THE 9 MOST SHOCKING CASES OF RACISM - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The incidents of racism have occurred throughout history; situations in which other people were humiliated, insulted or beaten for being of a different race, culture, religion or social class.

Currently racism is condemned worldwide and legally it is a crime for which the accused can face serious charges and fines. But we all know that these measures are not enough, since today racist cases continue to occur all over the world.

In this article I will show you the incredible cases of racism that have occurred throughout our history. Later I will show you some discriminatory laws and facts that have existed.

9 of the most surprising cases of victims of racism

1- Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith died on September 26, 1937 bled to death due to the "legal" segregation of the United States.

The singer, victim of a car accident, was taken by ambulance to all hospitals in Mississippi (United States) in search of a blood transfusion.

As expected, none were allowed in because they were black, since the hospitals were only for whites.

Events like this gave rise to the movement for the equal rights of races led by Pastor Martin Luther King.

2- Elena Gorolová

Elena Gorolová and her husband were the parents of a boy and anxiously awaited the arrival of a girl. However, what was her surprise when they told her that she had been sterilized without her knowledge by the same doctor who treated her in the previous delivery of her son. The argument of this doctor was that they did not want more Roma children to be born.

The horrible news made Elena begin to understand that she was not the only Roma woman who had been involuntarily sterilized in hospitals in the Czech Republic.

Elena and her husband, faced with the passivity of the public authorities, appeared at the social services demanding an explanation, but the staff treated them rudely, expelling them from the place, as Elena argued.

After what happened, they did everything possible so that their history was not forgotten, so that the recovery process began when organizations such as the League for Human Rights or the European Center for Rights in Rome, organized a meeting for women whose lives had been affected by forced and involuntary sterilization

3-Creuza Oliveira

Born into a family of poor, uneducated rural workers, she began life as a domestic worker in Bahia when she was only 10 years old. Unable to combine studies and work, she had to drop out of school.

At work, Oliveira was beaten and humiliated on numerous occasions. If any household object broke, she was called cute, black, lazy or any kind of derogatory insult towards her person.

Not only did he suffer psychological abuse, but he also witnessed sexual abuse towards other young people who worked in the house.

Fortunately, today she is one more survivor who dares to tell her story.

4- Khalid Hussain

Khalid Hussain is a Bihari from Bangladesh. He describes his Bihari race as one of the most disadvantaged in his country, as they are not recognized as citizens. As Hussein indicates, they do not have access to any means of social, cultural or economic survival in society.

His story can be regarded as unfortunately typical. It all started when he entered a private school, where bicharas were treated differently.

Remember how Bengali students looked at them as if they were strange beings, laughing at them for living in dirty fields. These were marginalized to the point of sitting in separate rows.

Hussain described the fateful ordeal they endured for years, but fortunately they made a historic breakthrough in 2003, when they challenged the Election Commission to include them as voters. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh ruled that the people in the camps "are from Bangladesh."

Although much remains to be done, Hussain is confident that one day the world will be free from racism, discrimination and intolerance.

5- Shaymaa J. Kwegyir

Kwegyir, a Tanzanian member of parliament, describes how albinism is viewed as a disability in Tanzania, where many are forced into hiding out of fear of suffering for their own lives.

In the African country, albinism is believed to be a curse. In fact, albino body parts are used by seers to attract wealth and good luck.

Kwegyir was a member of a family with nine children, three of whom were albinos. Fortunately, Shaymaa at home did not suffer discrimination from her family, since it is normal for albinos to be kicked out of their homes.

In Tanzania, very few albinos go beyond primary school, so the incidence of poverty in this minority is alarming.

According to Kwegyir, thanks to the support of his family, he was able to pursue a career in public administration.

For years he has been campaigning for the recognition of the rights of albinos until he was recognized by the President as a member of Parliament.

6- Nusreta Sivac

In April 1992, Nusreta, a Bosnian Muslim judge, was informed by a group of Serbian soldiers that she could no longer work at the Municipal Court.

At a Durban Review Conference, Nusreta spoke of her ordeal when Muslims and Croats were subjected to limited freedom of movement. They were required to wear white armbands and had to display white flags outside their windows.

Both Muslim and Croatian properties were looted and burned, while the owners were transferred to concentration camps in Kertem, Omarska, Prijedor and Trnopolje.

Nusreta remembers the poor sanitary conditions and the inhumane treatment that she and all the detainees had to undergo. They only received one meal a day and were frequently beaten and tortured.

Remember how he began his days by counting the number of people who had died the night before.

During the day, women like Nusreta would clean and do whatever the guards asked of them. But according to her, the worst were the nights, because the guards entered the rooms and took them out to take them to a hidden place in the camp and rape them.

7- Mariama Oumarou

Mairama Ouramou worked part of her life as a slave. Belonging to the “Negro Touareg” community in Niger, from a very early age she worked as a domestic servant. She herded goats, collected firewood and took care of household chores.

Both she and her mother and grandmother worked for the same teacher. Mariama actually thought for years that he was part of her family, until she grew older and realized that the tasks they were given were different from the tasks of other girls her age.

She tells how she was treated differently, insulted and beaten regularly. While still a teenager, she remembers how she was sold by her "teacher" to a man who already had four wives.

Mariama then became a “wahaya” slave wife, and would therefore become a domestic and sex slave. When the Timidria Association managed to negotiate her release in 2001, Mariama was only 17 years old.

Timidita and Anti-Slavery International estimate that some 43,000 people remain enslaved in Niger. This despite the abolition of slavery in 1960 and its prohibition in 1999.

Immediately after her release in 2001, Mariama expressed a desire to learn to read and write, but the price of adult education is expensive, she said at the Durban Exam Conference.

He currently makes a living weaving rugs that he later sells in the local market.

8- Stephen Lawrence

Stephen was a black Briton who was racially murdered while waiting for a bus on the afternoon of April 22, 1993.

This case became a cause for cause and its aftermath included profound cultural changes to attitudes about racism in UK history.

9-Aaron Dugmore

Aaron Dugmore was bullied at a Birmingham school to the point of suicide due to constant harassment and intimidation from his peers at Erdington Elementary School. I was 9 years old.

His classmates from elementary school told him "that all white people should be dead", even threatening him with a plastic knife.

It is the youngest suicide case ever recorded in the UK.

Historical discriminatory laws and facts

Racism is an oppression that possibly dates back to when man is man. The clearest evidence that racism is quite ancient is found in the trafficking of black and white persons in Classical Greece and Ancient Rome.

Later, it was established in a conscious and systematic way due to new colonizations, the rise of industry and capitalism.

The first clear evidence of racism, we have it at the end of the 16th century with the beginning of the slave trade from Africa to Great Britain and the United States. Therefore, racism and capitalism have always been related.

Unfortunately, racism was not only based on slavery and human exploitation, but it even reached the establishment of state laws that supported the segregation between different races and even the prohibition of entering the country for being of one race or another.

An example of these is the Jim Crow Law. "Jim Crow" was a derogatory term for a black man. Laws were established state and local in the US between 1876-1965.

These laws were based on the theory of white supremacy and racial segregation was advocated in all public facilities under the motto: "Separate but equal."

Some examples were segregation in schools, public transportation or restaurants. There were even sources of water for whites and others for blacks. Something unthinkable today.

Another striking example occurred during the years 1901-1909, a time when the Alabama Constitution prohibited any type of marriage between a white and a black person, or a descendant of black race.

Also between 1901 and 1947, the California State Government enacted laws that created segregated communities between Asians and Americans.

As you can see, racism was even legalized for some time in important nations like the United States.