are you all scared of being called racists?

[SalvadorDalek]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/
I am suprised nobody has posted this story
Why are we suprised,this has been going on for years

There is a dichotomy in the UK, of the media and press being covertly racist, and institional racism exsisting in most areas of life, and yet people are unable to discuss some issues in which race does effectively play a role for fear of being seen as racist.

There are areas, crime being an example in which there are dispropotate number of each ethnic group, and the examples are many of any given race. And there is a proble of not discussing it within racial terms can mean that the problem will not be tackled effectively. But as been pointed out I think all races would in some type of crime be over-represented.

Yes I'm terrified of being seen as racist.

I have to ask members of the public what their ethnic background is and the responses are varied and suggest that there are people out their who know the correct terminology but still hold odious views...... and there are those who through ignorance use terminology deemed to be racist (but would treat everyone the same regardless of race) but because of their terminology they will be accused of racism.

It makes me sad

I do think it is bad that it is so difficult to talk aboout race issues, because if there are blind spots it is difficult to find teh truth, I do hate being called racist or sexist when i have arguments that are trying to be practical

Straw made it racist the minute he named Pakistani men and White women (the gangs have members of other races and the victims are not all White).

You don't hear " White man rapes
White woman" do you?

most rapeists are white males - but you don;t hear talk of a 'culture' of 'white Christian men' preying on women do you?

so yes it is racist

it's also inacurate - these criminal gangs preyed on women from both cultures - Asian girls where abused and exploiteded

it is more an issue of criminal gangs and beahviour - than race. many innercity gangs (white and black) gang rape females as part of their inisiation (sp) into the gang

It not race that's the issue here it's GENDER and a generation of young men of all races who disrespect and abuse young women

sorry for the typos bad head brewing and eye sight a bit wobbly

To answer the original question, "are you all scared of being called racist?"
The Jack Straw stuff aside, I would have to say yes I am. It seems that everyone in our society is so quick to be offended, it leaves people paralysed, scared of the accusations if they say what they actually feel.
As long as the first response to controversial opinion, be it about race or anything else, is outrage, then of course people will feel anxious about expressing themselves.
We have created a monster and it will take a braver society to overcome our fears.
Where there is genuine racism it should be dealt with and held up or the abhorrent disgrace that it is but we need to be able to talk about difficult and unpalatable things without the hysteria.
I am wearing my flame proof knickers by the way.

When my youngest was small (from ages 3 to 5) I used to work as an ESOL tutor, visiting local Pakistani women in their homes to give them English-speaking practice. It was a specially good job because I could take my daughter with me as a conversational topic and ice-breaker- she was very well-behaved and happy to sit there for an hour playing quietly or colouring in.

Or so I thought.

One day I collected her from play-school and told her were off to have coffee with mummy's friend. And she said very loudly, in front of all the other mums, "I don't want to come if they are brown and can't speak English". EEEKK!
How hard to explain that it wasn't racism in the sense they all clearly thought it was!

Criminals come in ALL racial backgrounds, and I do not personaly believe that sertain races are more prone to commit sertain crimes than others. I do say that anyone who is residing in any country that is not formaly their own and commits a crime, should be promptly punished then perminantly removed!
When we are either visiting or residing in another country, we have a duty to honour the laws and order implimented in that land.

lochnessmumster I agree, we are in a society where we are so scared to be seen as racist/ageist/gender bias....that we end up saying things that are unpopular due to nerves. I have to say I am finding it hard sometimes that I have to watch what I say when referring to ethnic minorities but somebody can burn a british flag, tell other people to rise up against the country we live in (and they were born in) or ignore the schooling provided in their chosen country and do their own and that's ok.

...and let the stoning begin...

I think most sensitive open minded people would be concerned about being called racist.

I was in the park one day and an exceptionally agile young boy swung himself up into a tree, did a few one-armed pull-ups, then swung from branch to branch with amazing strength and grace.

My instinct was to exclaim 'Goodness! He looks just like a monkey!' but I didn't because he and his mother were black. If it had been a white child I would've said it but I was worried the mum might take my comment the wrong way.

fortyplus how sad is that? Your story is exactly the problem we have created.

If I am totally honest I don't even know the right words to use anymore. I am so afraid of using a word that if considered racist that I avoided speaking about it at all. I am Scottish and nobody cares about making comments about us all being tight fisted, or drunks or having heart diease...but if I made a comment about somebody from India or China or Africa or... that is racist. How do we define "race" anyway?

A lot of the fear of being seen as a racist does NOT stem from 'them blimming foreigners' themselves.

At my DDs nursery, I overheard a member of staff singing Baa Baa Woolly Sheep to the children, and asked her why. She said she had been told to, in case Baa Baa Black Sheep caused offence to ethnic minorities.

FFS, I am a bloody ethnic minority, and nobody has ever asked me if I am offended by the words to that song. Or to an Indian takeaway being refered to as 'the Indian' It is just assumed that we are all hyper-sensitive to any reference to colour, and that we are somehow looking to be victimised or alienated in some way.

Someone, somewhere (the media, ridiculous govt think-tanks) is shit-stirring, and then laying the blame at the feet of normal, everyday 'foreigners' like me.

The upshot of this fear of terminology is that sometimes I think people resent the people it is designed to protect. I know many of the public that I speak to are really angry about it because they feel controlled and judged and at the same time confused.

Sure we need to realise that racism can be unintentional but we have got a really silly situation and one which the media encourage tbh

I don't worry about it OP because I know I'm not racist. I am however pig sick of people uttering the word 'racist' without any thought at all about what they are saying. I actually think people being afraid to open their mouths for fear of being called anything 'ist' is getting out of hand. The PC brigade have an awful lot to answer to.

There was a big hoo-haa in my local paper because an 83yr old woman said she wasn't happy with the massive changes multiculturalism had brought about in her area over such a tiny space of time (3yrs)

The area was almost beyond recognition compared to how it was a few years before and although she got on very well with most people she just wasn't happy at the quick change.

She was screamed down as being racist without even being listened to

Fortyplus - I agree.

When I was doing ESOL (sorry I've mentioned it again!) the students were clear thai I was "English" and they were "Pakistani" (apart from the ones who were "Chinese" of course). Now, years later, my old-students are now my friends. It makes me laugh if I refer to one of them as "Pakistani" and can see "white English" people almost visibly flinch or tense up. As if the very decription of Pakistani for a nationality is somehow an insult.

Oh I know it's crazy. There are recognised racial groups - if you're Irish you're an ethnic minority but if you're Scottish or Welsh you're not.

The son of an acquaintance was put in the racial incidents book at his primary school because he called a black child 'chocolate drop'. He was told off, obviously, but protested that he'd only said it because the black child called him 'Milky Bar kid'. The black child didn't go in the book because you can't discriminate against the majority...

The world has gone mad.

I have friends from different backgrounds and abhor discrimination on any grounds, but it seems that these days you're not allowed to acknowledge any differences between people.

A friend says she's referred to as 'the short lady with glasses' even tough she's the only black person in her office.

vanimal - I think you and I made the same point tbh

The best thing I found out though is that on all those "ethnic monitoring" forms that pop up in yoir life, if you read tha small print, you are meant to pick whichever ethnic grouping you personally feels best describes you, not what other people might look at you and think you are.

I remember my children for some reason all used to put "Irish traveller"

Never mind, it probably helped the school get extra funding!

N.B. By "never mind" I mean never mind that they lied, not implying badness against genuine Irish travellers.

RailwayChild I think we did make the same point.

The same nursery made 'Happy Holidays' cards for the parents, which sat alongside my pile of Merry Christmas cards, next to my Christmas tree, in my non-Christian house.

Most non-white people are very tolerant of others, and vice-versa. The PC brigade are causing untold damage by creating offence where (in the huge majority of cases) there is none.

The media of course love this and soak it right up.

Actually I find the attitude, 'I?m not racist because I say I?m not' rather strange. I think that we probably all have some racist leanings that we can only counter if we are willing to examine our own belief systems, when you become defensive about it you really shut off an opportunity to develop a better or deeper understanding of what offends others.
Of course there are situations where racism is called too easily. However I have also herd many dubious comments quickly followed by a 'you can't say anything about blacks (or whoever) without getting called a racist these days.'
I don't find a return to the past where no one accused anyone of racism because it was so socially acceptable appealing at all.

petra

I love the public that walk in white as can be and grin ....announcing they are black african or whatever at me

It's always done in good fun but again even typing it here I'm hesitating in case someone takes offence at their humour and my recounting of it

It's meaningless often, since you can be whatever you wish to be. A person often says to me I was born here but my dad was born in italy and my mum in africa and aunty came from china....what shall I put

hell knows!

...and really it makes no difference to me

Why would anyone be scared of being called racist? If you're so sure you're not, what's the big deal?

It's patronising in the extreme to think that potential victims of racism can't distinguish between a remark made in innocence and one made in malice. I think that any person of colour living in the UK is unfortunately highly sensitised to genuine racism, no matter how subtle.

Seems to me that the ones crying about the 'PC Brigade' (PC Brigade? seriously? lol) closing down their right to free expression are actually the ones who would rather stifle open debate about this. Yes, usedtobeyoung, it smacks of a desire to return to the 1950s, curtain-twitching, small-minded island that this used to be.

I would love to return to the 1950's you talk of, of course I never lived through it to begin with, but there is a romantic ideal that it was a much more innocent time - of course it would have had its own issues as each decade does and the generation of its time would have problems too, but I think things were simplier then, and perhaps people felt more united and together than they do now!!!