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

You know what, I completely agree with you.
Ethnic minorities have been clamouring for fair and just policing for decades; and I'm glad we all want the same thing now.

Affording certain groups more leniency has been the bane of our existence for a long time, and I am ready for the entire criminal justice system to treat us all equitably.

I completely disagree. You are saying that Nowak was murdered due to antiracism efforts when he was murdered by a racist.

There was a large class element to the grooming gangs. The girls being raped were not from naice families.

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.

If you think people are being performative to appear non racist, that says more about you. Whats wrong with people wanting to be nice to others'? Such a strange thing to complain about
If you want to be nice to others, call it that. Being nice to others, not making it about racism and pointing the finger on anyone who decides who is and who racist based on their own perception.

I agree with you, I'd love to bypass all that nonsense and make it all about just being nice and respectful. Much harder to argue. But arguing is what it is all about for some.

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

Were the police being nice when they ignored the grooming gangs because of community tensions?

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.

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

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.

As a brown person, I am happy for race to be discussed in policing. Something has gone very wrong in the Nowak case. I changed my mind after watching the video.

If you think people are being performative to appear non racist, that says more about you. Whats wrong with people wanting to be nice to others'? Such a strange thing to complain about.

Please explain why this only works one way. In France there is war between rival ethnicities in the suburbs because of racism . All the different races detest each other. As numbers have grown, instead of being a homogenous group of “immigrants” they have banded into their own groups.

Do you think that fundamental Muslims here do not judge white people?

@BusyExpertdo you push for greater cultural integration by all of those Brits in the Middle East and Spain too??

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.)

This exactly.

The idea that people go out of their way not to be racist is ridiculous.

People revel in it at the moment!

@trueredstart, I agree with you. It's institutionalised because that's what has been shoved down our throats for so long now.

That sounds like a backwards way of thinking. If they are aware of something you are not why would you dismiss them due to their skin colour?
Call it backwards, I call it sensible. What gives any not affected group the right to believe they are more aware than any other non affected group of what is right by affected groups? It's that sense of entitlement of the truth that makes me take what you call a 'backward' approach.

Goodness, so much to unpick in that first paragraph alone. Firstly, we don't have "untrammelled immigration". The list of countries whose citizens require a visa to enter the UK is so massive that it would fill a whole page, so I'll post a link rather than copy and paste it. Here you go:

Coutries that require visas for UK

Do you really feel that DEI is wholly poisonous, given that it benefits many diverse groups including women, people with disabilities, gay people? Or is it just Muslims that you feel should not be included? All of those groups have been disadvantaged in employment, housing etc in the past.

And there is diversity within Islam itself. Not all Muslims are fundamentalists, I'd hazard a guess that only a small minority are. A Muslim former colleague of mine only covers her hair when she goes to mosque, a Muslim friend doesn't seem to give a shit about the dietary rules and drinks alcohol occasionally. And I suspect that most religions have their fundamentalist groups, Christianity certainly does, and some of those are very repressive when it comes to women's rights.

It's absurd to dismiss Islamic culture. We'd still be using Roman numerals if we did that; we wouldn't have algebra, astronomy or surgery and probably tons of other things. It's given so much to the world.

And everyone in Britain should follow British law. I've not seen any data that says that Muslims are significantly disproportionately represented in crime stats overall. If you are aware of any studies that have found this to be the case, I'd appreciate a link.

My partner is mixed race. We have had bananas thrown at us , his work van egged and “he’s only with me for a visa” incidents. Don’t you worry, old style racism is still very much about.

Anti-colonialism as a mainstream concept in public institutions is certainly pretty new.

Of course low-level racism has existed for as long as humans have mixed with people who are different to them, but it's only recently that addressing it has been turned into an industry. It never used to be considered possible or desirable to try to control people's thoughts and everyday social interactions.

Having a role that means I watch a reasonable amount of body cam footage, in almost every scenario acting like the police did with Nowak would be the right scenario. The jackanories people tell to slow down police process, to try to get away etc etc, I can entirely see how you get to a place where you treat a stab victim by saying “I don’t think you have been stabbed”, as it’s not impossible that it’s the fifth time the police person has been told that this week and this is the first time it’s true. And the last time they believed it, they got nutted in the face when they checked the welfare of the person they were trying to detain.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely no excuse, but it’s not even necessarily racially driven. I’ve seen police make the right call in dealing with a scenario with people like that of all creeds. I don’t condone the way the situation played out, but I understand it. They did briefly check and there was no visible evidence he had been stabbed, which again must be unusual in fatal stabbing which are often quite bloody.

It must be difficult to treat everyone with due care and empathy when 75% of the people you deal with are actively contemptuous, duplicitous, entitled and violent towards you.

That sounds like a backwards way of thinking. If they are aware of something you are not why would you dismiss them due to their skin colour?

That’s like a PP here on a different thread who had an elder family member who insisted on referring to black people (not to their face) as “darkies” and refused to be educated by her presumably white family members as to why that was offensive. I presume you agree that until a black person corrects her she should continue as she is?

Good idea. Let's all do the same.

Yes, it is irrelevant when someone is the victim of a senseless crime, which of course happens a lot.

However, in the case of Henry Nowak, the entire Digwa family should go down. Vickrum stabbed, the mother hid the knife, the brother called the police and shouted racism (not mentioning that he had been stabbed, had an ambulance been called then Henry may have survived). I don't know if the father knew if he'd been stabbed or not so I can't comment on that, you can just hear him at the beginning of the video saying that Henry had a mouthful of blood. This is just another case of an institutionalised cover-up operation that I mentioned before. Have a listen to the Rape Gang Inquiry testimonies if you want to learn more.

I'll only ever think about my behaviour or choice of word if someone tells I have offended THEM with what I did or say. Then I will take it very seriously and look into making changes.

White middle class women telling me what I should do or say to a black person? Nah!