Tuesday 13 January 2009
No form of racism can EVER be acceptable
A young woman was punched in the face in Aberdeen on Saturday night by a man who'd started off making comments about her English accent. He didn't like it so he punched her in the face? What an absolute disgrace. What is the problem with people? Is it because it's no longer "socially acceptable" to be racist toward people with a different skin colour so they have to look for something they reckon is likely to be more acceptable? Well it's not. Racism is wrong whatever the motivation and we have to be on the alert and recognise that being white does not make someone immune. Whilst I expect most people will be outraged at this young woman being attacked so savagely, because most people are anti violence, I sincerely hope those same people will recognise and speak out against racism in all it's forms - verbal, physical, institutional and whoever it's directed at.
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11 comments:
"Adjunct: I do not accept that anti-English sentiments are racist (and are not under law), but perhaps a manifestation of nationalist feelings."
I doubt the person even knows the basics of history. He is probably just a low life who deems it necessary to take out his inadequacies on defencless weaker people. If it had been as asian he had been in contact with it would be thm also being slurred. I doubt this has anything to do with politics other than the politics of envy and resentment.
Juankerr, as you can see the comments have been removed. I think it's more a case of her not having thought about what she was saying, rather than being a low life. But that was the point I was making in my post, that there are so many people who believe that it's unacceptable to be racist because of colour but we've a bit of catching up to do when it comes to recognising racism based on nationality. I agreed with what she said about the press will choose to highlight certain things and make the problem sound worse than it is, but the fact is that it did happen and it's wrong.
Full credit to Indygal for condemning this crime, but ask yourself one simple question.
Is the sort of person who would punch someone for having an English accent more likely to support Scotland's continued union with England within the United Kingdom or to want political separation for Scotland?
Not nice Scottish Unionist, not nice at all. You're suggesting that anyone who wants their country to make its own decisions in the same way as almost every other country in the world, is anti something or other. In this case, if we don't want to be part of the United Kingdom, we're anti English. We must also, therefore be anti Welsh, anti Irish and let's face it, I think I can speak on behalf of the whole of the SNP when I say we don't want Mexico to decide how much our pensioners get so that must mean we're anti Mexican; we don't want Norway to tell us whether or not we're sending our troops to fight in a war - anti Norwegian; we'd all vote against Sri Lanka being able to decide if nuclear weapons are to be based in Scotland so that makes us anti Sri Lankan. I'm getting your argument, are you getting mine?
I asked a straightforward question, but rather than answer it you, presumingly unwittingly, misrepresented its import.
I was not suggesting that Scottish nationalists are necessarily anti-English. That clearly isn't the case.
Rather, I was considering the converse implication. There are, in Scotland, people who are anti-English; that much is self-evident. The question was: do you think anti-English people are more or less likely to want political separation from England than people who are not anti-English?
The answer being obvious, it is true to say that the assailant in this case is relatively likely to support your party's independence agenda.
I'm not sure 'racism' is even the right term here Anne. There is no pure race anywhere in the UK, we're all a mixture of Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking and numerous other influences. The case here seems more of a partisan, football thug type mentality where the perpetrator displays random acts of aggression towards the local rival team, or in this case, area of the UK (England).
Scotland isn't the only 'country' which is not allowed to make it's own decisions. There are a huge number of regions across Europe with active seperatist movements and succesionist political parties. A small country like Belgium has 2 in Flanders and the Flemish speaking region. Both claim rights to full autonomy and independence.
Scotland has been part of the Union since 1707 and obviously has full representation in the Westminster parliament. I'm not sure how you can equate that with rule from Sri Lanka or Mexico.
AM2 up to his usual anti-Scottish sneering. What a pathetic wee man.
Your Blog AM2 is a disgrace and so are you. Violence happens all over the planet for reasons that none of us will ever condone or understand.
You say you originate in NI. You would do well to lecture there instead of here.
The person that carried out this assault probably cannot put an x in a box.
Here's English Anne Johnston:
In fact, one puzzling aspect of the attack on Lucy Newman is that she moved to Scotland from Cheltenham aged four, 18 years ago, and to my ear she sounded more Scots than English. Was she perhaps the victim of a callous drunk looking for a fight, who would have picked on the next person who happened along for being fat or ginger or wearing specs, if she hadn't been there?
On the face of it, there is no moral equivalence between a vicious physical attack on a defenceless young woman and a gaffe-prone prince referring to a comrade who was asleep at the time as "our little Paki", or indeed his father calling a dark-skinned polo partner "Sooty". But there is an important difference. Nobody could argue that Englishness in Scotland constitutes a barrier to buying a house, joining a club, gaining promotion at work or enjoying a successful career in the armed forces or the police. I'm happy to brush off the odd cheeky remark because when it comes down to it, the English in Scotland enjoy an even playing field.
There is no more prejudice in Scotland than any other part of the UK, despite your horrible wee Blog and your constant efforts to throw mud in the hope it will stick.
Now I'm confused. Who is AM2??
Indygal I have nothing but respect for your views and your blog posts. I agree wholeheartedly that no form of racism is ever acceptable. I have recently started a website related to this topic and I am always looking for like minded folk to contribute. If you would ever be interested in writing or getting involved that would please check out the site and drop me a line. Thanks, Al Jones. www.itisnotacceptable.com
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