Round-up

1. Saudi Labour Minister Ghazi Al Gosaibi has warned against growing racism among Saudis towards the millions of foreign workers in the kingdom, mainly domestics, media reports said yesterday.

It's not racism.

2. If you haven't heard about the "Obama the Magic Negro" controversy yet, here's a good summary and trenchant analysis.

Is it just Muslims that blow up planes?

I've been waiting for this to get onto Youtube for a while now, and it's here at last: a little bit of political incorrectness courtesy of, of all places, the BBC, from the sitcom "Outnumbered".

Good Luck, Israel

May God protect you.

Round-up

1. Someone in Oregon bleats because not enough American football coaches are black.

2. Takeaways in Wrexham now have voice recording technology to catch drunken customers who racially abuse staff members.

3. Anti-racism basketball game to be held in Italy.

That'll do the trick!

Ho Ho Ho!

Whoops, I forgot; that's one of the things I'm not allowed to say anymore.

Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I'm going to be away for the next few days and may not be back again until after Christmas. It's possible that I might be able to squeeze one more day of blogging in, but that remains to be seen.

So it only remains for me to say to every reader: have a Merry Christmas, whether you like it or not; this is a post-Judeo-Christian country. :)

Round-up

1. The Netherlands says it will stay away from a United Nations conference on racism scheduled for next spring unless draft documents disproportionately critical of Israel are amended. The announcement is the latest indication that a boycott campaign may slowly be picking up steam.

Canada and Israel already have declared they will stay away; the European Union is considering its position, while Australia and New Zealand have expressed concern.

Good.

2. Meanwhile, not to make any real connection here, but here's a troubling case of racism from Israel itself (that is, one Israeli individual, not Israel as a whole, lest anyone think I'm an antisemite or anti-Zionist).

Round-up

1. Yesterday I posted about a young black guy who was killed in Russia, and said that while racism was a possible motivation for the attack, it wasn't the only option. Well, today comes this report on the increasingly widespread racist violence in Russia, which also discusses this same incident. It therefore seems increasingly likely that race was a motivating factor in the attack, and that such bigotry is a worrying trend in the country.

2. Read this article on a new American dating show, "Momma's Boys". It is eye-opening and somewhat hilarious to the extent that it demonstrates not only the depravity of modern reality television in general, but also how a blatant racist is being cynically exploited for ratings by American TV producers, including Ryan Seacrest, the host of American Idol.

3. A courageous stand against the bullying of our intellectual elites who have forced us into believing that only whites can be racist, and that pretty much all whites ARE racist ALL the time.

Round-up

1. Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma says there is insufficient monitoring of "cyber-racism" and the law does not provide adequate protection for victims.

Cyber-racism: "Are you the Negro John Connor? Prepare to be...terminated."

2. A black exchange student has been stabbed by unknown assailants in a southern Russian city in an attack officials say may have been racially motivated.

I don't have a problem with this. There is no evidence yet that the attack was a racist one (although the boy's mother seems to think it was), but I have no problem with keeping it open as an option. It's when the police and media automatically assume an incident WAS racist without any evidence that I get really cheesed off.

Le's hope this case is resolved as quickly as possible and that the student recovers just as quickly.

The Path To Decay

The new single from Sirenia, "The Path to Decay", from the album The 13th Floor:



I quite like it; I've heard the whole album and it's definitely a step up from the previous album, which went too simplistic. Still not up there with the band's best album, At Sixes and Sevens, but certainly more like what Morten Veland is capable of offering. It is remarkable that, as someone who doesn't really like growling vocals, this is the only band where I actually want MORE of them. And the growls on this new album are really good.

Appeal Against Aquittal of German Police Officers Accused of Racism

Lawyers alleging police racism have filed appeals in Germany against the acquittal of two officers accused of letting a black man burn to death in a cell. The judge on the case has defended his ruling.

Letting a man burn to death because of his skin colour would be the most callous form of racism. However, not only is the evidence not conclusive that they actually did this, but there is no evidence at all that racism had anything to do with it.

The Greatest Photo Ever Taken

From this story.


FINISH HIM!!!!!!

Round-up

1. Fifty Afghani taxi drivers in New Zealand have met and raised their concerns of widespread racism. Their meeting follows the fatal stabbing of 39-year-old father of five Abdulrahman Ikhtiari last weekend.

Mr. Ikhtiari's murder is tragic, but there is no immediately sign of racism at work here.

2. It can be a hassle waiting to hear your number called at the driver's license office, but some drivers are facing more difficulty than that.

“I never was informed that I was going to get this special license,” said state resident, Edwin Palacio.

After waiting in line, giving his thumbprint and taking a new picture, Palacio got a Texas license in the mail that looked unlike any other he’s ever received. “It said 'Temporary Visitor' it came as a shock because I've never considered myself a temporary visitor,” said Palacio.

Palacio moved to the United States from the Philippines years ago. He's been in Austin since 2004. He says he is a legal resident. His license however shows he's still a temporary visitor.

“It may look good on paper for DPS to require proof of identity by a birth certificate or a colored passport, but this effort at best is misguided,” said State Representative, Ruth Jones McClendon.

Why?

Racism or Observation?

A former employee of the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (Louisiana, US) is suing the state, claiming her supervisors used racial slurs and subjected her to a hostile work environment. Williams, who is black, filed her lawsuit in late November in Baton Rouge state court. She is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

And what was the "highly offensive language" she was subjected to?

Andrea Maria Williams says in her lawsuit that one supervisor said of a black Federal Emergency Management Agency grant manager that “Black women always cry racism so they just let them do what they want,’’ and, “You know, it’s that black woman thing’’ and, “He’s afraid to tell her anything because she is a black woman.’’

So it turns out that this was not racism at all, but a series of simple observations on how easy it is to play the race card in the US.

Round-up

1. AUSTRALIA: International students with jobs are being paid less than Australians, face discrimination when applying for rental properties and are treated "less favourably" by teachers, an inquiry has been told.

2. US: A Broward Circuit Court judge declared a mistrial Thursday in a landmark tobacco case of a Cooper City widow suing cigarette maker Philip Morris on a wrongful death claim. An expert witness, on the second day of the trial, used a racist term while explaining his research into a project about racism within the tobacco industry, said Gary Paige, an attorney for Elaine Hess, the widow of Stuart Hess.

Robert Proctor, a professor of history of science at Stanford University, triggered the mistrial while explaining that research into the topic cannot be done without using the word "nigger". "He mentioned it within context of his research project," Paige said. "But the judge felt that the context the jury heard it within was prejudicial...that the jury was hearing about racism by the tobacco industry." Two of the jurors and one alternate were African-American, Paige said.

Antisemitism is not the same as Islamophobia

In this article at the Jerusalem Post, there is a decent analysis of why "Islamophobia", to the extent that it exists at all, should NOT be compared to antisemitism. Here's a short extract:

RACISM HAS a rational dimension; its use to justify exploitation is one central purpose. Anti-Semitism, with its irrational, implacably genocidal dimension, is totally different. Furthermore, there are some Islamicists who openly advocate the takeover of Europe, the West and the world. The nonsense in the Protocols notwithstanding, the Jews have never had or claimed such a goal.

To equate anti-Semitism with racism, let alone to try and draw a parallel with the term Islamophobia (a word invented by the Islamic Republic of Iran), is therefore dangerous. It has nothing to do with scholarly research, nor with an accurate examination of the real and significant threats posed by Islamic Jihad...

Too right. In his new book Stealth Jihad, Robert Spencer chronicles how Muslim groups attempt to silence true statements about Islam, and honest examinations of how Islamic jihadists use Islamic sacred texts to justify violence. The end result of banning such a thing, of course, is that we will be left mute and defenseless in the wake of the advancement of the jihadist threat. Which is just what those Muslim groups want, all along.

Racism on the Rise in Europe?

According to this report published by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), "extremism and racism" are on the rise throughout Europe and racist political discourse is increasingly common in mainstream European politics. The report makes a number of vague, unsubstantiated assertions about "racism" in Europe, without any real, solid facts.

The agenda of the findings becomes clear way down the page. The president of ENAR is named Mohammed Aziz. And one of his spokesmen, speaking of the report, says that anti-terror policies in Europe tend to "stigmatise Muslim communities and equate Islam with terrorism." ENAR also hopes to see an end to racial profiling activities which are carried out "without justification," the spokesperson added.

So this is really just a piece of Muslim propaganda aimed at portraying European Muslims as victims who must be mollycoddled and accomodated at every turn, or else we will be accused of "racism" (what race is Islam, again?). The ENAR spokesmen does not specify what is a legitimate justification for security profiling, so obviously this is just aimed at making sure security officials and the general public feel hesitant in reporting suspicious activity by Muslims or subjecting them to extra security checks, the same way CAIR did in the "Flying Imams" case. The end result of this, of course, is that Islamic jihadists get away with their acts of murder without anyone being able or allowed to stop them. Just as Mohammad Aziz and Co want.

See Robert Spencer's new book, Steath Jihad, for much more on this and other related topics.

Community Relations

Gay activists and blacks showed their ugly side during two Prop 8-related events last week in Los Angeles.

Blacks were reportedly cursed and taunted with the "N" word on the fringe of one of several massive protest marches held recently in Los Angeles against the passage of Proposition 8. That's the initiative that encodes in the California Constitution wording that defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

A few days after that, several blacks took the microphone at a town hall on black and gay relations and lambasted gay activists for comparing the gay rights struggle to the black civil rights struggle. One of the speakers emphasized the point by spewing out the words "sissy," the "F" and the "P" words to refer to gays. Some in the audience gasped, but other blacks didn't flinch at the epithets.

Just doing their bit for civil rights.

Round-up

1. Hundreds of people have been taking part in a march and rally against racism, in Glasgow.

2. Oh dear; here's jihadist propaganda if I saw it: "Devoted author Khondakar Golam Mowla seeks to clear up misunderstandings about Islam while indicting nations that have oppressed their Muslim populations in his new book, The Judgment Against Imperialism, Fascism and Racism Against Caliphate and Islam: Volume I."

In other words; "I will tell you that Islam is a Religion of Peace while in the same breath talking about a caliphate (a sign of Islamic political might) and threatening anyone who points out my hypocrisy with charges of 'imperialism, fascism and racism'."

Hand of Sorrow

Here's an impressive live performance from Within Temptation, playing "Hand of Sorrow" with a full live orchestra.

Round-up

1. The Denver Police Department is relying on a social psychologist associated with theories on “racism without racists” for advice on whether it is doing everything possible to rid itself of racial and gender bias.

That tells you everything you need to know right there.

2. Check out this sob story at the Lancashire Evening Post. It concerns a man of mixed race who has apparently been so traumatised by racist abuse that he is scared of white people.

I rather suspect he's just a racist himself, and a liar.

It's The (Lack of) Racism, Stupid

Someone speaks truth to power.

Round-up

1. Here is a hysterical piece comparing "Islamophobia" in the Netherlands to antisemitism. Firstly, if Geert Wilders is the epitome of "Islamophobia", then I say that label should be worn with honour. And secondly, when it comes to real antisemitism, real persecution...I suggest the author go and read some Andrew Bostom.

2. A group of black church leaders charged yesterday that racism is motivating efforts to remove Tony Branch, Jeffersonville High School's first African-American athletic director, from office.

As usual, there is no evidence.

BNP's "Racist Leaflet"

Twelve British National Party activists have been arrested in Liverpool on suspicion of handing out racist leaflets claiming that "our people" are experiencing an "epidemic of racist violence, sexual exploitation and murder" by Muslims. The leaflet alleges the "average racist killer" is 40 times more likely to be from an ethnic minority than "a native Brit"; the Muslim community condones paedophilia; and the English are "relentlessly discriminated against by an institutionally hostile ruling class".

I am not a supporter of the BNP, but many of the points they are supposed to have made in this leaflet are not racist at all, but perfectly valid. It is certainly true that many Muslims are becoming increasingly hostile to the British way of life, and this manifests itself in the fact that 40% of British Muslims would like to see our legal system replaced with sharia law. Does the Muslim community "condone paedophilia"? I'd say so. And while there may be much exaggeration in the BNPs propaganda, it is also true that white victims of racism usually receive far less coverage that those from ethnic minorities.

I do repudiate the BNP, though, especially on this point: "The leaflet also features a photo-montage of white faces which it says are "the forgotten victims of anti-white racism" and asks "Who is next?" Included is Sharon Beshenivsky, a PC shot dead during a robbery by a Somalian man, Yusuf Jamma. It has never been suggested this was anything other than an criminal's attempt to evade arrest." This is absolutely right. The BNP makes some good points, but it is motivated by blind, unreasoning hatred, and thus it shoots itself in the foot when it could be doing so much more to raise awareness of genuine problems and media bias.

View To A Kill

For your Friday, here's a song from the new album by Northern Kings, an unbelievably brilliant and over-the-top metal cover of Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill".

Round-up

1. An American Airlines flight attendant allegedly made racist comments toward a black Brazilian musician and federal police are investigating the case, authorities said Wednesday. Singer Dudo Nobre told local media that he and his family were flying from New York to Rio de Janeiro on Monday when a flight attendant referred to him as a "monkey" and made gestures like the animal.

2. RA Watch - Nope, this isn't quite RAW Watch, because the article, about Obama and the elections, does not say that "racism is alive and well in the world today", just that it is still "alive". Close enough.

An Addendum To the Recent Posts About Slavery

While I was discussing the differences between Western and Islamic views of slavery, I didn't want to leave out the role of black Africa itself in the slave trade - something else the media never talks about.

The slave trade among the West and the Islamic worlds could not have been fully developed without the Africans themselves offering slaves to them. The African powers entered into the slave trade entirely of their own accord. No opposition to slavery in principle ever came out of Africa. In fact, certain African chiefs actually sent delegates to the West to protest the abolition of slavery, because it was so profitable for them!

Just sayin...

ISLAMIC SLAVERY

In the Islamic world, the story regarding slavery is very different to that of the West. There was no organised abolitionist movement at any time within the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, in modern Turkey, the abolition of slavery is not taught in the educational curriculum.

Muslims had an even greater hand in the African slave trade than did the West. It is estimated that around 11 million slaves were deported in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, while Muslims are believed to have taken over 17 million Africans as slaves between the seventh and nineteenth centuries. Muslims dealing with black slaves were prone to racist attitudes that modern liberal thinkers tend to attribute exclusively to white Westerners. For example, the great Muslim thinker Ibn Khaldun (d.1406) wrote that blacks submitted willingly to slavery because they “have little [that is essentially] human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals”.

Little known to the average Westerner is the history of the “hideous trade” in eunuch slaves from Africa in Muslim societies. Slaves from sub-Saharan Africa underwent dangerous and painful operations whereby their penis and testicles were completely removed. This operation often caused extensive hemorrhaging and urethral infection, and it is estimated that up to 90% of those castrated died as a result of it.

Even less well-known to the average Westerner is the enslavement of white Europeans and Americans by Arab Muslims. Between 1530 and 1780, there were at least one million white European Christians enslaved by the Muslims of the Barbary coast. These white slaves were treated abysmally, often subjected to torture in order to force them to convert to Islam. One English slave, Thomas Pellow, who was captured in 1716, eventually succumbed to the intimidation after his torturer resorted to setting his flesh on fire on multiple occasions.

Interestingly, the Muslim rulers would often employ black slaves to oversee their white counterparts in their forced labour. The blacks were cruel and vicious, often beating the workers with cudgels and entertaining themselves by waking the Christian slaves at night, beating them, and forcing them to do more hard labour. These inhuman conditions were only lifted in 1816, not through Islamic reform but by British military force, with the total destruction of Algiers.

A major reason for the Islamic tolerance of slavery is that the Qur'an itself, like the Bible, takes the practice for granted. It even goes so far as to give Muslim men permission to have sex with slave girls: “And all married women (are forbidden unto you) save those (captives) whom your right hands possess.” (4:24) The Prophet Muhammad himself is recorded to have owned around sixty slaves in his lifetime, and although Muslims are keen to point to a couple of examples in which he freed individual slaves, there is no evidence to suggest that he disapproved of slavery in principle. Muslims of future generations justified slavery with reference to Islamic theology, and as a result tended to take slaves from non-Muslim populations. The Muslim jurist al-Wanshirisi (d.1508), for example, said that slavery is an affliction against unbelievers, and a way of deliberately humiliating them for their infidelity.

Unlike Christianity, however, Islamic tradition never developed a pluralistic conception of the unity of mankind which could lead to the discarding of such a worldview, and the Qur'an contains a sharp distinction between believers and unbelievers that does not allow for the equal dignity and rights of all people in Muslim societies.

Thus it is not surprising that anti-slavery views did not resonate anywhere in the Islamic world until Western powers began to intervene. Slavery was not abolished in Saudi Arabia until 1962, and Yemen and Oman in 1970. Although slavery was “officially” abolished in Mauritania in 1980, it nevertheless still goes on there. Niger did not ban slavery until 2004, although these laws are largely ignored and as many as a million people remain in bondage. There has also been a recrudescence of slavery in the Sudan since 1983.

CONCLUSIONS

The double standards of African reparations groups and white liberals are clear. There is no reason for Britain to be making grovelling apologies for the slave trade, when some of its greatest citizens are responsible for bringing about the end of that degrading traffic. Britain has already done more than enough to apologise to Africans.

It is also notable how no one is asking for an apology from Muslims for the cruelty of their ancestors, whose own slave trade brought suffering to more people and lasted longer, nor for the ongoing slavery in some Muslim countries. Furthermore, no whites are demanding reparations for the way their ancestors were treated centuries ago, not only by Arab Muslims but by blacks also.

It is time for Britain to say, “enough”. We must stand up and be proud of what we did to bring about the end of slavery, rather than apologising for things that we have already apologised for in the most sacrificial way possible. We must also demand that Muslims take responsibility for the crimes of their forefathers, and work to end the trafficking of slaves in their own countries in the modern era.

If they do not, innocent people will continue to suffer.

SLAVERY IN THE WEST

We certainly should not glorify slavery, and nor should we celebrate the role of Western countries such as Britain in participating in it. Slavery is an unethical, inhuman, degrading practice. But the West has already paid its penance for its past crimes – and it did so by being the first to push for abolition of slavery.

The roots of abolition go back to the ancient Greeks, who developed the conception of the unity of man, a common brotherhood that bound all human beings regardless of race or creed. Plato put forward the argument that one of mankind's biggest mistakes was to “divide humanity into two”, treating the Greeks as a separate class while “[a]ll other nations, although their number is unknown and they do not intermingle or share any common language, are called by the single term 'barbarian', and because of this one term it is supposed that they constitute a single class.” Aristotle saw mankind as one race, distinguished from other creatures by the power of reason: “[A]ll men by nature desire to know...the human race lives also by art and reasonings.” Cicero, who introduced Greek philosophy to the Romans, wrote:

“This creature which we call man, endowed with foresight and sagacity, complex, intelligent, equipped with memory, full of reason and understanding, has been created by the supreme deity with a certain distinctive status: out of all the species and varieties of living creatures he alone has a share in reason and thought, which is lacking in all the rest...Since therefore nothing is better than reason and reason exists in both man and god, reason is the first bond of unity between them...Therefore the whole universe must be seen as a single joint community of gods and men.”

There was even direct criticism of slavery during the era of the ancient Greeks. Alcidamas, the fourth-century rhetorician and Sophist, condemned the practice: “God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave.” And although Aristotle is known to have said that some men are by nature slaves, he also recommended that slaves should eventually be emancipated.

Such views continued to be held in the West long after the Greeks, particularly among Christians, who absorbed Greek and Stoic ethics into their theology. Although it condones and never condemns slavery, the Bible also affirms the oneness of man before God: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) This attitude caused Christians to question the morality of slavery even as far back as the so-called Dark Ages. St. Isidore of Seville declared that “God has made no difference between the soul of the slave and that of the freedman.” In 649, Clovis II, king of the Franks, married a slave, who later began a campaign to halt slavery. The Catholic Church now honours her as St. Bathilda. And in the sixteenth century, a Spanish missionary and bishop named Bartolomé de Las Casas was instrumental in enacting a law prohibiting enslavement of the Indians.

These aren't simply the actions and assumptions of a few; they are part of the grand universalist tradition of the West, and have formed our culture, part of who we are as Brits, or Americans, or Europeans. In time, they would form the basis for the abolition of the slave trade.

The pioneering abolitionists William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson were British. They were supported in their efforts by influential writers such as William Cowper and Laurence Sterne. In America, there was William Lloyd Garrison, and even Abraham Lincoln, both of whom based their opposition to slavery on Biblical principles. Slavery was pronounced to be against the law in Scotland in 1776. English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham called the British colonies where slavery flourished “a disgrace and an outrage on humanity.”

The eighteenth century was the high tide of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but it also gave rise to the principles of freedom, equality and human rights, which were themselves derived from the ancient Greeks and found primarily in the West. Truly one of the greatest things about Western civilisation is its ability to engage in self-criticism: to subject even its most cherished beliefs and institutions to critical analysis and change. It was this willingness for self-criticism that led to the abolition of slavery, not just in the West, but throughout the world.

Tune in tomorrow to read my examination of the Islamic slave trade.

Oxford Rugby "Racists"

Four students pose glassy-eyed, blacked up and semi-naked in loincloths for an Africa themed party. The extreme political incorrectness of the picture will no doubt horrify the Oxford University authorities.

But why should it? Ethnic minorities are now given protection in this country (and others) that they don't need or deserve. "Blacking yourself up" is no more "racist" than going to a fancy dress party dressed as, say, a nurse or Spiderman is "offensive" towards nurses or Stan Lee. It simply cannot be racist to make yourself look like a person of another race, especially when you are at an AFRICA-THEMED PARTY!

But it's not like this protection is equal, either. As a commenter on the Daily Mail website points out, "In a recent movie, Eddie Murphy had his face whitened and played a white man. Isn't this racist? For goodness sake we should all grow up."

But it gets worse: at least two of the students are members of the university's under-21 rugby squad, which is already under investigation for alleged antisemitism after inviting players to bring "attractive Jewish girls" to a dinner last week.

Ah, yes: "Please bring along a fit Jewish girl. By the way, we hate Jews!"

Absurd.

SLAVERY IN ISLAM AND IN THE WEST: THE DOUBLE STANDARDS OF THE INTELLECTUAL ELITES

In 2006, Tony Blair expressed his “deep sorrow” over Britain's role in the slave trade. In an article for the New Nation newspaper, the then-prime minister said it had been a “profoundly shameful” affair in Britain's history.

But Blair's words angered some African groups, such as the Pan African Reparation Coalition – because he had not been fawning enough in his apology. “An apology is just the start – words mean nothing,” said a spokeswoman.

There are a number of double standards and misplaced priorities in this scenario. Is it really right that Britain – and the West in general – be singled out for the slave trade? And should it be necessary for Blair, or anyone else, to apologise for it at all?

The fact the mainstream media and groups such as the Pan African Reparation Coalition repeatedly ignore is that there was another slave trade which was just as shameful a blot on the history of the human race – that of Islamic slavery. Not only is this never mentioned, but the Islamic world has never been subjected to any worldwide condemnation or shame because of it.

My posts over the next couple of days are intended to redress the balance and provide the corrective to the current politically correct malaise, by examining and comparing the West and the Islamic world and their roles in the slave trade. In doing so, I hope to call attention to the neglected victims of a slave trade that no one condemns, as well to emphasise that the West has nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of.

Tune in tomorrow to read my examination of Western attitudes towards slavery.

Reverse Racism?

The average earnings of black women in Britain are now higher than their white counterparts, according to government statistics. The Times says this is "a landmark social development that suggests the erosion of a long-standing racial barrier". What? Surely if you apply the same standards to this story that the media apply to other, more "conventional" racial stories, this is blatant racism, no? Don't we want black and white women to have EQUAL pay? Why is it that when white women are found (no doubt by researchers who already knew what they were going to find before they started) to earn more than black women, it's an example of the "institutional" (or even worse, "subtle") racism in British society, but when black women earn more than white it's actually touted as a good thing - the "erosion of a barrier"? It's totally wrong-headed.

RAW!

RAW Watch from Texas.

Round-up

1. Some US police officers are under investigation for allegedly posting racist remarks on their MySpace pages. There is no indication yet as to what the remarks were.

2. Two Muslim sisters who alleged that their London employer discriminated against them by transferring Jewish clients away to non-Muslim workers have won a £10m pay-out. The employer, however, maintained that the women's allegations were "an utter distortion of the facts." They added that the claimants "made all the decisions concerning allocation of clients [themselves], with full discretion and co coercion."

So it looks like the liars have succeeded in their intimidation tactics once again, then.

Round-up

1. Here is a good letter by a reader at The Times, castigating Sir Trevor Phillips for his comments that “If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold on power within the Labour Party.” The author of the letter rightly takes him to task for his implication that British politics is somehow more institutionally racist than that of America.

2. Check out this piece at the Orion, the official newspaper of California State University: "Obama Presidency Uncovers Veiled Racism, Intolerance". It's more of that "veiled racism" stuff, which is just a pseudonym for "Racism is Alive and Well". As if anyone really found it shocking or surprising that there are some (and I emphasise the word SOME) racists in America.

This line also floored me:

America wants change.

Well, at least 53 percent of Americans want change. The rest want to continue repeating history and living in ignorance because apparently it's "blissful."

What a simplistic, insulting statement. Why did California State University think this was an acceptable academic standard for publication?

Another BBC Broadcaster Loses Job - For Something that Had NOTHING To Do With The BBC

A BBC Radio presenter has been sacked following a "racist" call to a taxi firm, in which she requested a "non-Asian" driver. Sam Mason, who worked for BBC Bristol, told the operator that "a guy with a turban would freak her daughter out", insisting they send an English driver instead, because her daughter is "not used to Asians".

OK, obviously Mason's "request" is completely absurd. I believe her that it wasn't intended to be racist, but I certainly do think that her comments were ridiculous. What really disgusts me, however, is the sacking. This incident is absolutely NONE of the BBC's business. To sack her for an incident that (unlike the equally ludicrous Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross/Andrew Sachs incident) was not broadcast and did not even take place in BBC premises, is totally unethical. They would have a case if Mason had shown genuine signs of virulent racism, but to actually SACK her over this petty nonsense is a sign of just how far political correctness and Playing the Race Card have infected and poisoned our media institutions.

Spear Chuckers...

A proud spear chucker

Jim Rosenthal has been forced to apologise to black Olympic javelin star Tessa Sanderson after describing her as a "spear chucker". The 60-year-old sports commentator was denounced as a 'racist' by critics. They bombarded Internet forums with angry messages, claiming that the phrase was insulting to ethnic minorities because of its supposed associations with "uncivilised" tribes.

The shocking thing is that he actually had to apologise to these cretins for a perfectly innocent comment. I sometimes wonder about the PC Left - why is it that they know so many derogatory words and phrases for black people in the first place? Something to ponder, innit?

Round-up

1. Lewis Hamilton has hit back at suggestions by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone that the abuse directed at the newly crowned champion was just 'a joke'.

I believe that SOME of it was just a joke. The guys with the blacked-up faces were certainly a joke, as one of the "perpetrators" admits, and was not racist. Hamilton has, however, also suffered a great deal of REAL racist abuse. That is not a joke, and should be condemned by Ecclestone.

2. Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's gaffe-prone Prime Minister, today found himself accused of racism after calling Barack Obama "suntanned". Mr Berlusconi said he had intended the remark as a compliment and those who failed to understand this were "imbeciles".

3. More potentially fabricated post-election anti-Obama "racist" incidents.

Racism? Really?

I noticed a couple of stories today regarding supposed racism against blacks, and I'm finding myself becoming ever more cynical in my old age.

Here's the first one: "For Joshua Watkins, and Ronald Harrison, racism on the University of Kentucky campus extends beyond isolated incidents — it is an ongoing problem at the school, they say. Watkins returned to his UK residence hall room last year and found "Die" and a racial epithet scrawled across his door. Three weeks into this semester, Harrison noticed a racial slur written on the wall of the bathroom in his residence hall. And last week, an effigy of President-Elect Barack Obama hung by a noose from a tree on UK's campus."

Here's the second one: "Officials at Gray-New Gloucester High School are investigating two incidents of racism that occured Wednesday in response to the election of Barack Obama as President. Early in the day one student reportedly stood up in class and made a racist remark about Obama - saying he shouldn't be President. That sparked a conversation later in the hallway between him and one of the school's black students, Zach White. Later on - White walked into the boys bathroom to find grafitti on the wall saying the same things about Obama."

One could argue that the second one demonstrates inappropriate behaviour, but the important point is whether it constitutes racism. One can disapprove of Obama's election without being motivated by racial prejudice. There is no sign in the article itself that this has anything to do with racism.

But if this WAS racist, the next question is: did it even happen? I have become a lot more skeptical recently because blacks seem to have the tendency to make things up in order to get sympathy. This skepticism is today applied to both these stories, which could both be untrue.

Of course, they may both be true, also. Time will tell, I suppose.

Enough Already

All right; so that Obama guy won at last. Does that mean we can now cast off the months and months of drivel we've had to put up with from the media about race? Pretty please?

Round-up

1. Italian soccer star Marco Materazzi today accepted substantial undisclosed damages over Daily Mail articles which said that he had used vile racist abuse to French captain Zinedine Zidane.

But...but...Why would the Daily Mail report negatively on "vile racist abuse"? I thought it hated all immigrants!

2. RAW Watch: Racism is Alive and Well in Pennsylvania

Round-up

1. Members of the Black Police Association were shocked to be accused of racism by an MP they had asked to speak at their conference – and realised they had mistakenly invited the wrong man. The National Black Police Association (NBPA) had wanted David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, to address their gathering in York. However, a mix-up led to David Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouth, receiving the call.

And in a sharply critical speech, Mr Davies told the Association exactly what he thought of their organisation and its values. He said: "To me, it's a shame membership of the NBPA is open only to those of black, Asian or Middle Eastern origin. "It could be argued that this is explictly racist, in that it bars white people, and implcitly racist in suggesting they care less about racism." After angering the audience, the MP was offered an escort out of the building.

Speaking after the conference, Mr Davies said: "They may have wanted David Davis but that's not my problem. If I'm asked to give a speech that's what I'm going to do. They did look a bit surprised."

2. Check out this story in which those who oppose a basketball court being built near their homes are accused of racism. The funny thing is that there is no evidence that race played any part in the opposition. The only ones to bring up race at all are the ones who seem to have associated basketball with black people and then assumed that others will oppose basketball because of those black people.

Who Is Andrew Sachs?

Andrew Sachs: A man who in the 1970s portrayed a crude, racist stereotype of a Spanish man on a TV sitcom, who was bullied, tormented and ridiculed by his English employer (slave-master), for comic effect, to the laughter of millions.

Suddenly that Andrew Sachs guy sounds awful...

Just an example concocted by me of how we can alter and manipulate the facts to portray anyone in a bad light. In fact, Sachs has been the most reasonable man in this whole affair. See his interview here, in which he specifically says that he wants no further part in this nonsense, and is quite content with both Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross issuing apologies and leaving it there.

In Defence Of Russell Brand And Jonathan Ross

They might as well be racists...

If you've been living in Britain for the past week you will be aware of the controversy surrounding Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross, and their "obscene" phone calls to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs. The papers have been full of indignation over this incident, and although this is not a racial issue, I wanted to discuss it because, as on so many race-related occasions, the media and the reaction of the general public have been driving me spare. As such, I thought I would take the opposite view - and defend Brand and Ross from the vitriol being poured their way.

First of all, let's make it clear that this SHOULD NOT be about whether Brand and Ross are actually funny, or talented, or not. This SHOULD NOT be about whether they deserve to be paid millions of pounds a year for their antics. Disliking a person's sense of humour or wages is NOT sufficient grounds to call for someone to be sacked from their job. Try telling your boss that your supervisor should be sacked because he tells bad jokes and gets paid too much, and see how far you get. And then try telling that boss the same things when you don't even WORK for the company.

So what conceivably COULD all the fuss be about?

The first question is whether the messages the duo left on Sachs' answerphone constitute "abuse". A lot of misinformation has been going around regarding the true context of the incident. First, it should be pointed out that this was NOT a "prank call". Nor was it random bullying. Sachs was scheduled to do a telephone interview on the show. But when they phoned him, he did not answer, and they were diverted to his answerphone instead. Brand started by simply leaving a message asking why Sachs was not answering his phone, at which point Ross suddenly shouted, "He fucked your grandaughter!" - which they had been discussing earlier. Brand and Ross made a couple of attempts to call back and rectify the situation, trying to shrug it off with more humourous asides, and it gradually spun out of control. Did they go over the top? Very much so. But was it "abuse" in any sense of the term? No, they did not abuse anyone. Annoyed, maybe, but not abused.

The next question centres around the claim that Brand had sex with Andrew Sachs' grand-daughter. From what I can tell, this is true. The previous week, Brand had David Baddiel on the show, and they talked about a party both of them had been at, which Georgina was also present at. And Georgina herself has pretty much issued a statement to the affect that the claims were true. While stating that she felt "betrayed" by Brand's comments, she also said that "what happened between me and Russell should stay private" - not exactly a ringing denial. So it seems, at the moment, that Brand and Ross can't be charged with libel or defamation, either. True statements can't be censored from the radio.

It must be remembered also that Georgina is a member of a group called the Satanic Sluts. I dare say that Andrew Sachs is, or should be, more concerned or offended by that than whether she slept with Russell Brand.

So the next question is: could they be done for sending harrassing phone calls? Again, I say no. The calls were a joke that spun out of control; they were not calculated that way, and nor were they at all malicious. Britain is a free country - and that includes precisely the freedom to annoy people, or even offend them. If it doesn't, it's not a free country. It would be one thing if Sachs himself had insisted on pressing charges for receiving harrassing phone calls. But he has not done so. So how "annoyed" or "harrassed" can we really say he was?

The bottom line here is that there is simply no reasonable objection anyone can raise to this incident except personal prejudice. People think Ross and Brand should be sacked because the joke "offended" them. Well, I'm sorry, but that's not how things work. People aren't put out of work because YOU don't like their jokes. It is also worrying that so much misinformation about this is floating around. The vast majority of the people who have complained about this incident have not even listened to the recording of the show in full. It is telling that following the broadcast there were only TWO complaints from listeners about the show. It was only AFTER the event gained nationwide publicity that thousands more people suddenly added their voices to the chorus - again, many of them without having even listened to the recording.

People are ganging up on Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross because they have a personal axe to grind. They don't like the men themselves. I don't believe that should EVER be justification for calling for someone to lose their job. As for me, I call for all charges to be dropped against both of them. Suspending their TV shows, as the BBC have just done, is absurd, and so is sacking them. Brand and Ross can make personal apologies to Andrew Sachs IF THEY WISH. If they do not wish to, however, that should be the end of the matter.

Let's tuck this farce away and get on with our lives. They're too short to waste on such petty hysteria.

Round-up

1. A white South African rightly criticises the South African Times for picking up a story about about discrimination against blacks in job ads without ever mentioning the other side of the coin - discrimination against whites, also known as "positive discrimination". The author of the letter says: "I have been looking for a job for four months and I’ve seen countless ads exclusively for black candidates only. Is this not racism?...Jobs should be given to those who are best at fulfilling them — colour should not be a factor."

2. The German FA has banned a footballer for five matches for making a racial slur towards a Nigerian player.

Positive Discrimination...In Favour of Whites?

I see that Trevor Phillips has suggested that Britain should adopt a policy of positive discrimination in favour of disadvantaged whites or face a backlash of "right-wing extremism". The idea is that that white Britons will start to get so annoyed with immigrants "stealing their jobs" that there will be race riots.

Nonsense. The British people are better than that. I oppose all forms of racial discrimination in the workplace, and while this one favours whites (who are often put at a disadvantage by positive discrimination), it is no better.

Sin When You're Winning Fight Against [Football] Racism

In the Times today, Simon Barnes agrees with what I wrote here: that is, that it would be wrong to deal with racist abuse of football players by the crowds when there are so many other levels of abuse that are just as, if not more, virulent.

"You are of illegitimate birth, you are homosexual, you are an onanist, your wife indulges in eccentric and promiscuous sexual practices, your own tastes are severely compromised, you're a traitor, you are Judas, you are obsessed with money, you are incompetent, you sexually abuse children, you're black - What! Hang on a minute, you can't say that! That's absolutely dreadful! What sort of people do you think we are? We don't tolerate that sort of thing round here, thank you very much. Now be quiet, I think the boys at the back are going to sing the paedophile song again in a minute.

"Racism is bad, but its apparent conquest gives football (and perhaps society beyond football) the altogether inappropriate belief that every ill has been overcome. By concentrating on the single evil of racism, many other evils are accepted."

What Race Is Islam Again?

More on this story: Australian Council says "racism" played no part in rejection of planned Islamic school

Round-up

1. A 15-year-old girl who claims she was the victim of racism at West Bend East High School is accused by police of fabricating the story. The girl, who is black, has said she was pushed down stairs and called racial slurs and had eggs thrown at her. But Police Chief Ken Meuler (MOY'-ler) said the story has not been backed up by surveillance video from inside the school or in interviews with students and faculty members.

If it turns out that she really did fabricate the story, I would not be at all surprised. Some members of minority groups have gotten so desperate for something to whinge and complain about now that they are resorting to outright lies to discredit Old Whitey. We gonna get it BAD fo' dat slavery thang.

By the way, Muslims are at it, as well.

2. An Auburn University professor is using a racist note as a teaching opportunity. Chippewa Thomas is an assistant professor in the college of education. She said she found a note written last week at the bottom of a flier she had hung that read “There’s no room for hate on campus.”

This is racism? Am I missing something?

3. Uefa, European football's governing body, has told Claus Bo Larsen that it will offer him its full support if the Danish referee decides to halt Liverpool's Champions League tie against Atlético Madrid at the Vicente Calderón Stadium this evening, should the match be marred by racist abuse.

I do not agree with this. No one stopped the match when, shortly after the 1998 World Cup, David Beckham was greeted at every game he played with a chorus of boos and vile chants against his family, as well as people burning effigies of him at games. No one stops the match when the crowd call the referee a wanker. I do not support or advocate racist chanting, but I do not believe that combating it should take precedence over the other forms of bile and invective directed against players by the crowds.

Two Brave Men, Part VI

The sixth and final part of Robert Spencer's interview with Geert Wilders:

Factually Challenged

I just read and chuckled at this review at Amazon.com of Andrew Bostom's excellent and important book "The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism". The author of the review, "M. Gam", thunders:

- In the muslim books, the Quran and Sunna, jews and christians were referred to as the people of the book like the muslims. It is a must for muslims to believe in the old and new testament the way they came to the prophets: Moses and Jesus
- Jews and Christians were always free to practice their religion where muslims ruled, and were even treated evenly in the eyes of the law. Testimonies in the books can prove it. The history of Jerusalem can prove it.
- Jews and christians were given high positions in the muslim political and social systems. This applies to the present.
- In the history, I don't recall any slaughter of the jews by muslims, but I recall the ones by Romans, and the one by Europeans
- Last one: How could Muslims be anti-semitic if a big percentage of the muslims are Arabs and the Arabs are semitic as they descend from Sam. This point alone proves that the writer did not gather true facts.

This nonsense is effectively debunked in the comments to the review, but it is amazing to note that pretty much every statement here is proven false IN THE BOOK ITSELF. I can only surmise that Mr. Gam didn't even read it, or that he wants those who haven't read it to be kept away from the truth. The statement that "Jews and christians were given high positions in the muslim political and social systems" is acknowledged in the book, but Bostom goes on to show how on all those occasions, Muslims protested violently about this violation of the sharia and in many cases slaughtered whole Jewish communities in retaliation. As for the idea that, "In the history, I don't recall any slaughter of the jews by muslims", once again Bostom destroys this falsehood with much primary documentary evidence in the book.

The best one of all is the last one: "How could Muslims be anti-semitic if a big percentage of the muslims are Arabs and the Arabs are semitic as they descend from Sam." If Gam had actually read the book, he would know that Bostom deals with this exact question ON THE VERY FIRST PAGE!

The dishonestly of Muslim apologists here is clear for all to see. And it's not the first time it's happened to Bostom, either. Take a look at the following debate on Fox News after the release of Bostom's previous book, "The Legacy of Jihad". In it, Bostom's opponent, Ahmed Younis, states triumphantly: "The term 'holy war', al-harb al-muqaddasah, does not appear in the Qur'an at any point." Just one problem, Ahmed: Bostom notes this on PAGE TWO of the book, and the rest of it is aimed at refuting this simplistic assertion. But I'm sure Younis, like so many Muslim spokesmen, knew exactly what he was doing when he made this deliberately misleading statement.

PC Liberal Anti-Republican Insanity of the Day

A twelve year old girl who wore a Sarah Palin T-shirt to school was called a racist by her classmates.

Yes, seriously. There's so many things wrong with this, it's scary.

Minority On Minority Racism

Here's the kind of thing the media covers less than other incidents of "racism" because the perpetrators were not white.

Black supervisors in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department were acting out of racism when they called a group of Latino deputies the "Mexican Mafia" and disciplined a member, jurors found Thursday.

Angel Jaimes, a 19-year veteran of the department, was harassed because of his Mexican origin by his supervisors, who, according to testimony, said the station "was run by Mexicans and they were going to change that," the panel concluded.

But jurors also said they did not find the supervisors' conduct to be "outrageous."

Real Racism Alert

I post a lot of stories here at Race Relations which are actually not racist, but are presented as such by the media. So just to balance things up a wee bit, here is a story in which a black person complains of racism AND IT ACTUALLY APPEARS TO BE SO. Shocka!

Two Brave Men, Part V

Here is the penultimate part of Robert Spencer's interview with the courageous Dutch anti-jihad MP Geert Wilders.

The "Lie" of Obama's Muslim Past?

Here's an article condemning certain people for the "lie" of saying that Obama is a Muslim.

The problem is that hardly anyone is actually saying Obama is a Muslim. What they have said - and there is much evidence to support it - is that he has a Muslim background, and that he has been curiously hesitant to bring this up in public debate. Here is a good article by Andrew Bostom about Obama's past as a Muslim.

Some Obama/Racism News

I have deliberately stayed away from covering the numerous dismally boring stories about how the Obama campaign is facing "challenges" from right-wing "racism", but I thought I'd comment on this.

Here's an article about a Palin rally in which a man waved a monkey doll with a sticker of Obama's face on it, and a woman told John McCain that she couldn't trust Obama because he's "an Arab" - at which point McCain promptly and correctly took the microphone away from her.

It's a shame that such racist buffoons have to be there to damage the reputation of the Republican Party, and all those who oppose Obama as President for purely political reasons. Having said that, it is notable that the mainstream media lapped it all up eagerly, but funnily enough has largely ignored most of Obama's questionable leanings and dodgy alliances. That's for two reasons:

1. The media is institutionally liberal
2. Racism is "worse" than anything else.......that is, WHITE racism is worse than anything else. Rev. Wright was brushed under the carpet pretty quick by the MSM, wasn't he?

Two Brave Men, Part IV

Here is part 4 of Robert Spencer's interview with Geert Wilders:

Sorry, did she say something?

An anti-racism campaigner even I would get behind...

As Italy struggles to contain a "rising tide of xenophobia and racism", the largest and most despised minority in the country has acquired a glamorous standard-bearer. Like 1.2 million other residents of Italy, Ramona Badescu is an immigrant from Romania. The willowy actress and singer from Bucharest moved to Italy after the fall of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 and is the closest thing Italy possesses to a Romanian household name.

Now Rome's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, has made her his counsellor for the Romanian community's integration. "I hope to become a bridge between the Romanians and the mayor," she said. "Romanians here have many problems connected to work: more Romanians die at work sites than any other nationality." Her first policy idea is to set up a free phone service in both languages to help Romanian migrants find information, residence permits and other practical information.

You know what? Under normal circumstances I may have taken Ms. Badescu to task for daring to suggest that there is SERIOUSLY a problem of racism in Italy, without proof. But then, this is no normal anti-racism campaigner, as the picture shows. Ahem.

I'd gladly debate with her any day.

Round-up

1. This piece at the Guardian says: "Do people really want to join an organisation that has racist tendencies and policies and repressive practices limiting progress and ambition? The London-based Black Police Association (BPA) clearly thinks not."

Oh, give over. Kent chief constable Mike Fuller is black, as are other high-ranking police officials.

2. Half-Brazilian, half-Italian defender Fabiano Santacroce has received his first call up to the Italian national football team from coach Marcello Lippi for the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches. The 22-year-old Napoli stopper, who has dark skin due to his Brazilian heritage, wanted to emphasize that he doesn't see his call up as a victory over racism, which is still an issue in certain parts of Italy.

"I have never felt like a victim of racism," he said. "But if someone did insult me I would just laugh, what else am I supposed to do? I suffered a little from racism as a kid when I played with the junior ranks, as there were some stupid people around, but I mostly ignored it."

Santacroce is a very sensible, level-headed man.

Two Brave Men, Part III

Here is the third part of Robert Spencer's interview with Geert Wilders:

Two Brave Men, Part II

Here is the second part of the Robert Spencer interview with Geert Wilders. In this part, they talk about a phenomenon I have experienced all too many times: as soon as you express opposition to Islamisation of your culture, you are labeled as a racist and a bigot. Ain't it always the way?

Waste of Everybody's Time

An inquiry into allegations of racism in the Metropolitan Police has been ordered by Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson's decision comes after the Met's Black Police Association (Met BPA) announced it would launch an advertising campaign "actively discouraging" young black and Asian people from joining the force. It said that the suspensions of Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur - Britain's most senior Muslim officer - and Commander Ali Dizaei were proof that ethnic minorities are treated unfairly.

Oh for pete's sake...There IS no racism in the force. Ghaffur and Dizaei were suspended because they were whiners and troublemakers. This investigation is a complete waste of everyone's time.

Two Brave Men

Here is the first of a series of videos, all of which I will be posting here at Race Relations as soon as they become available, in which Jihad Watch's brilliant Robert Spencer interviews the courageous Dutch politician Geert Wilders, director of Fitna, about the implications of his film and the steady push by the Islamic community to stifle and ban all criticism of Islam.

More to come in the coming days.

Round-up

1. This is just too strange to comment on, so I'm going to simply post the first few paragraphs of this story without comment:

Vague allegations of racism in and around Dallas City Hall have turned into very pointed personal attacks questioning the racial intent of individuals.

The controversy swirls around one four-letter word used by a planning commissioner during the debate over whether to rename Ross Avenue for Cesar Chavez. Last week, city planning commissioner Neil Emmons said, "I, speaking only for myself, believe there are dark racist forces in this building."

On Wednesday, a Dallas resident who addressed the council said something similar: "I am here to ask this city council to help us dissipate this dark cloud of racism."

The use of the word "dark" twice in one week was too much for Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway. "You can just call it racism, but I would appreciate it if you would take the 'dark' portion out," Caraway said during Wednesday morning's council session. "And Mr. Emmons from last week should have had his mouth washed out with soap as far as I'm personally concerned."

Yes...

2. An interesting piece about black-on-white racism:

A monsoonal storm descends on Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, as I make way home through the district of Bole. It is a cold wet season evening. Addis sits at 2300 metres above sea level, and the chill of the damp air finds its way into my bones. Pushing ahead, the ground receives my attention in order to avoid the deepening puddles. But my focus is suddenly shattered by a voice calling out to me. Looking to my left – I see that the voice belongs to a young, male taxi driver. When we make eye contact he repeats himself.

‘Babylon!’ he says, with a mocking facial expression; an accusing finger jabs in my direction.

His statement may seem a little strange to the reader. Why would an Ethiopian taxi driver be shouting the name of an ancient Mesopotamian city to a rain soaked foreigner? The answer lies in the fact that the taxi driver wasn’t using Babylon in its literal sense; he was using it in its metaphorical sense. Babylon is also a Rastafarian term, metaphorically linking the biblical imprisonment of the Jews in ancient Babylon with the more recent experience of African slavery in the New World. In its Rastafarian sense, Babylon refers to oppressive political establishments and the police, as well as European oppression of Africans. The term arrived in Ethiopia through the Jamaican reggae music which is popular in that East African nation. Many Jamaican Rastafarians also live in Ethiopia, given the fact that it is their Holy Land – Zion.

The taxi driver’s taunts still astound me. I’m cut off by at least a generation from the colonial era, and countless more from that of New World slavery. But in the eyes of that taxi driver my white skin still represented an evil history draped in chains and shackles.

Could the taxi driver’s labelling of me be considered an act of racism? The politically correct viewpoint here would be that it wasn’t - that a history of subjugation excuses the taxi driver from being racist. I must disagree. That taxi driver’s taunts hurt me and made me self-conscious of my skin colour. What could I do about what my ancestors may have done to the African people? Such are the joys of so-called ‘reverse racism’.

The Hypocrisy of the Right?

At this Trinidadian website, Tim Wise accuses the Right of hypocrisy for suggesting that, among other things, blacks and ethnic minorities are too quick to blame outside factors such as racism for their depressing lot rather than taking responsibility for their own lives. But, says the author, those same conservatives then turn around and blame everything on the "foreigners" - if they didn't get a job, it must be because of positive discrimination in favour of blacks, and so on. So, the claim goes, the Right are hypocrites, because they don't take responsibility for their own lives but instead blame their problems on the people they earlier criticised.

I can't speak for all conservatives or all cases. No doubt there have been many times when Wise's observation is quite correct. But it seems to me that there is a general difference between the two scenarios here. Often, there is direct evidence that positive discrimination is occurring, preventing white people from getting jobs, etc. For example, see here. White men were specifically banned from signing up to the fire-fighting service.

And conversely, it is often the case that ethnic minorities claim "racism" is the cause of their troubles when there is in fact no evidence that this was the case. For example, see here. An Indian man was forced to quit his job after claiming to suffer "racial discrimination" at the hands of his co-workers. While he was clearly bullied by his peers, there was absolutely no evidence that racial motivations played any part in it.

My point here is that the Right may not be hypocritical as often as Tim Wise claims: positive discrimination can often be proven - racism often cannot.

It is also telling of the agenda of this site that it links to a blog called "U.S. Crusade News", and also contains many heavily biased, deceitful articles on Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the War on Terror.

Gable Was An Anti-Racist!

"Frankly, my dear, I'm a bit annoyed by your racism."

Clark Gable almost walked off the set of Gone With the Wind because of racism, reveals an upcoming book. Author Michael Sragow writes about how a group of black extras, who were upset at studio bathrooms with "White" and "Colored" signs, approached Gable. "He got on the phone to [director Victor] Fleming, who called the prop master and told him, 'If you don't get those signs down, you won't get your Rhett Butler'. The signs came down immediately," Sragow wrote.

Round-up

1. Racism remains a problem in Australia, with one in 10 Australians believing some races are superior to others, according to a new study. The group most often singled out as "not belonging" in Australia was Muslims or people from the Middle East, Professor Kevin Dunn told reporters on the weekend. "They stand out at the moment as the group that people would be most concerned about. There [are] stronger levels of social distance or fear of Islam or concern about Islam than of any other group at the moment," said Mr Dunn, a professor of human geography and urban studies

And I'm sure resentment toward Muslims in Australia couldn't possibly have anything to do with things like this, or this, or this.

2. Norway's state church is caught in what most church leaders admit is a racist conflict in the mountain community of Oppdal, Norway. The local church leader there faces harsh criticism after preventing a pastor who's originally from Sierra Leone from conducting several funerals, allegedly because families of the deceased objected to his skin colour.

Round-up

1. In this article in the Daily Mail, Neil Moxley complains that despite FIFA's claims to "abhor" racism, it only fined Croatia £15,000 for the racist taunts of its fans towards Emile Heskey earlier this month.

But wait, isn't the Daily Mail a racist paper? Whoops.

2. Army chiefs want foreign recruit numbers to be capped to safeguard 'Britishness' within the ranks. They have demanded a 15 per cent limit amid fears the soaring numbers of foreign troops would dilute the force's cultural identity.

I think anyone who is loyal to the Queen, regardless of their nationality, should be allowed in the army, but I can see why the Army chiefs might want this, as it is representative of a larger problem in Britain as a whole.

Round-up

1. Thousands of Australians are lobbying the Rudd government to reinstate anti-racism laws put on hold as part of the federal intervention in the Northern Territory. The intervention, initiated by the previous government last year to tackle child sex abuse in remote indigenous communities, was exempted from the Racial Discrimination Act. "It is wrong that a law designed to protect all Australians ... has been suspended to enable laws which discriminate against Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory," spokesman James Ensor said in a statement.

This makes me wonder why the law was suspended. Could it be because the government knew that any intervention among the Aborigines would be met by cries of "racism" as those Aborigines tried to cover their own backs, and thus they removed their power to use the race card to prevent important work being done? If so, it all seems entirely reasonable to me.

2. The Golliwog Returns: Mum Denies Racism.