ENGLAND: RACE ATTACKS.... THE SLANTED PC VIEW [Ed: Commentry outside brackets by FC regular Rufus]:
ANTI-RACISM SHAM
13th February 2001
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
'White man kills a black man, all hell breaks loose;
black kills another black, it's an embarrassment'
“Mention the possibility that violence between ethnic minorities may be as bad as white racism against black, and that such conflicts have been denied too long, and the so-called "ethnic minority leaders" will accuse you of everything from ignorance to irresponsibility. Yet that is the obvious and unspoken implication of a succession of recent assaults and murders, including that of Damilola Taylor
“Nobody doubts that Damilola, a recent arrival from Nigeria, was victimised by gangs that included black British children. If he had been bullied by young white thugs and then found stabbed to death (allegedly) by one of the bullies, these same leaders would be doing the rounds, ferociously insisting that the crime was racially motivated and not the inevitable result of bad schools, violence in society and too many knives in circulation - the three explanations we have been given so far by various representatives and spokespeople in Peckham.
“They insist that there is no problem between the various "black" communities in the area and that there has been a wonderful swell of renewed unity as a result of this terrible death. I remain sceptical. If this is true, why are the killers being sheltered by those who know them?
“The same protection surrounded a gang of Asian and Afro-Caribbean youngsters who viciously attacked a group of Somali students in Southgate in North London in 1999. Bodrul Miah, an Asian, repeatedly stabbed 18-year-old Abdul Osman, a bright student at the local college. The gang members were convicted last month, but the police, local MP Stephen Twigg and the college principal still insist that ethnic difference was not a key motive for the attack.
“Local Somalis beg to differ. One said to a reporter:
"We believed it was a race murder. The Somalis are a different culture, a race apart, and they were picked on by the Asians. Nowadays when a white man kills a black all hell breaks loose; black kills another black and it is an embarrassment."
“This weekend, news broke of Asian gangs in Oldham who have been attacking white people. Many anti-racists will find this even more of an embarrassment. In their eyes white people can only ever be perpetrators, never victims of anti-white violence. It is true that serious assaults are mostly committed by white thugs, and that white racist gangs have been as busy as ever, terrorising black, Asian, mixed-race, refugee and other groups. But we need to move our attention to the increasingly brutish behaviour of young men in other communities too.
“In west London, particularly in higher education establishments, simmering rivalries periodically explode between Muslim and Sikh gangs, and these only ever get reported in the local papers such as the Ealing Gazette. A young Muslim female barrister tells me that the courts in Birmingham are full of Asian members of criminal gangs. A violent gangland culture is emerging across the races.
“Gangs are not new in this society, nor is the violence associated with them. What is worrying is the spread of this behaviour. There isn't a single community that can afford to remain smug or superior. Gang members unite under a common identity, real or invented. So white kids beat up "Pakis", "chinks" and "black bastards", who in turn retaliate or victimise refugees
or other newcomers.
“Ethnicity is only one of the fault lines. You also get gang battles within groups, a point that well made by Home Office minister Paul Boateng, who this morning launches "Young, Gifted and Dead", a poster campaign in London's Harlesden area, where drug and turf wars have left eight black men dead in the past eight months.
[Ed: no such campaigns where Whites are targeted???]
“But whether it is interethnic rivalry or drug-related criminal activity, surely it is time to address these developments? We have a vast amount of credible research into race discrimination, but barely anything on these new problems. Funders are squeamish about such research because of fears that such information will make white racism worse.
“First of all, white racists need no convincing that we are a thoroughly bad lot. Sure, right wingers will rush around "proving" that all social problems are caused by immigrants and their offspring. But they do this anyway, with or without evidence. The Home Office, universities and think tanks need to take bold decisions and begin some serious research that can then be used for social policies.
[Ed: Oh, so now we have the evidence it is still Nationalists who get the blame!]
“We need to know exactly what is going on, and to make the information public. The causes are likely to be multi-layered and diverse. These gangs flourish in places where, for years, all public amenities have been eroded by a market-led cuts. Oldham is one such area, as is Southall, where once there was a well equipped leisure centre (now a supermarket), youth clubs and cinemas. Maybe the young people are displaying tribal tendencies as a response to a homogenised world, and they are undoubtedly feeling the alienation of all young males who have little self-esteem or prospects.
“In some Asian communities, economic deprivation used to be managed through strong family bonds. Asian families are more solid than many others in this country, but there are signs of disintegration and conflict. Third-generation Asian children are Thatcher's children; they cannot communicate with their parents, and seek out gangs to make new bonds. We must find out how racism and religious discrimination makes beasts of victims.
“I remember a young Bangladeshi student of mine in Bethnal Green who was horribly mutilated by a gang of white neo-Nazis. After the attack, he became so violent himself that we had no option but to expel him. Black boys may be underachieving in schools partly because of an internalised sense of hopelessness, which they have picked up by observing how racism ground down their parents. And we may hate what they stand for, but we should invest more money in finding out more about the thoughts and lives of young white racist gangs too.
[Ed: SEE! White racists are always to blame!]
“This does not mean that I think we should busy ourselves understanding antisocial behaviour without passing judgements. We must condemn gang violence, and condemn it whatever ethnic group is involved. Unless we can weep equally for black and white victims of these outrages, our anti-racism is a sham.”
For anyone who has never heard of the charming Ms Brown, she is an establishment leading light, married to a self-loathing Englishman. The language she uses would be illegal for a European but perfectly acceptable for an Asian. Perhaps the worst aspect of her article is that it treats the outrageous level of violence in Britain as normal fifty years ago (even twenty) that would have been unheard of (I wonder what changed!) Still, at least someone is speaking out in the establishment media - even if with ‘forked-tongue’!
