So Many Questions About Racism In The Answerbank...

[sp1814]

...that we tend to forget about real race issues.

Do you think that we now focus on stories in which we can warmly conclude "That's not racism", because it's more comforting than addressing serious attacks?

...such as these, this week?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/reker-ahmed-attack-girl-cried-stop-racist-assault-goat-pub-croydon-crown-court-a7996871.html

That one was bad enough, but imagine being a parent of a child at THIS school!

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/school-lockdown-man-outside-threatens-13750509

[Mamyalynne]

I am nowhere near bright enough to put this into the right words but I'll try.

I read and hear about awful crimes and lesser ones too and firstly view them for what they are - a vicious attack, a person making threats or residents complaining about bin men.

I realise a large part of the media need an extra tag within a story but for my own part I try to stick to the main aspect of the crime.

[dannyk13]

Too many on here see racial overtones where none exist.

[Mamyalynne]

I don't think it's just here Danny though, it's the way the News is fed to us.


Every car crash or motorway tailback report ends with 'Currently there are no suspicions of a terrorist link'.

[dannyk13]

That's true Lynne.

[ToraToraTora]

No

[Old_Geezer]

Probably all agreed on real race issues. The interest is where race is claimed to be the issue but where that's disputable.

[sp1814]

dannyk13

It seems the opposite way around to me.

There is an increasing number of threads where the obvious conclusion (or the most sensible conclusion) is that the issue at hand is either not a factor of race, or that it's some random person on Twitter or social media that has posted a mad rant that the majority of us can agree is a bit loopy...

...which serves as adjunct real racism.

[sp1814]

O_G

That's actually a good point, because in most cases, we talking about outliers...views that the vast majority simply don't hold (e.g. cultural appropriation of dreadlocks etc).

Whenever we see points raised about whether the Union Flag is a sign of oppression, you can almost guarantee that 95 out of a hundred people will say, "That's cobblers", but we focus our attention on the 5% of Twitter loons as if their opinion is somehow so much more important.

That's...odd.

[woofgang]

no its not odd because good "normal news" is never news.....its always been the same....

[Just-Jude]

Muslims have been helping Jews somewhere in Yorkshire, after their synagogue was daubed with Nazi graffiti. A nice heart warming story for a Saturday afternoon.

[kvalidir]

Yes racial attacks are on the increase. We have a nasty cycle going on. A strong, unified, unbiased populace are more likely hold their masters to account for their behaviour, therefore it is in the interests of government ( Tory, Labour whoever) to drip feed us stories which blame one another for our woes- so we have ' immigrants coming over here taking our jobs', 'immigrant coming here and claiming our benefits', 'Muslims refusing to integrate', people wearing thing we don't wear so they must be up to no good' etc etc ad nauseum. At the same time we distract people form their misery by showing them shiny things that they want, whilst simultaneously dumbing them down via reality TV, other media and education (or lack of proper) to be more materialistic and less discerning about good values such as an inclusive and fair society. This normalises delinquent behaviour towards people who aren't the same group as the perpetrators, the scapegoats, and we are now in the unhappy scenario of it being very socially acceptable in some quarter to be a violent and aggressive racist / homophobe / xenophobe or misogynist. that in turn makes minority groups very nervous, fight back and strengthens the divisions. By virtue of human nature we are interested in sensationalist stories, so the news that a man was killed in a racist attack attracts way more attention than the fact that my Jewish Mum, my Catholic Dad had dinner the other week with some Muslim, Zoaroastrian, christian and their Rasta friend because nothing sensational or bad happened. Couple this with dodgey political decisions in the middle east which led to a surge in fundamentalism, and racial and religious tensions will be high. It's a self fulfilling prophesy, divide and conquer. We all have bigger fish to fry than tearing chunks out of each other, but we are being steered down a very contrived path towards exactly that.

[-Talbot-]

Since you have taken a 'side' sp, I see you as the yang to AOG's yang. ( no there is no error)

America is one ***-up society and I don't like the ideas emanating from there crossing the pond ... London to me is also a *** up society



Hopefully, the thinking from America and London will not spread to my town.

[youngmafbog]

Racism exists, and always will as laws dont change peoples minds only time, attitudes on both sides and education will. While people dont integrate and separate them selves it will never go away as we are not all one and equal.

In addition people using the 'race card' still exist, and always will while they get their own way by using it.

As for the stories we pick, why would we debate clear racism stories? There is nothing to debate.

As for the 'race card' if the authorities stopped allowing it to be used then the debates on that will stop too.

[sp1814]

youngmafbog

On AB, there's only one or two people who use the race card...

[douglas9401]

I'm old enough to remember when the race card was a list of runners and riders.