Rasists
Here's a group that's at the same time scary, hilarious and perplexing. (Click at your own risk) Some sample comments:
Depressing, in so many ways.
It's easy, isn't it, to be some kind of smug liberal looking down on these people and taking the piss out of them for their spelling mistakes and their spinning-Dalek anger. But that wouldn't do a great deal of good, fun though it'd be, and indeed is. What would that achieve, other than giving us a sense of superiority over people who are clearly scared and angry?
Reading this kind of thing makes me sick and a little depressed. It makes me queasy that people could feel these things. And it makes me wonder whether the tabloid agendas about race and immigration, repeated ad nauseum to flog a few papers, have more serious consequences than simply reinforcing people's existing prejudices. Where do people get the idea that there are more minorities than whites in Britain? Why do people link Baa Baa Black Sheep being 'banned' with distorted crime figures in their arguments? Do the tabs have some role to play in bringing about this consciousness? I don't know, and I reckon no-one really knows the answer to that; but comments like that leave me feeling worried. But what if there were just the smallest chance that the tabloid agendas did create a false perception when it came to race, religion and immigration - what then?
Thanks to Tom for the tipoff!
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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February 15th, 2011 - 18:02
The Daily Mail and other “gutter press” have a lot to answer for. it’s indoctrination. when i read something in the DM that is obviously incorrect I always courteously reply as I feel that not responding is the same as sanctioning the (false) information. However I notice lately that my comments rarely get published….
February 15th, 2011 - 18:15
The tabloids did create this problem. Even reasonable people, who wouldn’t listen to an editorial and wouldn’t believe a newspaper article 100%, have had at least 20 years of drip-drip-drip on these subjects. The “Baa Baa Black Sheep” story was never true, but mention it once a month for 20 years and it might as well be.
The slope from “I’m not a racist but…” to “This country has more n—-s and p–is than natives” is a long one, but a steep one. The people you’ve quoted probably don’t think of themselves as racists. Their newspapers tell them that it’s not racist to be “worried” about immigration. It’s not racist to be “worried” about ‘extremist’ Muslims. It’s not racist to be “worried” because the guy who mugged you wasn’t white. The newspapers get around the Race Relations Act by stopping there; but the readers don’t stop there. There’s nothing wrong with being “worried” about black people in general. There’s nothing wrong with being “worried” that you might have to see a ‘coloured’ person now and again. There’s nothing wrong with being “worried” that ‘foreigners’ might come near your street so you carry a knife. There’s nothing wrong with being “worried” that ‘one of them’ might harm you, so if ‘one of them’ comes near you, you insult/shout at/slash them just in case.
The joy of this, for the waste-of-DNA people who make that leap, is that it gives them a sense of superiority. I may be lying to the Social and knocking the missus about… but at least I’m better than a Muslim!
February 15th, 2011 - 18:37
That’s just horrid
February 15th, 2011 - 18:52
The tabs do it deliberately. The owners/editors/writers don’t even have to believe what they’re publishing, their hatred leads to wealth and power. How Littlejohn must laugh at the little people who lap this up from his home in the US.
On the subject of Littlecock, an actual illustration from today’s column.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/02/14/article-1357039-0D30F6C1000005DC-5_468x323.jpg
February 16th, 2011 - 19:08
I had to click the link didn’t I? Well. I’ve seen it, I can’t un-see it. *Sigh*
February 15th, 2011 - 19:00
You are right to say these people are scared and lost. Just taking the piss out of their language, ignorance and mis spelling only further alienates them. All the good work Exposetweets and other do exposing the idiocy of the EDL sites is lost when it stops at laughing them.
They see anti racists as middle class “do gooders”, patronising and looking down on them. They suffer the bad housing, the job losses, the low wages and lack of social care. The middle class anti racists come in from outside and lecture them to be ‘nice’ to minorities and then go back to their nice middle class neighbourhood and universities.
Their kids will hopefully mix and learn with kids from other backgrounds but for these adults it is a long process of building roots in their communities to deflect their confusion and hatred towards the system that creates the poverty they are faced with. Even if they are members of trade unions they, again, see they as run by outsiders, politicals, ‘not people like them’.
I live in a poor strong African Muslim area and the hatred of the poor whites for these people is evident in every day language and action as in your quotes. Irrational, but if I try explain they are blaming the wrong people they simply point to the number of Africans on the estate driving big cars and the poor whites living in the hostels and getting the bus and then ignore anything else I say.
Talking and leafletting will get us nowhere. Only when they can be pushed and encouraged into action to fight the problems they are up against will they stop their racism.
Lessons must be learnt from campaigns where this has happened. The CP in the 30′s East End of London, maybe the anti Poll Tax in Scotland. I hope others can tell us more.
The language here and on the EDL sites is quite normal in many working class areas re inforced, as you say, by sections of the press and TV . I have spent the day arguing with neighbours who approve of beating their kids and want corporal punishment reintroduced into schools yet are screaming abuse about a Muslim school where kids are beaten!
Anti immigration and racism is endemic in large sections of the British working
class. Unless we work out a way of dealing with it other than demos and marches those sections of the class will turn more and more inward and away from any form of social solidarity. I live in it every day and the hatred scares me.
February 16th, 2011 - 09:45
This is an excellent post, agree with every word. I come from a working class background myself and have the distinction of being the first person in my family to go to university, and I have every sympathy for my relatives and neighbours who have problems with housing, lack of jobs, etc. But at the same time blaming immigrants is useless and divisive, and it’s difficult getting them to see this without being accused of thinking I’m better than them or something.
I’ve been helping relatives with housing problems lately to really hassle the council, because that’s the only way they get heard. It’s difficult and bloody hard work, but I hope they’re starting to see that it’s no use sitting about and monaing about your lot and blaming other people, you’ve got to go out there and make a lot of noise.
February 16th, 2011 - 13:19
Getting us to believe (as a society, not necessarily individually) that the problem is ‘them dirty furriners’ has masterfully deflected attention from the continued lack of social mobility and the increasing wealth divide.
February 15th, 2011 - 19:27
I have to wonder, how did Leeanne know the gentleman driving the R8 couldn’t speak English? Did she actually speak to him?
February 15th, 2011 - 19:27
The most depressing part is that the group has 177,000 members.
February 15th, 2011 - 20:02
Ref peckham pulse .You raised some very good points especially the one about the middle class anti rascists .I consider myself working class i work very long hours in the motor trade and struggle like most people today just trying to get on and raise a family etc.I know i have far more in commom with say an asian taxi driver than i ever would an average white middle class person as we would both recognise the everyday sruggles.I have nothing against the middle classes
whatever colour they are as we all want to get on .what is needed is some way of uniting the working classes of all colours and explaining our similarities
and shared problems.I have argued with many people over rascism and most people are shocked and surprised when i as a fellow white working class person argues against it but it.s also amazing how quickly their points of view can change.There is a big advantage in the political and media elite in promoting rascism through the papers etc and thats the old divide and rule scenario lets hope one day we can unite and overcome.
February 15th, 2011 - 20:36
I dared to look at the Facebook page and I think that Richard Coeur de Legume, Mad Mel, Crit Mitchens, Amadda Plant L (Fahrenheit 9//11 is a film about global warming), et al on the DM, are too highbrow for the most of the commenters.
If the problem was just ignorance then it could be solved with education but, in many cases the people who spout irrational nonsense are incurably stupid.
From the “About” page of causes.com who host the Facebook account: “We’ll help you change the world. We’re focused on ambitious projects and believe that each day we come to work, we’re making the world a better place. We proudly go one step further than not doing evil; we’re doing good.”
Gallech wneud i fyny. (Welsh for “You could make it up.”)
February 15th, 2011 - 21:06
The tabloids are to blame. When it comes to immigration the tabloids have consistently pressed falsehoods on the public for as long as I can remember. Almost none of the commonley-held assumptions about immigrants and asylum seekers, whether it be the numbers coming to the UK, or other factors relating to integration ( the ridiculous ba ba blacksheep example), are true; and if we look where these untruths have been consistently aired simoultaneously with the growth in misconceptions in the public mind it is the gutter press.
Anyone who meekly suggests that the ownership of the mass media as it stands is “a price worth paying” when compared to the worst imaginable alternative must take responsibility for this “price”, not only in terms of the rampant prejudice, homophobia and sexism pumped out by the British media, but also the consequences of such prejudices on government policy and every-day attitudes and their expression, rather than simply imagining the media to operate in a cultural void, detached from real-life implications.
February 15th, 2011 - 21:32
For my own mental health I’m going to pretend that all of those people are trolls.
My ex-boyfriend just joined the EDL, so I have to put up with him and his friends with their vile rants.
February 16th, 2011 - 09:48
“so I have to put up with him and his friends with their vile rants.”
No you don’t, why would you think that?
February 16th, 2011 - 11:32
No, you dont have to put up with him and his ignorant friends. Go to a club and find some new friends with brains.
February 15th, 2011 - 22:20
People on Facebook being stupid, will wonders never cease.
February 15th, 2011 - 22:25
You know what, I am smugly superior to these people.
Why do racists have to insist they’re not racist?
Either it’s not wrong and they should proudly admit it. Or it is wrong and they shouldn’t be such twats.
February 16th, 2011 - 00:32
Anton, these people are just expressing opinions which are widespread in British culture, even if not always conceived in these terms.
The vulgar language and lack of logic in chaining statements together is striking only because the authors are probably (a) uneducated and (b) a couple of standard deviations from the mean in intelligence, i.e. on the left tail of the IQ bell curve, and so are too retarded to use the safe language the tabloids and educated mostly stick to.
February 16th, 2011 - 11:31
“too retarded”
Classy.
February 17th, 2011 - 17:43
Anyone who uses the word retard in the context you just did is not worthy of being taken seriously. You jackass.
February 16th, 2011 - 02:01
They could at least run a damn spell check before complaining how others can’t speak English.
I like this heady mix of paranoia and xenophobia:
“The strange thing is in my area a disused mental health unit has been approved for redevelopement into an islamic university. This place is massive and right under the flightpath of an international airport, now we all know radicals recruit in these places of learning, we all know that young minds are impressionable, this place isnt 10 miles from the airport and is in direct alignment with the runways. Now im not paranoid but is that not deeply suspicious.”
Direct alignment, huh? He’s right to be suspicious, it’s a well known fact that terrorists can only move in a straight line toward their objective.
February 16th, 2011 - 07:18
Horrid stuff – I agree with your comments. It’s just too easy to take the piss over their poor spelling etc and would serve no purpose. It’s a real concern to me that there are huge number of people in the UK that are totally disconnected from mainstream politics (even the labour party would be perceived as some sort of elitist intelligentsia by these folks).
Strange that these people talk about their concerns about “extremism” in a muslim sense, when they themselves are prime material for extremist right wing organisations.
February 16th, 2011 - 09:54
Is gullibility, naivety and ignorance a defence for holding filthy racist views?
Is being easily manipulated by a gutter, right-wing, shit-stirring media a defence for having filthy racist views? Personaly, if i had the misfortune to somehow find myself in the company of one of the three above (or the many like them) there is only one course of action to take- and it doesn’t involve having a debate, discussion or anylytical dissection of the racist filth that comes out of their mouths (from past experience you would get a more coherent response from a brick wall)
While blogs like this and many others are brilliant forums for exposing the gutter, right-wing filth for being….well, gutter, right-wing filth, out in the street, on the tube, on the bus, in the supermarket etc, the likes of the above three and their ilk are involved in verbally and physically assaulting men, women and children on a daily basis- because they don’t have the ‘right’ colour skin.
Enough really is enough.
February 16th, 2011 - 10:18
Just for the record, Baa Baa Black Sheep was banned in some places, by well-meaning folk who heard that it was ‘racist’ and thought, we can’t have that, and put a stop to it. The two-o’clock club at Highbury Fields, London, was one such place, used to go there with my small daughter. I did mention that I didn’t agree and my black child wouldn’t feel insulted.
Someone at some time decided to stir up trouble by inventing these stories such as black coffee, bin bags etc and some genuinely anti-racist people thought they’d better err on the side of caution. So some of these stories became true.
I blame the tabloids.
February 16th, 2011 - 11:14
I sort of get the “middle class liberal” thing, but – I grew up in the Elephant and Castle, am resolutely working class and, like V above, was the first person in my family to go to university. And yet it didn’t occur to me once to consider ‘coloureds’ (as my dad used to say) as anything other than people in the same boat as me. So I can’t tolerate working class people who use their disenfranchisement as an excuse to be bigoted and intolerant – we are all in the same shitty boat. Lack of education is a poor excuse too. I went to the same school as Jade Goody, for fuck’s sake, the difference is I actually bloody tried hard, did the best with what I had. If I had a quid for all the kids at school who arsed about because education was for losers, I’d be a very rich woman indeed.
Listen. They are scared and confused, but because the gutter press – run by the rich! – are taking advantage of their poverty, their lack of social mobility, their fear and disillusion to spread a poisonous message. And instead of using their anger to question the slop they’re being fed daily by the Sun et al, they actually treat it as gospel. My dad actually thinks “To Hell In A Handcart” is an accurate vision of the future (I know. I’m ashamed) When I tried to point out all the inaccuracies, exaggerations and downright lies Littlejohn peddles, he effectively stuck his fingers in his ears and sang “la la la, I’m not listening”
Some working class people are legitimately victims of a predatory media, feeding lies in lieu of education. Some working class people…and I fear this is a growing proportion…are actually very comfortable in their ignorance. The reason is simple: it’s easier to blame immigrants for all their ills because immigrants can be kicked out of the country, ostracised, demonised, etc. It gives them comfort. It makes them feel superior: someone is lower than them. That’s the sad truth of it.
February 16th, 2011 - 11:39
The oppressed always kick down. Racism is safer than telling your boss / MP he’s a cunt. The only way to stop these people venting their frustrations like this would be to address the true source of those frustrations (i.e. massive social inequality with no hope for improvement for those at the shit end). Don’t hold your breath – it’s only going to get worse.
February 16th, 2011 - 19:19
True that, I always found it odd that those employed in the private sector would look upon the side benefits of employment in the public sector with envy, and demand that they be brought down their level. Rather than, ya know, trying to gain similar benefits for themselves.
February 16th, 2011 - 12:34
It’s a pity you have to sign up to Facebook to join the “cause” of being an ignorant racist twatbasket. On the other hand it would be a Sisyphean task trying to educate them.
February 16th, 2011 - 13:29
“I Was Born In The Uk. So Why Do I Have Less Rights Then Immigrants”
Where to start…?
February 16th, 2011 - 16:47
And I thought ignorance was bliss.
February 16th, 2011 - 17:45
Even allowing for the dreadful gutter press we are saddled with in this country I am at a loss to comprehend how anyone can be so badly ill-informed as to think the white Birtish are a minority in the UK, when in reality they are 83% of the population.
February 16th, 2011 - 18:15
A good place to start might be to require British newspapers (and TV channels) to be owned by British people, rather than foreign corporations who really have nothing to lose if they can boost their profits by stirring up hatred that harms our society. Yes, I know, it’s a political dodo and wouldn’t entirely solve the problem. But it would be very satisfying to hoist the ‘patriots’ by their own petard.
February 16th, 2011 - 18:42
The other day, every house in my street was handed over to a travelling, afghan, lesbian theatre troop. The houses were then Gold Plated and filled with diamonds whilst our furniture was burned to keep Illegal immigrants warm (although, I don’t understand how they could be so cold inside those pre-heated Roll Royces they were in.) Laughing, they were. Laughing as the tears rolled down my childrens cheeks. Then they began to eat their own babies-just so they could get the child support without having the responsibility. This country, I tell you.
February 16th, 2011 - 22:17
Mr Benny Cooper’s hate is clearly just plain hate. All the supposed evidence is just hate. He’s clearly making up negative stories about personal experience to justify his hate.
February 17th, 2011 - 13:21
You’re all giving these people far too little credit, they’re not the poor put upon unknowing plebs you’re making them out to be.
This is the same as it has been for the past century in this country – a dominant majority making themselves out to be the victims of state/liberal pandering to an unending conveyor belt of ‘foreigns’ (Jews/Colonials/Irish/Darkies/Muslims/The PC brigade which when you trace it back basically started out as a Jewish conspiracy amongst holocaust deniers) and garnering ever more power in the process.
No one really believes black bin bags have been banned, no one really believes the police have to give prisoners porn because of the human rights act, no one believes Christmas has been banned. Every one of them knows immigration is on the front pages with regularity yet still lie about how “you can’t talk about it” because there’s capital in pretending you believe it.
Outside of the Greens the left have no representation now, absolutely none, these alleged ‘idiots’ have lied their way into the lot, they’re not stupid, they’re calculating and they know exactly what they’re doing and they know that it works.
February 17th, 2011 - 18:31
Spot on. In the real world, away from newspaper print, blogs and television documentaries, these people are dangerous, vicious, little tin-pot fascists who make thousands of peoples lives an absolute misery every single week. I couldn’t care less about whether they’re poor, rich, educated, illiterate, live in a caravan or a 10-bedroomed mansion- they are racist, fascist, neo-nazi, right-wing scum and should be dealt with accordingly.
Any excuse to attack ‘foreigners’ is valid, whether real (hardly) or imagined. They’ve been getting away with it for decades and if anything it is getting worse. The excuse that they’re stupid and just need a little bit of re-educating…..the people who own and work for the media corporations are from stupid as are the majority of the millions of scum who buy into their filth.
Has it occured to anyone that these kind of people are quite comfortable with holding these types of views? This is the reality that a lot of liberals are not willing to grasp, and this is why the likes of the above three should not be underestimated- even thick shits who can’t spell properly can do a fair amount of damage to property and people.
February 17th, 2011 - 13:41
Wow, I did not know 90% of all Crime is down to black people. Which is odd, since the statistic I just made up says that there is a 100% chance that not only is mr Benny Cooper a total lying arse hat, that he probably does not read the daily mail, because as much as that place houses the kind of crime against the English language and journalism that would have most people tried at the Hague, the level of English presented here (as bad as mine is) is akin more to that of a sodding Corgi.
There is an 86% chance(recurring of course) that Mr Benny Cooper’s parents are in some way Blood related.
February 17th, 2011 - 15:06
The first comment about having to fight to get her house shows the style of welfare state we have created and the dependency culture that comes with it has created an underclass. Simply throwing money at people to ‘lift them out of poverty’ as the left has done for years does not work you can hardly be surprised these are the kind of cretins that have been created – add to that the wishy washy leftie education system which does not teach our kids to develop any sort of critical thinking and favour media studies over learning about ancient cultures all over the world and it is hardly surprising we get these kind of people and thought processes. Its ok blaming the crappy Daily Star (actually how many people actually read it?) but the left needs to take responsibility for this to.
February 17th, 2011 - 16:56
Tony – you’re talking utter, cliched tabloid shite yourself. I hope you’re a parody, but it seems you’re just a fucking moron. Maybe you should be commenting on the Police Inspector’s Blog or Melanie Phillip’s latest outburst of drivel.
Not that I wish to engage you’re depressing idiocy, but you may find Media Studies is very useful for ‘critical thinking’ – especially in terms of decoding the media bullshit you parrot through your beak. Indeed, it may be more useful in resisting propaganda than being fed stories of British Empire ‘glories’, as Mr. Gove would prefer.
To everyone sane and/or not a moron – It’s not just tabloids. The ‘respectable’ broadsheets (including the ‘liberal’ ones) have been feeding this drip-drip too, especially since 9-11. The above idiot is a prime example of certain attitudes propagated among the middle class – “blame dependency culture! It’s those lefties (what fucking ‘lefties’? I don’t see any in power) throwing money at the underclass! They’re dead racist, you know! Not like us nice people with ‘thought experiments’ about internment camps for Muslims and bombing Iraqis! We’re not racist – we’re just fighting for tolerance the Enlightenment! Only poor people are racist.”
February 17th, 2011 - 17:04
You’re over-analysing the problem. Less money and more Latin and everything’ll be fine.
February 18th, 2011 - 05:11
Yeah – and as the Tories try and starve the disabled, I’m sure the press will find a way to blame immigrants/anyone not white.
I can see the headlines now: “Muslims live in 4-bedroom house while amputee hero eats cardboard box for Xmas!” An outraged EDL march to follow within weeks. Then Cameron tells us how we’re all not ‘British’ enough because of the welfare state, and promises to correct the problem with another round of cuts.
February 17th, 2011 - 19:26
So you think people who think like those highlighted are the result of right wing media hysterics rather than a below average education system and social breakdown in certain sections of society?
Hey if all the money had worked, great stuff but it ain’t. Anyway there is no point engaging with someone who uses language like you do. That is just nasty and rather ‘right wing’