On Militant Anti-Racism

There is a decent piece about the Carol Thatcher controversy over at - of all places - the Guardian today. It's as good an explanation of the flaws of the "anti-racist" crowd as any I've seen.

Most young people today – those I know and those I hear on radio and TV – think racism is the No 1 crime, unforgivable in any form, real or imaginary. Being old enough at 63 to be bilingual in these matters I sometimes make remarks (in private!) designed to make them flinch – just for the frisson it causes.

I respect the sentiments behind the flinch, although I doubt that racism is any worse than many other prejudices that human beings harbour against each other on bad days, sometimes with equally horrible consequences.

The idea that it is a vice unique to white Europeans or north Americans is also a bit of a chuckle, as the Chinese will one day demonstrate when their looming hegemony provides some scope. You could sniff the sense of effortless superiority in those scolding speeches this week.

Myself, I think snitching on private conversations is pretty offensive, too, a thoroughly corrosive habit in any society, however pious the motive. I realise many will disagree. Good luck. I hope it makes them happy, but it won't.

Read it all.