The United Nations held a major meeting on race. Why the US and UK skipped it

On its face, the day's news made a jarring split-screen: Several countries that once grew fantastically rich from colonialism and slavery, including the US, Canada and the UK, attended an optimistic summit focused on extending COVID-19 vaccine supplies to the rest of the world, convened by US President Joe Biden.

"Racism and racial discrimination still permeate institutions, social structures, and everyday life in every society. Structural racism and systematic injustice still deny people their fundamental human rights," he said, pointing to the unequal toll of COVID-19 on minority groups. "The original Durban Conference in 2001 was intended to fight racism but in reality it did the exact opposite, encouraging hate and antisemitism," Israel's Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations Gilad Erdan said in a statement to CNN Wednesday."This proves that there is a growing recognition of the fact that the Durban Conference was plagued with bigotry and that the Durban Declaration does nothing to promote the fight against racism ...

The UK cited"historic concerns regarding antisemitism" in a one-line statement about its absence. Canada and the European Union acknowledged but did not respond immediately to requests for comment.As the day wore on and speeches at the commemorative event continued, the absence of such former colonial powers to acknowledge past wrongs and face calls for reparations became an elephant in the room.

"We support the adoption of special measures, including affirmative action programmes and targeted financial assistance, as restitution to communities whose ancestors were sold into slavery."

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