What is the best way to combat racism? > Reviews (34)

This is a subject which I am very passionate about, so forgive me if this just seems to be a bit of a rant and rave. Anyone who is insulted by this, please accept my epologies, but racism is a harsh reality.

I am a 20 something white female and have friends from many different ethnic backgrounds.

It really irritates me when they tell me about their experiences of racism and when I have witnessed these for myself. For example, a young black man I know, has recently been stopped over a dozen times in the space of a fortnight, simply because of his colour. Each time, the police have informed him that there was a burglary in the area and he fitted the description of the perpetrator. What description? Young, tall and black? I am very pleased that this young man has decided to take legal action against the police force who have so far confiscated his mobile phone and motorcycle, even though he had proof of ownership 'in case they were forged'.

My flatmate is Asian and on a number of occassions I have witnessed racism against her. On one particular ocassion she ignored a man who was coming onto her so he told her to 'f*** off cos i'd never be interested in a Paki'. Apologies to anyone offended by that, but there's no point beating round the bush.
My friend was born in England and has lived here all her life yet still she was subjected to this.

I myself have experienced racism and I don't just mean through my friends. Several years ago I was going out with a black man. Everytime I walked with him in public, every black woman in sight would give me dirty looks or make a comment.

Now many people would not see this as racism but I do. As far as I am concerned, their ill feeling towards be was because I was a white woman in a relationship with a black man and to them this was wrong. This is prejudice pure and simple.

What we really need is education education education. Yes, it gets a run in the news when a young Asian is shot or a young black man stabbed, but what really changes? Nothing!

I believe this is because the racism card is played too many times and people no longer want to hear it! Just because an assault occurred on a person from an ethnic minority does not mean it was racially motivated. Similarly, because a white individual was attacked doesnt mean it WASN'T racially motivated. How many times do you see a headline 'Racist thugs beat young white boy to death'?

Nowadays it is even harder due to the current mass of immigrants, both legal and illegal. Many people resent these individuals because they see them as people who are only here to scrounge what they can while giving nothing back.
In a lot of cases this is very true and I am as angry as anyone to hear the stories of illegal immigrant hit and run drivers, with no tax or insurance who get fined £50 then released. It's bad enough they are driving illegally anyway but the fact is if these people weren't allowed such free rein in this country the accident would never have happened!

But the fact is, we often group ALL immigrants into the same box and take our frustration out on innocent people who are merely trying to make a better life for themselves.

The Government and Press don't help matters by jumping on every incident they can and sensationalising them in order to make money or get one up on the opposition. This merely fuels the flames and stirs up resentment.

What these people need to do is educate people properly about what racism actually means and the impact it has on people's lives. They need to stress that racism can happen to ANYONE, whether white, black, asian, arab or any other race.

They need stop being so wishy washy about imposing strict penalties against people guilty of racism and most of all they need to stop attributing every single detrimental thing happening to an ethnic minority to racism! People are scared to speak out against anyone of a different race in case they are accused of racism. This is totally wrong and needs to stop NOW!

Interestingly, in the London Borough of Newham in a poll about a year ago, people of white backgrounds were in the minority for the first time.

So perhaps we should reassess our feelings about 'Ethnic Minorities' and racism in general before we return to the mentality of the days of slavery.

Thank you for reading this if you made it all the way through and sorry if I ranted on a bit!

The ratings are based on the concept of racism itself.