FIRST STEPS ON A MISTY PATH

Discrimination and racism are very tricky things. There are many theories and contradicting opinions on how to define these problems. That they are problems our modern society is facing, no single sane person can deny. But because of its vague nature, these terms are often the guiltless victims of abuse and misunderstanding.

There are some that still denounce their existence and some that neglect is, but there are also some that hold on to very narrow-minded views on the issue, often resulting in doing even more damage to the good of the cause. They are even used as means for personal gain or for revenge in private matters, an excuse to explain every feeling of mistreatment, though sometimes very incorrect. As with everything, working in extremes is never the solution. The balancing on this thin rope is in Leuven done by the people of the Report Point for Discrimination (Meldpunt Discriminatie).

The Report Point – situated within the offices of the city hall of Leuven near the train station – is linked to the notorious Centre for the Equality of Chances and the Fight against Racism. This official government actor has evolved to what they themselves call ‘the union for all people viable to discrimination’ and are often criticised for their quite extreme and narrow view on certain matters and cases. For your information, the four categories of people who are more the victims of discrimination are the handicapped, immigrants and people of a different background, women, and people with a different sexuality. One can’t deny the general use of the Centre and the successes they achieved, however. Because of this attitude, the Report Points in the different cities of Flanders – of which Leuven is just one – keep a certain distance to their mother organisation. They focus mainly on discrimination in the lower levels of common city life and see themselves more as intermediates between the different parties – both the accuser and the accused. This is evidently a very different approach than the position of advocate the Centre places itself in.

The forms of discrimination can be divided into three main categories. The first is the bar and restaurant scene. If you experience trouble getting into a pub because of the way you look, the Report Point is the place to go. The annual evaluation also shows that this is the main source of complaints in Leuven. Because of this, people of the Report Point have many talks with and information sessions for the bouncers of the Leuven region, and they achieve a pretty high success rate in reaching an agreement. They also made a guide for bouncers on this theme. A second form is the acquisition of a house. Owners sometimes seem reluctant to hire their property to people of a different race and here as well the Report Point acts. Another example is that of the handicapped person who felt discriminated when his doctor didn’t want to treat him and sent him to a colleague. After talking with the man, however, it turned out that this was a doctor close to retirement who didn’t want to make the infrastructural changes necessary to accommodate handicapped patients. This of course turns the whole situation less black and white. The third form is in the working area, a problem also proven to be very real when the only students of a class at the KH Leuven institute who weren’t able to get an internship, were students with an immigrant background.

The results were quite positive, but still very small. There are still a lot of people unable to find the Report Point and do their story. Another problem is the total lack of focus on the community of international students. Almost none reached the Report Point during this last year and what’s even worse, all information on the Report Point is available only in Dutch. The employees acknowledge this vacuum however and through meetings with the intercultural meeting centre Pangaea and the student representatives of LOKO International, they hope to eliminate this problem and help every student find the support and intermediation they need. |