I’m not proud of it but human nature DOES sometimes make us all racist.
on 09/02/2008 at 10:00 AM
The only flaw in that is that what he’s describing is not racism.
‘But ask me the same thing if a Jamaican family moved next door with six children and they play reggae and rock music all day.’
That’s not an objection to them being Jamaican, that’s an objection to being forced to listen to reggae and rock all day. I happen to like a fair amount of rock, but if I can’t listen to my own music because it’s being drowned out by the volume of someone else’s ALL THE TIME, I’m pissed. To test this, let’s change the wording just slightly:
‘But ask me the same thing if a white trash family moved next door with six children and they play reggae and rock music all day.’
It’s not any better, is it? What’s more, your property values go into the toilet just as badly. That isn’t a reflection of them being Jamaicans, that’s a reflection of them being inconsiderate of their neighbors.
‘Or if an estate agent comes to my house and tells me that because a loud, rude white trash family has moved next door the value of my property has fallen through the floor. Ask me then!’
See?
On the other hand, I was told the other day that “Condi Rice, Walter Williams and Clarence Thomas don’t count as black because they act just like white people.” The speaker wouldn’t say whether it’s because they refused to see a lower middle class black family as more victim than a white guy who is living *below* poverty level. He declined to enlighten me as to whether they ‘act just like white people’ because they refuse to have a chip on their shoulder about their skin color. But regardless of what reasons he attempts to give to justify such a statement, the logic of the sentence is quite obviously that all white people are the same, and that while all black people aren’t the same, if you don’t act the same as the “niggaz” you aren’t really black.
Now THAT’S racism.
Funnily enough we had a family of loud, rude white trash move next to us. Worse yet in Tony Bliar’s Britain these low life scum had their rent paid by the state. In the end we had no option but to move. Steiner may be racist but in fairness if a family of Nigerians moved in next door to me or a family of Somalis I would be thinking of making a move. I do take GOF’s point though. Trash is trash no matter what their skin colour.
I am reminded of one of the mindless training courses I had to attend when working for the Home Office. We had to have “diversity awareness” training. Love thy muslim neighbour etc. The first one was covered by a man who in the first half hour of the course admitted his wife had left him after 18 years of marriage when she realised she was a lesbian (stick with me here it gets better) the second course was run by an ex policeman who after fathering a couple of children realised that actually he was gay.
To get back to the thread of the blog. This ex copper used to work at one of the airports and he asked us as Immigration Officers why it was that whenever a flight came in from Nigeria we would descend on it en masse. We told him that it was because nine times out of ten when a Nigerians mouth is moving he is telling you a lie. We caught so many of them with counterfeit passports, telling lies etc. that we had no choice but to speak to them. He couldn’t get his head round this. Some people are just unwilling to grasp the truth.
09/02/2008 at 11:00 AM
09/02/2008 at 05:35 PM
