ChatterBank0 min ago
Is Anti-Racism a form of Racism?
About 15 years ago I was at a civic "do" and talking to a businessman who had emigrated from Asia about employment in Croydon. I mentioned that although South London was becoming equal opportunity there were distinct problems that needed to be resolved if you went 20 miles south. Up to this point we had been talking as friends but the temperature suddenly cooled. I had cast him as "other". If you think that being anti-racist is not racist then think again. You can only escape racism by treating other people as individuals. Are those who pose as against racism by being anti-racist largely postmarxist drones trying to create division and tension?
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Oh yes this old chestnut
Closely allied to the idea that banning people from "Shouting Fire in a crowded Theatre" is a violation of free speech.
Oliver Wendle Holmes made this allusion in 1919
This is a criticsm of actions that are dangerous and serve no useful purpose - like voicing racist attitudes.
Treating others as individuals is necessary but not sufficient in escapiung racism.
You must also stand up to it wherever you encounter it
As Edmund Burke said - All that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing
Closely allied to the idea that banning people from "Shouting Fire in a crowded Theatre" is a violation of free speech.
Oliver Wendle Holmes made this allusion in 1919
This is a criticsm of actions that are dangerous and serve no useful purpose - like voicing racist attitudes.
Treating others as individuals is necessary but not sufficient in escapiung racism.
You must also stand up to it wherever you encounter it
As Edmund Burke said - All that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing
'Are those who pose as against racism by being anti-racist largely postmarxist drones trying to create division and tension?'
Racism is a fact of life, and black on black racism is worse, and more prevalent than any other! It is such a shame we even have to consider the subject, and yes, I think you are right, SOME people are using the racist card to their advantage, whatever the agenda may be.
Its a shame we are not all colour blind because difference is more about culture than race. We are all the same colour under our skins, and we all have the same human rights.
Racism is a fact of life, and black on black racism is worse, and more prevalent than any other! It is such a shame we even have to consider the subject, and yes, I think you are right, SOME people are using the racist card to their advantage, whatever the agenda may be.
Its a shame we are not all colour blind because difference is more about culture than race. We are all the same colour under our skins, and we all have the same human rights.
30 years ago you'd have been told that drink driving was a fact of life and you'd never get people to stop.
That's true we still have drink drivers - but the difference is that public attitude to it has changed
It is simply not acceptable in almost any context now to admit that you drink drive and wont stop.
Changing attitudes is possible
We're getting there with prejudices like racism and homophobia
That's the destination - and if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem
That's true we still have drink drivers - but the difference is that public attitude to it has changed
It is simply not acceptable in almost any context now to admit that you drink drive and wont stop.
Changing attitudes is possible
We're getting there with prejudices like racism and homophobia
That's the destination - and if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem
Jake - statements like that are also part of the problem, working on the assumption that you are unquestionably correct and brooking no dialogue whatsoever, rather than trying to win people over by cogent argument.
To talk about immigration, as the Wallace and Gromet character admitted at the weekend, is not racist, but for years we have been tarred with that epithet every time we attempt to do so. Things like this are all too endemic and cloud real issues with the stigma of racism. Those who jump down your throat for even trying to do so, the anti-racists if youwill, are every bit as bigoted and intolerant as the real racists, (those who discriminate on the colour of one's skin).
To talk about immigration, as the Wallace and Gromet character admitted at the weekend, is not racist, but for years we have been tarred with that epithet every time we attempt to do so. Things like this are all too endemic and cloud real issues with the stigma of racism. Those who jump down your throat for even trying to do so, the anti-racists if youwill, are every bit as bigoted and intolerant as the real racists, (those who discriminate on the colour of one's skin).
Jake, if you'd written your post about driving a few years ago, I'd have agreed with you. In my drinking lifetime, drink driving became socially unacceptable.
But it's back. several of my daughter's friends do it and are not shy in letting others know. so far as they are concerned, those who can't handle their motors after a drinking session are "f**king losers".
But it's back. several of my daughter's friends do it and are not shy in letting others know. so far as they are concerned, those who can't handle their motors after a drinking session are "f**king losers".
Duncer
Problem is - for a good few years, the only people who openly talked about immigration genuinely were racists (from the National Front, to the splinter groups of the 80s and now the BNP).
Oh, and before someone says, "But the BNP are only standing up for the rights of white Britons", I urge you to check out posts on their Facebook page and challenge you to read any thread without exclaiming 'Yikes!!!'.
So unfortunately the debate about immigration has been hijacked and framed in such a way that it's now like two very loud people screaming at each other in a room, with twenty people with quiet voices trying to but in. And if any one of those are heard, they HAVE to be on one side or the other (according to the two loudmouths).
Second brilliant analogy of the day. I'm on FIRE!!!
Problem is - for a good few years, the only people who openly talked about immigration genuinely were racists (from the National Front, to the splinter groups of the 80s and now the BNP).
Oh, and before someone says, "But the BNP are only standing up for the rights of white Britons", I urge you to check out posts on their Facebook page and challenge you to read any thread without exclaiming 'Yikes!!!'.
So unfortunately the debate about immigration has been hijacked and framed in such a way that it's now like two very loud people screaming at each other in a room, with twenty people with quiet voices trying to but in. And if any one of those are heard, they HAVE to be on one side or the other (according to the two loudmouths).
Second brilliant analogy of the day. I'm on FIRE!!!
sp1914, I take your point, and I have no desire to visit the BNP page thanks. However, for years all debate on anything remotely contentious has been stifled by using the racism/bgiotry slur, rather than actually listen to the points the person might be making. I've encountered it in work just for daring to have an opinion on immigration.
I have suffered discrimination for being white, not right, fair and so on.
I tried to brush it off, but it was a disturbingly unpleasant time, this was here in London
This country has been telling people what to think, feel for so long we no longer know whether we are coming or going.
I confess i read through the post several times and lost my marbles.
I tried to brush it off, but it was a disturbingly unpleasant time, this was here in London
This country has been telling people what to think, feel for so long we no longer know whether we are coming or going.
I confess i read through the post several times and lost my marbles.
em10
I totally hear what you're saying and I would always counsel confronting discrimination as dispassionately as you can otherwise nothing ever changes.
But in addition to shouts of "You're a racist", there are equally loud shouts of "You're just PC" or "You're playing the race card".
It's all too monotonous.
I totally hear what you're saying and I would always counsel confronting discrimination as dispassionately as you can otherwise nothing ever changes.
But in addition to shouts of "You're a racist", there are equally loud shouts of "You're just PC" or "You're playing the race card".
It's all too monotonous.
When in the NHS we had Diversity and equality training which tried to eradicate discrimination out of the NHS. But the thing I had a problem with was it told you what was 'good' thinking and what was 'bad' thinking which I felt was very 1984 ish. Especially in an organisation that discriminated due to age I.e. Under 65 you go to a general ward. Over 65 you may go to a care of the elderly ward.
gavmap exactly, this country has been trying too hard at being Mr nice guy, telling us all how things will be, without realising that not all people are the same, and that we don't all believe in the same things. I don't care for prejudice in any form, but i have suffered it in too many ways, for being a woman for one, sexism in the workplace has long gone on, then wage inequalities, and having to fight your corner in a male dominated society.
