Round-up

1. Quebec's human rights tribunal has fined a Longueuil bar 16-thousand dollars. The Le Surf bar refused to serve two black men in 2003, saying it would be bad for business.

It's hard to defend something like this but I would like to hear the explanation of why they consider serving blacks to be "bad for business". It also seems weird to me that these two men were the only two to ever complain. Either way it still appears racist and I hope it all gets worked out in the end.

2. The Metropolitan Black Police Association has decided not to take legal action after a white detective was awarded £40,000 for discrimination. Detective Chief Superintendent Barry Norman was awarded the money by the Metropolitan Police Authority. He alleged that his career suffered after leading a corruption investigation into Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei. Mr Dizaei was cleared in 2003 of perverting the course of justice and misconduct in public office. The association initially condemned the payment as a “reward for racism”, and threatened to take legal action. It also said that it would “disengage” from working with Scotland Yard.

I've read this a few times and I just can't see where the racism was, when exactly it occurred or who was guilty of it!

3. In nearly four out of five cases, a French employer will hire a white job candidate over a North African or black African with similar qualifications, according to a study made public on Wednesday.

So is the entire French nation racist? It would be funny if that were so but I suspect there is some kind of employment law in France which African people happen to be susceptible to breaking, for whatever reason. Again, no one seems willing to investigate the reasons for things; they just leap to the conclusion that it's racism. Well, it might not be. It also might be but let's not cut off all the possibilities, please? The statistics are alarming but can't we have some proper analysis for once?