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Sometime ago, I happened to be in a school where a 10 year old white boy was about to be arrested for making a racist remark; he had used the ‘N’ word when referring to a black pupil. He admitted doing it. It was obvious he hadn’t realised it was wrong to use such words. He thought it was a normal way to describe black people. So quite innocent! Fortunately, I was able to intervene and, with a lot of help from senior people in Education, the police were persuaded not to go ahead with the arrest.
The Head emailed me the next day and said had the arrest had gone ahead, it would have put their community relations back at least 10 years.
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Submitted by karamat on Mon, 2010-03-01 11:54.
Patricia Williams yet again helps to sum up the ‘post-racialness’ of Obama. I continue to believe that the President’s example has implications for many a multi-racial workplace.
An example of how he decided to not act on a ‘race’ issue for fear of being seen to be too black was provided by his indecision in the Jack Johnson case.
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-11-01 21:53.
There is racism in the workplace! So say the government based on their research whereby they used dummy CVs being presented by people from different ethnic groups. This reminds me of a similar piece of research carried out in the 80s by the then Commission for Racial Equality. I may even have the booklet they produced.
What is interesting in this article was the measured response by
Iqbal Wahhab who only a few weeks back was trying to raise this issue but without much success.
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-10-18 20:49.
Another controversy centred on racist language! This time on Strictly Come Dancing. It’s explained here by Rod Liddle. He also refers to a range of other recent incidents in the media.
Probably the best comment on this was from Sarfraz Manzoor who with a little help from Bruce Forsyth puts it all in perspective.
Then there was an article from Rod Liddle. This helps us to understand what we can and cannot say on race, sex, etc.
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-10-18 20:25.
Excellent piece from Roy Williams which talks about the progress made in the world of theatre, what is ‘race’, attracting minority people into theatres, what Black writers can and cannot write about etc.
It should be read widely, not just by those with an interest in the arts!
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Submitted by karamat on Tue, 2009-09-29 07:33.
Here is a story where a white US politician shouts out to a black president “you lie”. Then an ex-president, in his 80s, from the Deep South says the act was racist.
Here are two comments; one from a black journalist, Keith Richburg and the other from a white; Andrew Sullivan.
Not sure whether the race of any of the parties is relevant.
You decide!
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Submitted by karamat on Wed, 2009-09-23 06:56.
According to an article by Jack Grimston women are doing very well compared to men; at least in education upto and after leaving university and getting good jobs. Then what!
Are they simply window dressing in those ‘high places’ they reach as was pointed out in the discussion surrounding Caroline Flint and her resignation from government.
The Observer asks whether its institutional prejudice (there is much we can transfer from institutional racism).
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Submitted by karamat on Fri, 2009-08-28 08:51.
The saga continues at Equality Commission. While I welcome what Mr Phillips has done during his time here and at the previous commission, it would appear that some things he has done point to his poor judgement. It is interesting to note that he has claimed that his treatment was affected by him being black
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-07-26 22:32.
So what went wrong which led to this guy being arrested for breaking into his own house and being arrested for disorderedly conduct while on his own property? No doubt we will one day find out the details.
For now comment from two people who understand the complexities of race and how it can play a part in such incidents. First, Andrew Sullivan and second Patricia Williams who wrote an excellent pamphlet entitled ‘Colour Blind’.
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-07-26 22:31.
The TES had an editorial focussing on the fact that some schools are asked to help 30% of their pupils to achieve A*-C at GCSE. I recently came across the figure of 17% poor white pupils who did manage to reach this target. What about the rest. See another letter in the Times Educational Supplement
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Submitted by karamat on Thu, 2009-07-09 10:39.
