NE - I am not following you, merely offering a different perspective on things. You are free to continue to express your dismay at the referendum result, just as I am free to offer another view point on it. If my response to a few of your comments is exasperating to you then consider how exasperating it is to continually read your negative posts as well as most of the media out there.
I am not able to prove that racism is down just as you are not able to prove it is up. I am just calling out sound bites as I thought that we had all had enough of them following the awful campaigning that was done. Maybe that is just me though...
Mrs Grey, I fully understand your point and when put like that I would rather not have someone suffer for the result of knowing that someone is a racist. My point was more of in a general scenario and not broken down to the individual who will suffer as a result.
However on other hand, if you offered someone who is unfortunate enough to suffer racist remarks/abuse if they would rather take a couple incidents and for the general public to rally round them and really show these bigots that it is not acceptable or tolerated or not suffer any direct incidents but always feel that there is an under current of ill feeling out there I would be interested to know what they would rather. If more people see racism and take a stand against it we may be able to make the world a better place. (I am not say that either are right or correct, but unfortunately the world we live in is not perfect)
. If more people see racism and take a stand against it we may be able to make the world a better place.
I absolutely agree.
Although (and referring back to the question you raise about whether victims would rather be victimised than not if a positive change could come out of it) since official estimates are that the huge majority of incidents aren't reported to the police, I'm not sure how much opprobrium actually results.
A interesting question might be - why don't people report it. (I suspect the answers are many and varied. But probably all equally depressing.)
I agree and I nearly added an edit after I saw your earlier post about it not being reported. 75% is a shocking stat if true and we as individuals, a community, a nation, a civilization can and must do better.
I have seen the odd video on facebook where people rally round and stand up for the victim but all too often nothing is said or done when it happens.
Herb - "Racism is not proven to be up, but acts/reporting of racism are." How do you measure racism if not by the number of acts that are reported. Has there been a poll where people put their hands up and say "Yup, I'm a racist".? The only way by which it can be measured surely IS by the acts, therefore, if the number of acts and their reporting has increased, is it not reasonable to say that racism has increased.
TW85 - "how exasperating it is to continually read your negative posts". I would love to hear some good news about the situation so that I could have reason to be positive. Perhaps you could put up some links. It is just as exasperating for me to continually read Brexiteer's criticism of Remainers being negative when there has not been, so far, anything to feel positive about.
Herb, that's a good point, Perhaps they were latent racists who weren't aware of the fact, but have been emboldened by Brexit. My original point that racism is up would have been more accurate if, as I've already posted, I had said that incidents of racist behaviour are up.
So, correcting my original post: Summary - Economy down, incidents of racist behaviour up.
I still think "Economy down, racism up" scans better.
Herb, that's a good point, Perhaps they were latent racists who weren't aware of the fact, but have been emboldened by Brexit. My original point that racism is up would have been more accurate if, as I've already posted, I had said that incidents of racist behaviour are up.
So, correcting my original post: Summary - Economy down, incidents of racist behaviour up.
I still think "Economy down, racism up" scans better.
Leavers £350m a week to be spent on NHS scanned well as well!
Racism existed before but more subtle, more institutional and easier to deny. People didn't want to hear about it and people always had some other excuse to claim it wasn't racism. More offensive to point out racism than be the victim of because we'd decided putting our heads in the ground and claiming "we don't see race" meant it would go away.
Generally, it's only with blatant abuse that people accept that it's racism. That was much rarer until Brexit, when unsurprisingly a lot of people felt emboldened; maybe they (wrongly) believed everyone who voted out agreed with them, maybe they were inspired by a press that liked to describe refugees as cockroaches.
So of course the country is not any more racist, it's just that certain people feel freer about showing it. Increased reporting is not enough to explain it because there have long been attempts to increase reporting of racism. I know a lot of people who have faced abuse since the referendum.
Yes, there was racism before. It was frustrating, isolating, infuriating. But what has happened since Brexit is scarier. Plenty of people are questioning their future in Britain. If this can still happen to us in the place when we were born, 30/40 years after our parents faced it (worse) then when do we actually get to live on an equal footing? We can set up businesses, go through university, get to the top of any profession, represent the country abroad and still not be fully accepted as British. That's what people are thinking in this situation.
By racism are we talking about White British people being racist towards everybody who is not White British or other races that are racist to each other, not including people who are white British? Racism is racism no matter what you're colour of skin is but it seems to me that what has been written above is aimed at only white people.
I take that as Rome wasn't built in a day. Yes there is a lot of work ahead, but that only adds to my thoughts that the EU was too closely involved in our day to day lives.
SimonC - I couldn't disagree more strongly with what you say.
I'll put here what the NAACP is trying to achieve.
Its aims are: to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.
to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.
The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution - the principal objectives of the Association shall be:
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens
To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States
To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes
To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights
To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination
To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP's Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.
-- I'll leave anyone else to make up their own mind if an organisation committed to equality for all, and the ending of discrimination based on racial grounds, can in any fair assessment be called racist.
simonc- don't you think these aims are laudable? And don't you think it a shame (in both meanings of the word) that in this day and age, those aims are still so far from being achieved?
Comments
I am not able to prove that racism is down just as you are not able to prove it is up. I am just calling out sound bites as I thought that we had all had enough of them following the awful campaigning that was done. Maybe that is just me though...
Mrs Grey, I fully understand your point and when put like that I would rather not have someone suffer for the result of knowing that someone is a racist. My point was more of in a general scenario and not broken down to the individual who will suffer as a result.
However on other hand, if you offered someone who is unfortunate enough to suffer racist remarks/abuse if they would rather take a couple incidents and for the general public to rally round them and really show these bigots that it is not acceptable or tolerated or not suffer any direct incidents but always feel that there is an under current of ill feeling out there I would be interested to know what they would rather. If more people see racism and take a stand against it we may be able to make the world a better place. (I am not say that either are right or correct, but unfortunately the world we live in is not perfect)
Madcap - what do you have against train spotters?
Although (and referring back to the question you raise about whether victims would rather be victimised than not if a positive change could come out of it) since official estimates are that the huge majority of incidents aren't reported to the police, I'm not sure how much opprobrium actually results.
A interesting question might be - why don't people report it. (I suspect the answers are many and varied. But probably all equally depressing.)
I have seen the odd video on facebook where people rally round and stand up for the victim but all too often nothing is said or done when it happens.
But even with those caveats, it's not a cheering thought.
I was just clarifying the figure, in the context of our discussion about racism ;ok
- "Racism is not proven to be up, but acts/reporting of racism are."
How do you measure racism if not by the number of acts that are reported. Has there been a poll where people put their hands up and say "Yup, I'm a racist".?
The only way by which it can be measured surely IS by the acts, therefore, if the number of acts and their reporting has increased, is it not reasonable to say that racism has increased.
TW85
- "how exasperating it is to continually read your negative posts".
I would love to hear some good news about the situation so that I could have reason to be positive. Perhaps you could put up some links.
It is just as exasperating for me to continually read Brexiteer's criticism of Remainers being negative when there has not been, so far, anything to feel positive about.
We'll just have to agree to disagree.
I don't think so.
Perhaps they were latent racists who weren't aware of the fact, but have been emboldened by Brexit.
My original point that racism is up would have been more accurate if, as I've already posted, I had said that incidents of racist behaviour are up.
So, correcting my original post:
Summary - Economy down, incidents of racist behaviour up.
I still think "Economy down, racism up" scans better.
A snip at
EQUATOR GLOBE BAR
£5,960.00
ADD TO BASKET
MADE TO ORDER.
ESTIMATED DELIVERY DATE: THU 29TH SEPTEMBER 2016.
;hmm
Deposits welcome
;biggrin
Generally, it's only with blatant abuse that people accept that it's racism. That was much rarer until Brexit, when unsurprisingly a lot of people felt emboldened; maybe they (wrongly) believed everyone who voted out agreed with them, maybe they were inspired by a press that liked to describe refugees as cockroaches.
So of course the country is not any more racist, it's just that certain people feel freer about showing it. Increased reporting is not enough to explain it because there have long been attempts to increase reporting of racism. I know a lot of people who have faced abuse since the referendum.
Yes, there was racism before. It was frustrating, isolating, infuriating. But what has happened since Brexit is scarier. Plenty of people are questioning their future in Britain. If this can still happen to us in the place when we were born, 30/40 years after our parents faced it (worse) then when do we actually get to live on an equal footing? We can set up businesses, go through university, get to the top of any profession, represent the country abroad and still not be fully accepted as British. That's what people are thinking in this situation.
The n and the m are, after all, next to each other on the keyboard.
;wink
" 'Leavers £350m a week to be spent on NHS' scanned well as well"
The difference there being that that is a blatant lie ;lol
I never saw that at all, very droll ;lol
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/department-for-brexit-theresa-may_uk_579f6339e4b0f42daa4ac9a6?ib8caysyjopxk1emi&utm_hp_ref=uk&cps=gravity_7566_78202453414705700
This has to be one of the weirdest comparisons ever.
https://next.ft.com/content/70614aee-4e82-11e6-8172-e39ecd3b86fc
I'll put here what the NAACP is trying to achieve.
Its aims are:
to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.
to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.
The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution - the principal objectives of the Association shall be:
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens
To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States
To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes
To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights
To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination
To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP's Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.
--
I'll leave anyone else to make up their own mind if an organisation committed to equality for all, and the ending of discrimination based on racial grounds, can in any fair assessment be called racist.
simonc- don't you think these aims are laudable? And don't you think it a shame (in both meanings of the word) that in this day and age, those aims are still so far from being achieved?