The folly of equating racial stereotyping with racism

In discussing the "Role of Social Class within the Identities and Achievement of British Chinese Pupils" last Wednesday, you and Dr Louise Archer equated racial stereotyping with "racism". No wonder I and so many of my fellow British natives are in a continual state of anxiety! Since we are all incurable "racists" according to this definition, which you are far from being alone in imposing on us (and on yourselves, as well, no doubt).

Millions of years of evolution have programmed us, Earth's Greatest Ape, to distinguish strongly and emotionally between members of our OWN group and those who belong to OTHER groups. Damning this natural inclination as "racist" (which, according to my dictionary, means the hate of other races and belief in the superiority of one's own race) is madness, not just because it is untrue, but also because it causes people to suppress their feelings, which in the subconscious are capable of causing ugly, irrational - perhaps genuinely racist - behaviour.

False accusations of "racism" are continually being used as a club to suppress natural feelings of difference and identity, as well as opposition to overalienation through mass immigration. I'd like you to put your club down, Laurie, and discuss this on Thinking Allowed. It is an exceedingly important matter, in urgent need of open and fearless discussion, since I see clear parallels with Communist Russia and medieval Christianity, where opponents of the dominant (and dominating) ideology were silenced and the population cowed by suspicions and accusations of "counter-revolution" or "heresy". Now it's "racism". The socio-psychology of this phenomenon is also very interesting, of course, if you want to keep it purely academic.

I'm sure that many who wield the club of "anti-racism" mean well (i.e are not, consciously, at least, just defending their own niches in the socio-economic order), just as those who wielded the club against "counter-revolution" and "heresy" often did, in the belief that they were on the side of social "progress", opposing the forces of pre-revolutionary feudalism/capitalism, of paganism or disbelief in the one true religion, and now of fascism and racism.

To: Thinkingallowed@bbc.co.uk Re: The folly of equating racial stereotyping with "racism" Date: Tuesday 30 May 06


Dear Laurie et al. at Thinking Allowed, BBC Radio 4 In discussing the "Role of Social Class within the Identities and Achievement of British Chinese Pupils" last Wednesday, you and Dr Louise Archer equated racial stereotyping with "racism". No wonder I and so many of my fellow British natives are in a continual state of anxiety! Since we are all incurable "racists" according to this definition, which you are far from being alone in imposing on us (and on yourselves, as well, no doubt). Millions of years of evolution have programmed us, Earth's Greatest Ape, to distinguish strongly and emotionally between members of our OWN group and those who belong to OTHER groups. Damning this natural inclination as "racist" (which, according to my dictionary, means the hate of other races and belief in the superiority of one's own race) is madness, not just because it is untrue, but also because it causes people to suppress their feelings, which in the subconscious are capable of causing ugly, irrational - perhaps genuinely racist - behaviour. False accusations of "racism" are continually being used as a club to suppress natural feelings of difference and identity, as well as opposition to overalienation through mass immigration. I'd like you to put your club down, Laurie, and discuss this on Thinking Allowed. It is an exceedingly important matter, in urgent need of open and fearless discussion, since I see clear parallels with Communist Russia and medieval Christianity, where opponents of the dominant (and dominating) ideology were silenced and the population cowed by suspicions and accusations of "counter-revolution" or "heresy". Now it's "racism". The socio-psychology of this phenomenon is also very interesting, of course, if you want to keep it purely academic. I'm sure that many who wield the club of "anti-racism" mean well (i.e are not, consciously, at least, just defending their own niches in the socio-economic order), just as those who wielded the club against "counter-revolution" and "heresy" often did, in the belief that they were on the side of social "progress", opposing the forces of pre-revolutionary feudalism/capitalism, of paganism or disbelief in the one true religion, and now of fascism and racism. www.spaceship-earth.org BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed