racism my 2 cents 4191

If we're being serious here, it's not about 'proving' whether or not you're 'racist', per se. It's just illustrative of subconscious buttociation, but this can in turn explain how individuals and institutions may harbour implicit 'racist' tendencies.

In a way, Ted has a point. If we want to really address the issues sensibly, then it's important to try to separate the emotive language or 'racism' from the issues at hand. We are all racist, to a greater or lesser degree. The important point is to use logic and reason to modify any emotional response that we may have. We're not 'hardwired' for life (imo), and we all evolve with age and experience.

As soon as "other" becomes "one of us", so the process of changing any instinctive or nurtured emotional reaction begins. I'm fortunate, in that my upbringing was about as non-racist as it is possible to get. The messages that kids receive from an early age is vital, imo.

Personally, I have no desire to be "racist", and indeed hope I am as near as dammit without any such sentiment, be it intentional or otherwise. However, I also realise that, like anyone else, I may be culturally (through the mores of society) and perhaps evolutionally wired to gravitate towards 'same' rather than 'difference' in certain cultural contexts.

Being unduly pious about oneself whilst gleefully branding others as 'racist' ain't really the way to progress an inclusive agenda. It has a way of backfiring big-time. The NF feeds off the disenfranchised, the politically impotent and the frustrated. The seemingly prevailing culture of obsessive 'political correctness' within British public discourse is doing us all a disservice, imho. For me, free expression is an inalienable right. Who was it who said: I abhor what you say but I'd defend to the rest your right to say it?

Then again,there's always a slim chance that I may be talking bollox.