AdrianHart.net

Posted: November 29th 2011

2 delusions for the price of one...

Twitch Hunting the obnoxious ‘racist tram woman’ gains extra momentum because she’s working class and her child is presumed a hapless, sponge-like creature.

We all know that the liberal elite love to reveal their contempt for ‘fat, ugly, white’ Britain (aka the white working class) at every opportunity.  But in the case of the possibly drunk or mentally ill ‘tram woman’ rant (lets face it we don’t know anything about her - yet) you get two popular delusions for the price of one.  Because there sitting on her lap is a child quietly soaking up his mother’s racist world view.  This is enough to set the whole world chattering because the idea that kids are indeed passive, sponge like creatures is all pervasive and actively encouraged by early years interventionists.  “From the day they are born, they are learning the beginnings of racial and often racially prejudiced attitudes – just as they are learning the beginnings of language”, says Jane Lane author of the 2008 National Children’s Bureau publication, Young Children and Racial Justice.

Posted: 17th November 2011

Zero Tolerance toward on-field jibes and insults reveals the new pop anti-racism as glib and misanthropic.

So – lets look at the action replay.  On Wednesday 16^th November Sepp Blatter makes his views about on-field racist language known to CNN.  Within a few blinks of the media eye a shrill referees whistle sounds out. Poor old Sepp has committed his worst foul so far.  By the end of the day its all over the news and dark clouds are looming.  Sepp tries to fan away the clouds by suggesting he’d been misunderstood.  But its too late. The following day Sepp’s “gaff” is front page news.  Rio Ferdinand and a swathe of footballers go on record to condemn Sepp’s remarks.  In fact, everyone joins in – culminating in Prime Minister David Cameron and even David Beckham himself chiming in with their condemnations. 

The rush to condemn the hapless Sepp Blatter is all too predictable because this time it’s a race issue.   Coming on the very same day that Luis Suarez joins John Terry in awaiting FA investigations for alleged racism, this was quite an own-goal from the Fifa president.  Why? Because Fifa, like the FA, have been at the forefront of demanding a zero tolerance approach to all manifestations of racism on and off the pitch.

Posted: September 28th 2011

It seemed to me (although I wasnt quite sure) that a conversation on yesterday’s Today programme between geneticist Steve Jones and teacher/author Katherine Birbalsingh demonstrated how even these two eminently sensible commentators find the topic of ‘race’ awkward.   In the latters case, it was as if her answers were being uncharacteristically cautious - like they were being selected for the benefit of that ever listening ear scanning our anti-racist etiquette. Maybe I'm wrong - make youre own mind up.

Discussing the core theme of BBC 2s new Mixed-Race season James Naughtie asked Jones ...

Posted: September 2011

There is every reason to support the right of this particular community of travellers to live in houses they built themselves on land they own. 

“Green Belt” – that’s a good one!  This is land that used to be used as a dumping ground by Basildon Council.  As James Heartfield points out on Spiked Basildon, Billericay and Wickford were themselves the new towns “made by self-reliant people like the Travellers of Dale Farm” – a generation that migrated and built bungalows in response to London’s over-crowded housing shortage.   It’s a cynical local council that simply forgets the past and – amidst a housing shortage - proclaims land as ‘green belt’ as and when it likes. 

I make this posting for two reasons ..... (see below)