The killing of George Floyd in the United States earlier this year, has put the issue of racism and prejudice back in the headlines. There has been an outpouring of rage and protests around the globe, as many tried to come to terms with racism on a personal and an institutional level. Today on the podcast we look at prejudice and why and how human beings discriminate against each other. We also look at what we as a society can do to address that.
As statues of slave owners are being torn down all across the world, on today’s episode we want to know if this is the most effective way to tackle racism and address the wrongs of our past. I spoke to political activist Chumani Maxwele and Heriot-Watt University's Sir Geoff Palmer to find out more. Sir Geoff tells us about the injustices he had to face living in Britain and brings home the weight of the problem in the UK [01:55].
Chumani Maxwele is a part of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, who are responsible for bringing down the statue of 19th century colonialist Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The two men passionately debate the merits of taking down statues and the effectiveness of removing statutes of slave owners in an attempt to address systemic racism in society [04:02]
We also speak to Mary Kite, co-author of the key university textbook The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination who tells us about the psochological origins of prejudice and what we can do to try and address it on a personal level [12:07].