Condemning racism

last updated 8 January 2015

Bridgetown, Barbados

Delegates at a racism conference in Barbados last week voted to expel all whites and Asians from the meeting. The conference, a follow-up to a United Nations meeting last year in Durban, South Africa, was organized to address racism against people of African descent. “Many of the delegates in the room felt that this was an African family meeting and that slavery was too painful to discuss in the presence of others,” said Chairwoman Jewel Crawford, an American. Those allowed to stay voted to demand reparations from countries that participated in the slave trade, but not before representatives from Cuba, South Africa, and several other countries walked out in protest.