turning the tide
Adivasi tribals in India are not letting their lives be washed away. Mari Marcel Thekaekara reports from the Nilgiri Hills.

In your face
Testimonials from the line of fire.

Are you a pure Aryan?
Racism is on sale for ordinary Russians and many, according to Olivia Ward, are buying.

RACE - THE FACTS

Welcome
Refugees fleeing war-torn Europe face Fortress Africa. Fiction by Urvi Patel.

ILLUSTRATION BY LIZ PYLE

Bridge of love
International marriage for Tomoyuki Iwashita is not about sharing life with a 'foreigner'.

Simply - True or False?

Sensitivity trainers and the real thing
Big bucks - or real commitment? Erica Simmons investigates anti-racism in Toronto.

Action/Worth Reading

Words, words, words. The trickle of words began when this issue was first proposed. Everyone in the NI Co-op began conveying their ideas and opinions to me, sometimes over a cup of tea, sometimes in little scribbles down the margins of my proposal. Faxes arrived from across the oceans. Then came packages - some ominously heavy - from the helpful people I turned to during the course of my research. These contained news clippings, photocopied chapters, sometimes entire books. After this came the to-ing and fro-ing of letters between me and the writers I had asked to contribute to this issue. Then the articles started coming in, ready for editing, and it became a question of losing some words and worrying over which had alternative meanings lurking within them.

There are plenty of these around when talking about race. Many just get used routinely as though they didn't matter. White journalists often free-associate when writing about Africa, for example, and come up with uninspired clichés of the 'darkness visible' variety. A lot of the language we use ties up darker colours with negativity - a 'black mark' may be held against you, being 'blackballed' spells exclusion, and the worst day of your life may be, predictably enough, a 'black day'.

But even subtler language may signify racist control. When the United Nations was putting together a Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples last year, the indigenous delegates had to stave off an attempt to put 'populations' rather than 'peoples' in the title. What's the difference? Well, under international law, only a distinct 'people' has the right to self-determination. The proposed change had been sponsored by the Aotearoa/New Zealand Government - no prizes for guessing which of the names they would rather use.

At a personal level I have a choice about what I call myself. I can choose between Asian, Indian or Black - or even go for all three. 'Asian' offers a large geographic region, many of whose cultures have little to do with my own. 'Indian' narrows that down a bit, but it comes loaded with the baggage of nationalism. 'Black' is fine in a political sense where it reflects my origins in the Majority World (or the Third World as some would have it) and solidarity with others on the same side of the race divide as myself. But if you're talking black as in skin colour... well, actually I'm brown. None of this means anything to certain louts who have been known to shout 'Paki bastard' at me.

Names, labels, words - if we all didn't have such a strong racial education in our societies, many of them wouldn't mean much. But as it is they are charged with the burden of meanings and associations that we have to unpack, work with, jettison or reclaim. So here goes...

Letters
Letter from Lagos
Update
Reviews: plus Ken Loach classic
Curiosities
Endpiece: by Brandon Aston Jones
Country profile: Niue

FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATION BY CHUM McLEOD
MAGAZINE DESIGNED BY JIM TURNER
ONLINE MAG MAINTAINED BY SIMON LOFFLER