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

Yes and note how differently things are approached. In Scotland where I grew up there was a massive knife culture issue among the predominantly white population until quite recently .

The government tackled the issues using a more compassionate and effective health model. Overall they didn’t demonise white working class boys and the police were typically not overly brutal with them the way the Met are to Black youths.

We see a completely different and far more punitive treatment towards knife crime issues in London where it lies disproportionately within young Black males.

And if white males get the worst exam results it’s “aww the system is failing them”, if that were say black or Pakistani males there would be all this discussion about fatherless households and investigation into cultural issues which cause the lack of attainment.

I am just finishing his book as recommended by my brothers and it’s excellent even as it challenged my own views on things (we certainly are not completely politically aligned.) But I appreciate people who read extensively and have readily accessible and auditable sources to back all of their claims.

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.

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.

Yes! Akala is brilliant and spot on as usual! .

So interestingly I have lived in Glasgow, Liverpool and London and worked with young people in all 3 places, so I’ve seen first hand the differences in how a working class Black or mixed race boy in say London is treated compared to a working class white boy from Liverpool or Glasgow.

eta: even when I worked in London I saw the differences in how white teen boys involved in crime were treated compared to black boys within the same borough.

I had a white mother tell me how shocked she was at how harsh the criminal justice system was to her (non-violent) mixed race child because she had (violent) white sons who had done far worse and not been treated as badly.

She said for the first time in her life she understood the extent of racism.

Anti-colonialism as a mainstream concept in our public institutions is new. Twenty years ago, no one was talking about anti-colonialism as a euphemism for making things less white (i.e. decolonising the curriculum, decolonising farming etc)

I was literally going to make the Glasgow point which the impressive Akala has made many many many times in his talks and his (brilliant book on Race and Class in the post empire period) in how the exact same drivers leading to the same outcomes in poor areas of Glasgow, London, Liverpool. When the discussion is young white working class boys their race / culture is irrelevant, when the discussion is black (and increasingly muslim) young working class boys, their race / culture explains everything.

And the point on school achievement is also true. I found the difference in media language when white working class boys underperform at school (“society is falling them”) vs. when black working class boys underperform (“their culture is to blame”)

Can you give me a case where a white perpetrator has done something clearly racist and there has been no coverage or condemnation?

Yes and note how differently things are approached. In Scotland where I grew up there was a massive knife culture issue among the predominantly white population until quite recently .

The government tackled the issues using a more compassionate and effective health model. Overall they didn’t demonise white working class boys and the police were typically not overly brutal with them the way the Met are to Black youths.

We see a completely different and far more punitive treatment towards knife crime issues in London where it lies disproportionately within young Black males.

And if white males get the worst exam results it’s “aww the system is failing them”, if that were say black or Pakistani males there would be all this discussion about fatherless households and investigation into cultural issues which cause the lack of attainment.

But the issue is that any crime committed by any ethnic minority in Britain is automatically viewed as “race and culture related” and it’s never “race and culture related” when the perpetrator is white.

As is the claim that this example of police mistake must be due to the belief that only white people can be bigoted (which few believe.)

Anti-colonialism thought has been a continued movement from the days of empire, moving between the political, to the legal, to the cultural,
to the societal. It’s certainly not a new thing.

I don’t think anybody even now is making an industry of policing what is in people’s heads. Well some people do but there are all kinds of people that think all kinds of things. Most people who make an “industry” of it are trying to combat the impact of said “thoughts” (and for the most part they’re ignored.)

Who said it works one way? I also think your claims on French banlieues are inaccurate.

It’s despicable for you OP to claim that his death was caused by some nebulous anti-racists virtue signalling phenomenon.

The person responsible for the killing of Harry Nowak was Vikram Digwa. The fact the police believed Digwa and handcuffed Nowak was part of Digwa’s cruelty.

Even if the police had not believed Digwa, it is unlikely Nowak could have been saved as he died within minutes of the police arriving.

It is possible that Digwa was racist towards the Polish and targeted Nowak as a result.

This.

OP’s post is way off.

I mean on this thread alone it didn’t take long for people to say things which would be considered racist 😆

But the issue is that any crime committed by any ethnic minority in Britain is automatically viewed as “race and culture related” and it’s never “race and culture related” when the perpetrator is white.

As is the claim that this example of police mistake must be due to the belief that only white people can be bigoted (which few believe.)

I think a lot of posters on here positively revel in saying racist stuff. It's a great time to be a racist. Very en vogue, and actively encouraged.

But the issue is that any crime committed by any ethnic minority in Britain is automatically viewed as “race and culture related” and it’s never “race and culture related” when the perpetrator is white.

As is the claim that this example of police mistake must be due to the belief that only white people can be bigoted (which few believe.)

Are you saying it's okay to be racist, because we all judge each other anyway?

I think it benefits everyone that policing is fair and, when necessary, confronts uncomfortable truths. ‘Community cohesion’ should never come before individual victims. We’ve learned the hard way that leaving things to simmer, and affording certain groups more lenience because of their characteristics, is NEVER the best course of action.

It’s definitely part of a wider discussion, the cancel culture and smearing of anybody who had valid concerns about race or culture related crime in the UK lead to a mindset where ONLY white Brits could be racist or bigoted in any way. Which in turn was responded to by this sort of policing.

@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.