So, I've been intending to do a post about racism for a long, long time, only now it's flared up in the news and whatnot.
Obviously there has been the Blatter incident where he somehow seems to think that inherent racism is perfectly acceptable so long as you apologise afterwards. Quite how he has been an authority figure within football for so long has baffled me since his abject (and in many ways incoherent) rejection of technology in football, but he has now gone from plain farce to purely offensive and willfully ignorant. If there are people making racism comments and monkey sounds, then of course there is still racism in football.
Then there is a much more local story of the pillock who has objected to the Union flag being flown in his village on the basis that the national flag is a racist emblem. He says that he has received racist hate-mail since then entirely vindicating his view. No. What he has done is shown just how truly ignorant he is, and if he has received any hate-mail then it is probably directed at him because he is ignorant and himself racist against the nation he should be calling home; rather than being racist hate-mail of itself. But then he probably can't tell the difference because he certainly cannot tell the difference between national pride and offensive racism. I seriously question whether the chap has actually received any hate-mail as he seems to be a chap who just want to make a noise for the purposes of making a noise and having people look at him than because he actually has any considered, reasoned argument to put forward.
But let me just make absolutely plain: hate-mail cannot be justified in any circumastances. Any threat immediately invalidates any argument the writer was trying to get across; and any attempt to intimidate anyone with threats is not just stupid, it is plain inhuman.
Now, let me stake out my corner...
I am a nationalist. I am fiercely proud of this country and everything about it. I am white from a middle-class(ish) family in the heart of the country. Nationalism has been given a bad name though. True nationalism - my nationalim - is purely about a love for a country. It has nothing to do with hate.
AndI am a true nationalist - a patriot - not a racist. I don't have a racist bone in my body. I honestly and truly believe that everyone starts off as equal, and the racists are the people who manage to dimish any opinion I have of them by showing their ignorance, stupidity and short-sightedness.
How is it even possible to justify racism? I just simply do not understand it. I cannot see any logical step that takes someone from thinking "that is a black person" to "they are therefore ethically or socially lower than me". It isn't presumptious; it isn't stereotyping; it is illogical and it is wrong.
"They come over here, taking our jobs" don't they? Maybe if the imbecile making the comment actually got off their arse and started applying for jobs rather than stuffing their greasified job-seekers allowance in their gobs whilst watching trash tv, they would actually realise that there are jobs out there. Many jobs. Just because it isn't a job testing computer games or reviewing tv programmes and getting paid £100,000 for it, doesn't mean there aren't any jobs or that they have all been taken by immigrants.
"They keep themselves to themselves, in a ghetto"; "They have no respect for their community / for this country". [to the people making those comments:] And I suppose you are demonstating considerably more respect for the community by segretating and not integrating sections of it which - in your own supremist mind - you have determined are not worthy of being called part of the community? I think what you will actually find is that they have just as strong a sense of community as anyone else. But you wouldn't know because you haven't asked them, or if you did you didn't listen to or tolerate the response. Instead you went off destroying the community, being a divisive, inflammatory figure, causing trouble for the sake of it with for no real reason. If you were to take a moment and find out you would realise that they actually probably made a substantially greater effort to integrate and be accepted than you. They probably know more people around the neighbourhood. They are actually desperate to fit in and be accepted. It is no easy thing coming over to this country to start a new life, but they were so desperate to be a part of Britain, to be here, that they have taken that step. And yes, the Indian community (for example) may often seem to associate amongst themselves or whatever, but they do not do so on an exclusionary basis. It's just the easiest way. Small steps into the freezing and scary cold water rather than a huge leap in cause waves, lots of mess and potentially lethal hyperthermia.
Let us not forget, it is the fantasticness of this country that makes them want to be here. Britain has always been a friendly, accommodating place. People have always wanted to live here with us. People talk of the Norman Invasion, but it really wasn't an invasion. William the Conqueror bent over backwards to learn English over his native French and to adopt British culture and traditions: cultures and traditions which have endure to this day and which are under no threat. He certainly did not impose 'the French way' and would have faced a rebellion had he tried. But from way before then and all the way since then the British nature has been to embrace people who want to be here, or even to encourage people to come over here - we have often spread our net wide and far to encourage people to come over when we have needed them. The racists who rant off probably love nothing more than going for a good curry at the weekend and nowhere else in the world will the Anglicised chicken tikka masala sit happily alongside a traditional roast dinner as the nation's favourite. The British nature is that we welcome people, and we learn from them. And change is to encourage diversity and innovation rather than to stiffle nationality. Afterall, we have long been at the forefront of development (and I mean far before even the industrial revolution) by learning from other cultures and societies. If you are insular and ignorant you simply do not develop or identify new products or markets - to concentrate just on the self deprives the individual of innovation and identity.
"They send all the money they earn abroad." What audatious prick is going to determine what any private individual is entitled to do with money they have worked hard to earn? It would be like telling me that of my disposable income I had to give a certain percentage to someone. What the ranter usually ignores as well is that yes, they may very well send the money abroad, but that is ignoring entirely the wider economic benefits. Before that money can go anywhere it has to be earned (and don't believe anyone who tells you all immigrants are on benefits because the proportion of immigrants on benefits is substantially lower than the number of nationals on benefit) and they pay PAYE and National Insurance on that. And don't forget they need to eat: they buy food from UK business who pay tax on their profits. They buy utilities from domestic suppliers and pay VAT on it. They pay council tax on the house they live in, road tax on the car they drive, fuel duty on the petrol they buy and again pay VAT on all but essential purchase. The economic benefit of migrant workers to the UK economy is amazingly substantial. And that's ignoring any effect of goods exported out to those families or the benefit that sending sterling money does for the liquity, stability and creditworthiness of our currency in the macroeconomic scheme of things rather than tinyminded micro scale. And so if, after all that, they want to send some money 'back home' why shouldn't they? Or am I to be stopped buying things for my (UK based) mother and father?
Unless, of course, the arguement from the racist minority is actually that our national identity is so weak, so pathetic, so insecure that it really is at risk of dilution or eradication. In which case, following true evolutionary processes - and indeed the process which racist thugs hold so dear to their heart - of survival of the fittest, should we not just let it lie down and die a death? No. But nothing has survived by standing still.
One of the hallmarks of our country, the keystones of our nationality of which we should rightly be proud is our diversity, our tolerance, our understanding, our friendliness, our adaptiveness, our adoptiveness and our inclusion. Ok, maybe seven. But they are our defining characteristics, they make us British and they are bluddy amazing. And so are we. And so are they for wanting to be one of us, in their own very individual way.
Obviously there has been the Blatter incident where he somehow seems to think that inherent racism is perfectly acceptable so long as you apologise afterwards. Quite how he has been an authority figure within football for so long has baffled me since his abject (and in many ways incoherent) rejection of technology in football, but he has now gone from plain farce to purely offensive and willfully ignorant. If there are people making racism comments and monkey sounds, then of course there is still racism in football.
Then there is a much more local story of the pillock who has objected to the Union flag being flown in his village on the basis that the national flag is a racist emblem. He says that he has received racist hate-mail since then entirely vindicating his view. No. What he has done is shown just how truly ignorant he is, and if he has received any hate-mail then it is probably directed at him because he is ignorant and himself racist against the nation he should be calling home; rather than being racist hate-mail of itself. But then he probably can't tell the difference because he certainly cannot tell the difference between national pride and offensive racism. I seriously question whether the chap has actually received any hate-mail as he seems to be a chap who just want to make a noise for the purposes of making a noise and having people look at him than because he actually has any considered, reasoned argument to put forward.
But let me just make absolutely plain: hate-mail cannot be justified in any circumastances. Any threat immediately invalidates any argument the writer was trying to get across; and any attempt to intimidate anyone with threats is not just stupid, it is plain inhuman.
Now, let me stake out my corner...
I am a nationalist. I am fiercely proud of this country and everything about it. I am white from a middle-class(ish) family in the heart of the country. Nationalism has been given a bad name though. True nationalism - my nationalim - is purely about a love for a country. It has nothing to do with hate.
AndI am a true nationalist - a patriot - not a racist. I don't have a racist bone in my body. I honestly and truly believe that everyone starts off as equal, and the racists are the people who manage to dimish any opinion I have of them by showing their ignorance, stupidity and short-sightedness.
How is it even possible to justify racism? I just simply do not understand it. I cannot see any logical step that takes someone from thinking "that is a black person" to "they are therefore ethically or socially lower than me". It isn't presumptious; it isn't stereotyping; it is illogical and it is wrong.
"They come over here, taking our jobs" don't they? Maybe if the imbecile making the comment actually got off their arse and started applying for jobs rather than stuffing their greasified job-seekers allowance in their gobs whilst watching trash tv, they would actually realise that there are jobs out there. Many jobs. Just because it isn't a job testing computer games or reviewing tv programmes and getting paid £100,000 for it, doesn't mean there aren't any jobs or that they have all been taken by immigrants.
"They keep themselves to themselves, in a ghetto"; "They have no respect for their community / for this country". [to the people making those comments:] And I suppose you are demonstating considerably more respect for the community by segretating and not integrating sections of it which - in your own supremist mind - you have determined are not worthy of being called part of the community? I think what you will actually find is that they have just as strong a sense of community as anyone else. But you wouldn't know because you haven't asked them, or if you did you didn't listen to or tolerate the response. Instead you went off destroying the community, being a divisive, inflammatory figure, causing trouble for the sake of it with for no real reason. If you were to take a moment and find out you would realise that they actually probably made a substantially greater effort to integrate and be accepted than you. They probably know more people around the neighbourhood. They are actually desperate to fit in and be accepted. It is no easy thing coming over to this country to start a new life, but they were so desperate to be a part of Britain, to be here, that they have taken that step. And yes, the Indian community (for example) may often seem to associate amongst themselves or whatever, but they do not do so on an exclusionary basis. It's just the easiest way. Small steps into the freezing and scary cold water rather than a huge leap in cause waves, lots of mess and potentially lethal hyperthermia.
Let us not forget, it is the fantasticness of this country that makes them want to be here. Britain has always been a friendly, accommodating place. People have always wanted to live here with us. People talk of the Norman Invasion, but it really wasn't an invasion. William the Conqueror bent over backwards to learn English over his native French and to adopt British culture and traditions: cultures and traditions which have endure to this day and which are under no threat. He certainly did not impose 'the French way' and would have faced a rebellion had he tried. But from way before then and all the way since then the British nature has been to embrace people who want to be here, or even to encourage people to come over here - we have often spread our net wide and far to encourage people to come over when we have needed them. The racists who rant off probably love nothing more than going for a good curry at the weekend and nowhere else in the world will the Anglicised chicken tikka masala sit happily alongside a traditional roast dinner as the nation's favourite. The British nature is that we welcome people, and we learn from them. And change is to encourage diversity and innovation rather than to stiffle nationality. Afterall, we have long been at the forefront of development (and I mean far before even the industrial revolution) by learning from other cultures and societies. If you are insular and ignorant you simply do not develop or identify new products or markets - to concentrate just on the self deprives the individual of innovation and identity.
"They send all the money they earn abroad." What audatious prick is going to determine what any private individual is entitled to do with money they have worked hard to earn? It would be like telling me that of my disposable income I had to give a certain percentage to someone. What the ranter usually ignores as well is that yes, they may very well send the money abroad, but that is ignoring entirely the wider economic benefits. Before that money can go anywhere it has to be earned (and don't believe anyone who tells you all immigrants are on benefits because the proportion of immigrants on benefits is substantially lower than the number of nationals on benefit) and they pay PAYE and National Insurance on that. And don't forget they need to eat: they buy food from UK business who pay tax on their profits. They buy utilities from domestic suppliers and pay VAT on it. They pay council tax on the house they live in, road tax on the car they drive, fuel duty on the petrol they buy and again pay VAT on all but essential purchase. The economic benefit of migrant workers to the UK economy is amazingly substantial. And that's ignoring any effect of goods exported out to those families or the benefit that sending sterling money does for the liquity, stability and creditworthiness of our currency in the macroeconomic scheme of things rather than tinyminded micro scale. And so if, after all that, they want to send some money 'back home' why shouldn't they? Or am I to be stopped buying things for my (UK based) mother and father?
Unless, of course, the arguement from the racist minority is actually that our national identity is so weak, so pathetic, so insecure that it really is at risk of dilution or eradication. In which case, following true evolutionary processes - and indeed the process which racist thugs hold so dear to their heart - of survival of the fittest, should we not just let it lie down and die a death? No. But nothing has survived by standing still.
One of the hallmarks of our country, the keystones of our nationality of which we should rightly be proud is our diversity, our tolerance, our understanding, our friendliness, our adaptiveness, our adoptiveness and our inclusion. Ok, maybe seven. But they are our defining characteristics, they make us British and they are bluddy amazing. And so are we. And so are they for wanting to be one of us, in their own very individual way.
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