Don't Snigger. (I'm Not Racist But...)

Member Name: Peakly

Product:	I'm Not Racist But...
Date:	24/09/01 (523 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: n/a

Disadvantages: n/a

Allow me to make it known from the very start – I hate this topic. The only possible conclusion I or you could or should reach is the very obvious ‘racism isn’t right’, and if that isn’t obvious already I don’t think I like the idea of you reading my opinions anyway, thank you very much. But then perhaps I’m over simplifying things. Racism isn’t a simple thing, it’s a physiological defect that all of us, and I think I can confidently say all, harbour in some small, probably perfectly innocent way. It’s something that needs to be phased out and destroyed by the only way possible – a filtering through generations, by making sure our children grow to understand how mistaken the racist attitudes they’ll encounter are. Racism could perhaps be referred to as a disease, though thankfully, I think we’re on the correct path to curing it, and ourselves, if we stop to compare society now to a few hundred years ago. That’s the basic jist, as I see it, everything I’ve just written there. I don’t think you’re asking for me to state the obvious though, are you?

As a veteran of small-town life, racism has been something that’s always existed in my life without question or debate. It’s just there, as in-grained and un-questioned as the roads you’d walk or the walls that line the street. People associated racial conflict almost exclusively with city-life, and while that may be true, there’s no question that if small Northumbrian towns like mine actually had a sizeable ethnic representation that they’d be conflict here too. Instead, there’s only passing comments and thoughtless jokes, coupled with a stale sense of prejudice filling the air like some damp blanket.

Of course, there are a handful of black, Pakistani and orient families, though they are so greatly in the minority that I know them all well. One lad is a par
ticularly close friend. There have been countless occasions, simply walking the street or having a quiet drink, that someone somewhere has made a racist comment. These vary from the extremely crude and unintelligent, to jokes that, scarily, show some real thought and consideration. I ll not replica the comments in the opinion, I see no need, though I’m sure you can imagine perfectly well.

This leads me to a point that must be made. Not everyone that is openly racist are evil, with deliberate intend to harm. Some of course are, but not all. Most people in my town capable of making this kind of racist comment are, through little fault of their own, ignorant. Pure and simple. When you’ve brought up in a town with old-fashioned ‘values’, and virtually no ethnic community, it can be hard, without the correct parental influences, to escape adopting a racist attitude. This is not an excuse, of course, merely an explanation as to how and why people feel no remorse in being racist. Many people I would consider friends, or people I would class as kind and good, also let slip the odd racist joke – not through an intent to harm or upset, simply because to them, somehow, it’s perfectly acceptable and fine. I’d be lying if I said this didn’t bother me, but then I’d also be lying if I said I did all I possibly could to stop it. You can’t teach somehow that something they believe and have never given a thought to is wrong, and tell them to stop thinking in that way. It’s futile. You can only watch and feel helpless.

And it’s this kind of racism, the kind the lies beneath the surface, that is perhaps the biggest problem of all. How many generations must filter through Alnwick, before this small town can escape this in-breed attitude? The news covers race motivated attacks and discrimination, and rightly so, but while that can, in theory, be punishable, small-town mentalities a
nd home-grown attitudes can not. That’s where the battle against racism starts and finishes – those that would never really dream of attacking or assaulting a black man without reason, but nevertheless feel instantly different towards them, or so uncomfortable they have to make jokes.

It would be unfair to condemn these people without also considering myself. I said earlier that everyone is racist in some way, no matter how small, and I believe that is true. Not just whites, but people from all creed and colour. I’d class myself racist in this way – whenever I see a black person, I become instantly cautious of other people and the aware of the possibly that they may do or say something small-minded. If I see an ethnic person on television, or more likely in a film, straight away I’m weary of how they’re being represented. How many of us also feel this way sometimes? I guess it proves that, deep-down in the labyrinth of my mind, somehow somewhere I judge things with a little inequality. Perhaps my disgust at racism somehow manifests into a paranoia whereby I almost expect discrimination of some kind. If I were completely and utterly free of some racist attitude, surely these thoughts wouldn’t even occur to me. How many of us actually go out of our way to appear friendly to people from ethnic minorities? Is it because, in some twisted way, you’re so very cautious of appearing racist? Be it that you’re treating people better or worse because of their race, what remains a fact is that you’re treating them differently because of it, and that’s racist.

The final thing I’d like to discuss, which applies what I’ve said about myself but on a more general and worldwide scale, is the issue of political correctness. It is true that, in a society becoming more and more self-concise about racism, it’s became increasingly hard to speak or write about race issues with
any degree of confidence. Writing this opinion, I’ve been carrying a slight paranoia that some of the terms or expressions I’ve used are no longer acceptable or are offensive. The rules seem to change all the time. According to an article I read no so long ago, the term ‘brain-storm’ can no longer be applied in schools (it used to refer to a revision technique), this is because it offended people with metal disability. Now the correct term is ‘mind-map’. Another, perhaps more relevant example that cropped up in same article was the term ‘black-board’, which, for racial issues, should now be referred to as a ‘chalk-board’. I’m neither condemning nor approving of these ever changing values, merely pointing out how difficult it is to ensure everything you say is one-percent PC and acceptable. Obviously, some terms are a lot more obviously wrong then others, but I think people need to judge with consideration, and not label people necessarily racist if something they say doesn’t quite adhere to the rules. People should observe context, as well as the specifics of the language.

To repeat what I said in the beginning, I don’t particularly like this topic (the former use of the term ‘hate’ was merely to catch your attention ;). Hopefully some of what I have said has been mildly interesting or thought-provoking, though anyone with a degree of awareness will have fully considered all I’ve said and more already. If I must offer some kind of conclusion, let it be this: racism is one of the largest, most in-comprehensible evils on this earth. So long as the bad people so greatly outnumber the good in this life, no one should limit their chances of finding another human being they can love or befriend by discriminating against them because of their race. All that is left now is for all of us, as individuals, to do all we can to phase out any racist attitudes we h
arbour ourselves, do what we can to combat the attitudes we see in others, and, most importantly, teach our children to do the same.

Summary: