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It's been the topic of the day, along with the ongoing footballer case and in the courts.
These are all very different situations though. Which I think is a big part of getting to the answer of what it means to be racist. You have to look at each case and each person individually.
Lets start with Diane Abbott's comment. This was most likely just a flippant comment not well though through.
Possibly trying to say more than twitter would let you easily say and losing all the meaning by squeezing it into 140 characters. At worse it's a feeling that all white people will try and put down black people. In this case it's someone who is feeling oppressed lashing out at their perceived oppressor.
Obviously not an ideal characteristic for a high ranking politician. Though it is quite a normal human behavior which is why I have always liked Diane, she always seems quite human. Unlike most of the rest. We need more politicians like her.
After all her remark is not much worse than saying "all bankers are ******s" or "the accountants always come out best" or "people with hoodies cause trouble". It was just a poor over generalisation. Where you are really complaining about a problem by going for the stereotype.
This leads us nicely on to the footballers who in the heat of the moment said something offensive. Now if someone came up behind me in the street and kicked me as hard as they could in the back of my leg. I would not like to say what would come out of my mouth. If the person then stands in front of me apologizes and says it was an accident... I probably would not believe them but would be heavily stereotyping them.
When talking about it people will ask "where were they from", "how old were they", "what did they look like", "what did they sound like" and similar questions. You would draw on that stereotype and quite probably get everyones 5 minutes rant about the character you describe. Or at least the mental image they have of your description. This may even bring to the front of your mind all the insults you have ever heard that could fit that person. Now if that same person did the same thing again some time later, it's quite possible that something out of character could slip out.
Once again though as a footballer that gets knocked about quite a bit they should be able to control themselves and their language. We all occasionally let our guard down though. This is where you have to look at the person.
Firstly they should be punished. If you are with mates they should tell you thats wrong, if it's from a position of responsibility then there should be some reprimand or punishment. How much should depend on the person. If they are really sorry for what they have said and wish with all their heart they could take back what they said, then it should be a stern telling off and a slap on the wrist. If they can't see anything wrong with what they said and can't see what the fuss is about... Then throw the book at them.
Obviously there is a lot of middle ground here too and how well you know and trust the person. For example one person might be known for shooting their mouth off and saying lots of rubbish things, or maybe someone often stumbles over their words and things come out wrong sometimes, or often uses a bad analogy or even if they are known to be hateful to some people.
Finally we get onto the two tragic murders both with racist motives and one with police covering up for their clan. This is why it's important to make it unacceptable. Why you should punish yourself and others if you appear racist. Left unchecked in society it has the power of belittling people so much that it can lead to them being abused by authority, wrongly accused or poorly defended and even random killings.
These people that do these crimes are undoubtedly racists and are the ones that should spark debates with calls for punishments for all involved along with deep analysis of how it was allowed to get to that stage.
The people who we catch saying something stupid should just be a reminder to us all that we should maybe think before we speak or write something and not much more.
Lets start with Diane Abbott's comment. This was most likely just a flippant comment not well though through.
Possibly trying to say more than twitter would let you easily say and losing all the meaning by squeezing it into 140 characters. At worse it's a feeling that all white people will try and put down black people. In this case it's someone who is feeling oppressed lashing out at their perceived oppressor.
Obviously not an ideal characteristic for a high ranking politician. Though it is quite a normal human behavior which is why I have always liked Diane, she always seems quite human. Unlike most of the rest. We need more politicians like her.
After all her remark is not much worse than saying "all bankers are ******s" or "the accountants always come out best" or "people with hoodies cause trouble". It was just a poor over generalisation. Where you are really complaining about a problem by going for the stereotype.
This leads us nicely on to the footballers who in the heat of the moment said something offensive. Now if someone came up behind me in the street and kicked me as hard as they could in the back of my leg. I would not like to say what would come out of my mouth. If the person then stands in front of me apologizes and says it was an accident... I probably would not believe them but would be heavily stereotyping them.
When talking about it people will ask "where were they from", "how old were they", "what did they look like", "what did they sound like" and similar questions. You would draw on that stereotype and quite probably get everyones 5 minutes rant about the character you describe. Or at least the mental image they have of your description. This may even bring to the front of your mind all the insults you have ever heard that could fit that person. Now if that same person did the same thing again some time later, it's quite possible that something out of character could slip out.
Once again though as a footballer that gets knocked about quite a bit they should be able to control themselves and their language. We all occasionally let our guard down though. This is where you have to look at the person.
Firstly they should be punished. If you are with mates they should tell you thats wrong, if it's from a position of responsibility then there should be some reprimand or punishment. How much should depend on the person. If they are really sorry for what they have said and wish with all their heart they could take back what they said, then it should be a stern telling off and a slap on the wrist. If they can't see anything wrong with what they said and can't see what the fuss is about... Then throw the book at them.
Obviously there is a lot of middle ground here too and how well you know and trust the person. For example one person might be known for shooting their mouth off and saying lots of rubbish things, or maybe someone often stumbles over their words and things come out wrong sometimes, or often uses a bad analogy or even if they are known to be hateful to some people.
Finally we get onto the two tragic murders both with racist motives and one with police covering up for their clan. This is why it's important to make it unacceptable. Why you should punish yourself and others if you appear racist. Left unchecked in society it has the power of belittling people so much that it can lead to them being abused by authority, wrongly accused or poorly defended and even random killings.
These people that do these crimes are undoubtedly racists and are the ones that should spark debates with calls for punishments for all involved along with deep analysis of how it was allowed to get to that stage.
The people who we catch saying something stupid should just be a reminder to us all that we should maybe think before we speak or write something and not much more.
