AIBU to think some people on here are way too obsessed with not being seen as racist?

Yep the exact same thing. I spoke to an actual real Pakistani about it and his mind was blown.

When I posted I was ready for someone not to believe me as told someone else the story and the accused me of reading it in the daily mail which I don’t read. They have a very narrow dare I say ignorant world view.

I'm not pretending - just can't keep up with individual posts, so it helps when you're clear in your response instead of hinting.

I can't imagine anti-racism is the ideology behind coppers behaving stupidly; though I accept racism has caused coppers to behave horrendously, time and time again.

If police officers are being trained to be mindful of racism, that is a good thing. That does not, however, incapacitates well trained officers' ability to make sound judgement.

I expect that a group of officers arriving on scene are trained to secure an area, then safeguard the vulnerable. You take the accused aside and someone sees to the person on the ground, not resisting but telling you they are injured.

Anti-racism training does not cause an officer to ignore an individual on the ground, pleading that they have been stabbed. That is purely incompetent policing. The same incompetent policing that led to anti-racism training.

A perfect example of the acceptable 'dialect' is being able to use a certain word only if it includes a number of *, when ultimately, it's still the same word that is being communicated

As a lady of older generation, I fail to understand why using the word is racist, but taking one letter out and replacing it with a * isn't!

The racism on MN has definitely increased in the 12+ years I have been here. Sadly, I think that is a reflection of the wider society
But could it be because racism has expanded it's meaning. 50 years ago, racism was mainly judge through people's actions. Nowadays it is also, or even primarily judge by what people say, with a 'incorrect' dialect automatically judged as racist, regardless of the intention or belief.

Post edited by MNHQ to redact offensive term.

I remember casually mentioning the country Pakistan to someone. Not in a negative way.

She became a bit pissy, turns out she didn’t even know Pakistan was a country and thought I was being racist and taking the piss because Pakistan contains “p**i”

I have to laugh that these are the same people who like to throw around the word “ignorant” at anyone that disagrees with their far left world view.

I would much prefer if people were concerned about actually not being racist, rather than worried about not being seen as racist.

The racism on MN has definitely increased in the 12+ years I have been here. Sadly, I think that is a reflection of the wider society.

Absolutely this! These people will be absolutely astounded when they see reform obliterate all the other parties at the next GE and wonder how that happened and where it came from!

I actual real life I was talking to a very left leaning teacher about food of all things I happen to mention that I love Pakistani food her face creased like I’d said something racist. That I was specific to the nationality of origin and didn’t just say curry which is in its self a racist assumption that curry is the only thing on offer.

I have come to the conclusion that they are mentally ill!

The definition of who is racist can be interpreted differently depending on many factors. Generations being a big one, cultures too.

I soooo agree how frightened people have become scared of being accused of any -ism. Racism, sexism, ageism...because it's become the norm to assign these terms based on ones own definition of the word.

Of course, there is a clear definition of what racism is, but how it is interpreted and assigned is not forcibly clearly defined.

I don't consider myself racist, certainly not from the perspective of my generation and culture, but I accept, and respect, that a different generation or culture could disagree based on some things I might say, so like many, I keep my mouth shut systematically. I refuse though to let judgement clouds my principles as it did for these police officers.

This is such a profound case of wanting to show awareness and respect of culture differences backfiring badly. Dreadfully sad.

Anti-racism. I referred to it a couple of posts ago. Or are we into ‘pretending not to understand things’ territory already?

Karl Popper said that in a liberal society tolerance has to have limits. His 'paradox of tolerance' is that if a society tolerates intolerance, it risks enabling the dominance of the intolerant element and thus eliminating the tolerant society altogether. If you take the example of Islam, there are two ways to avoid it destabilising our tolerant society: either Muslims can be as 'non-Western' and extreme as they like but numbers are kept relatively small (like Hasidic Jews for example) or they integrate well, continuing to be Muslim but also recognisably culturally British (like liberal Jews). So I wouldn't agree with the past poster that Islam is inherently antithetical to British culture, but it does need to be appropriately integrated.

You seem to be aware of an ideology that is making coppers behave stupidly.
What is that ideology?

But the point is – is there an ideology that’s making coppers behave stupidly?

You're going to get a certain amount of stupidity in anything humans are involved in, that’s a given. We should do our best to find ways to reduce it but ultimately we’re going to have to accept that it happens.

But if an ideology has been introduced that results in stupidity where there wasn’t stupidity before, then that’s an actual scandal.

But we are not afforded the same tolerance and respect.

I have very good Muslim friends. But they are middle class and although they have some of their own traditions, live life as ordinary British people.

The majority of more recent immigrants are from poorer backgrounds and no desire or intention to aspire to “Western values”. In fact we know that our women are largely viewed as degenerate. Applauding that really is suicidal empathy.

It used to be that we all understood what racism was: calling a black person horrible names; denying work to an Irish person; beating up an Asian man for being Asian; graffiti on a synagogue. Laws were introduced to combat these things and they because less socially acceptable (although of course they didn't disappear altogether, unfortunately).

The problem is that as that old style racism was mostly being sorted out, a new style of racism had to be invented to keep the DEI industry going. This included things like microaggressions, anti-colonialism, defunding the police etc. As actual racism became less and less of an actual problem, the fight against racism because more intense, judgemental and puritanical, which lead to increased hypocrisy, fear and virtue-signalling. In a system that judges every arrest of a black man as racist and posts everything a police officer does online, of course that's going to distort how people behave.

Feel free to explain. The OP’s logic appears to be that the police automatically believed the non-white person when he claimed that he was the victim of a racist altercation, and dismissed the white man’s assertion that he’d been stabbed because they assumed he was the perpetrator rather than the victim on the grounds of his race. Surely in the racist past (for which there seems to be a creeping nostalgia on this thread), the police would not have defaulted to that assumption?

Nothing has blown up here, except that some fuckers are hell-bent on turning Henry's murder into a political opportunity.
Something even his bereaved father has managed not to do.

Exactly.

Not a couple, no. There have been countless incidents where the coppers have completely mishandled situations, with disastrous consequences; so I'd say there are more than a couple coppers being stupid.

How's that come about?

I’d counter with the argument that it’s your views here that are incompatible with western values.

To me western values at their core include tolerance, acceptance of others and understanding. A statement such as “Islam is incompatible with western values” comes across as intolerant and frankly ignorant. And largely playing into stereotypes of angry violent Muslim men.

I know a number of practicing Muslims (including family members), and their beliefs and values are entirely compatible with western values.

@Dweetfidilove “The police service was absolutely woeful in handling the victim; because they are, as usual hideously reactive, instead of treating him with dignity and compassion.”

How’s that come about though? That’s the bigger scandal here. It’s not just about a couple of coppers being stupid.

YABU! MN can be racist cesspit.

The racists here and racist and the non-racists are not.

Nothing has blown up here, except that some fuckers are hell-bent on turning Henry's murder into a political opportunity.
Something even his bereaved father has managed not to do.

My heart goes out to his family, and I hope people do not get distracted from what has really happened.

Digwa committed a violent murder.

The police service was absolutely woeful in handling the victim; because they are, as usual hideously reactive, instead of treating him with dignity and compassion.

That is totally illogical..and I suspect you know it. Proving the point though.

I've been called a "Karen" by a young black woman and i find that to be fecking racist, ageist and misogynist - so, gee thanks BLM. I hsve never been racist that I'm aware of but I've given over worrying about this now, so again, thanks BLM. I think "race baiting" is a more pressing issue tbh.

I don't worry about being seen as racist in the same way that I am not worried about being seen as a murderer or thief
Because I am not
IMO the only people who DO worry about being seen as racist probably are.

The silent majority won’t speak. Because of fear of being labelled racist by the rabid mob. The worrying thing is that their perfectly legitimate views are made out to be extremist. This is how race relations suffer. The left are causing this problem to become worse.

Farage is right about one thing. We don’t need to worry about him. We need to worry about what comes after him.