In most of the coverage of the Belfast uprising the word ‘racist’ crops up several times, but however the Romanians were treated they were not subjected to racism. The evictions were not racist because men can not be racist in their own country. Whatever a man thinks of foreigners is fine and dandy as long as he thinks it on his turf not the foreigners’. In fact the attempt to make a thought crime of a native group’s attitude to foreigners (which clearly is hostile and oppressive), because by definition it is ethnically focused, is itself racist.
When Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in exile in Switzerland, the editor of a Zurich newspaper took him to a local election meeting to observe ‘Western democracy’ in action. When some of the speakers argued against granting voting rights to guest-workers the editor was horrified and apologised to Solzhenitsyn for the ‘intolerance’ of the speakers. But Solzhenitsyn saw nothing wrong. If those people wanted to keep their country for themselves who could object? It was their country, wasn’t it? It was the editor who was intolerant; intolerant of a people’s wish to remain distinct from others. Now that’s racism, and no greater racism exists, surely?
The zero-tolerance policy of the rebels of Belfast toward that form of racism should be emulated by all peoples.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
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2 comments:
If these people had been Romanians there would probably have been no trouble.
The big lie here is that they were Romanian at all. In fact they were Gypsies from Romania and they were no doubt whatever it is that Gypsies do that alienates those around them.
When the story first broke I almost immediately assumed it was actually about Gypsies.
The BBC continually use the term Romanian or eastern European when they really mean Gypsy. This is supposed to protect the Gypsies from racism - because in the BBC world view reactions against the Gypsies are always products of irrational racism - never rooted in real life experience. What it does in reality is unfairly tarnish white Romainans and other Europeans with Gypsy brush.
Its always alright to slur whites as long as it covers for a protected minority, never the other way around.
I agree with you on the Gypsies, anon, they are as much a criminal caste as an ethnic group.
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