Many will have shocked at Baroness Doreen Lawrence’s accusation last week that firefighters tackling the Grenfell Tower blaze were racist. In an interview with Channel 4 News she claimed, ‘Had that been a block full of white people, they’d have done everything to get them out as fast as possible.’
Her remarks have been roundly condemned, including by Karen Bell, the Fire Brigades Union’s ‘Black and Ethnic Minority Members Vice Chair’. Yet she is not the first to voice such sentiments. Last year, Imran Khan QC, who acted for the family of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence (Doreen Lawrence’s son), and now represents some of the Grenfell Tower survivors, caused similar outrage when he suggested that there may have been ‘unconscious or some conscious racism’ in the way firefighters responded to the blaze in the tower.
How had he reached this conclusion? The firefighters had used stereotypical language in some of their statements after the fire, including, in one instance, referring to one of the residents as ‘foreign’. The tower block had, in fact, been home to ‘a diverse community of people from all over the world’.
But are Lawrence and Khan not justified in their claims? The clue lies in the botched police inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence at the hands of some racist white thugs in 1993 and the subsequent Macpherson report which branded the police ‘institutionally racist’. The report defined institutional racism as ‘processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic people’.
Since then, the need to combat institutional racism has been the guiding principle of all governments, manifesting itself in a tireless struggle to promote social justice, equal opportunities, diversity awareness, and Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) rights in every part of our national life. But clearly more is needed. As the Macpherson report highlighted, institutional racism is ‘unwitting’, ‘ignorant’ and ‘thoughtless’. The racism perpetrated by the majority white population – the bias, the stereotyping, the discrimination, the countless racial microaggressions (slights, put-downs, looks or gestures that demean people of colour) – is unconscious. To put it simply, we are racist because we are white.
What are we to do to combat institutional racism? Who better to consult than Nicola Rollock, reader in equity and education at Goldsmiths, University of London, specialist advisor to the Home Affairs’ Select Committee ‘Macpherson: 20 Years On’ inquiry, and editor-in-chief of the academic journal ‘Whiteness and Education’, whose articles include ‘Unspoken rules of engagement: navigating racial microaggressions in the academic terrain’ and ‘The Invisibility of race: Intersectional reflections on the liminal space of alterity’.
Rollock tells us that the problem is ‘Whiteness’ and our task is to ‘deconstruct’ it. But first we must make it visible, for ‘much of the power, privilege, pervasiveness and violence of Whiteness lies precisely in its casual and unremarked normality’. Once made visible, we can set to work to ‘destabilise and disrupt this structured normality’. The discourses of Whiteness can then be ‘dismantled’. In education, this translates into the construction of a new ‘non-hegemonic’ curriculum, and the adoption of the pedagogical approaches of ‘critical race theory’ so that students might develop ‘critical racial knowledge’ and their own ‘anti-racist praxis’.
And there we have it. The Grenfell Tower firefighters’ problem was not that they were racist or prejudiced, at least not in any obvious sense, but that they were suffering from, and perpetrating in liminal space, ‘whiteness’. Yes, of course those firefighters were out to save lives, and they risked their own in the process. But most of them were white. And who can guess the number of microaggressions they unconsciously perpetrated against the residents and victims of Grenfell Tower, on account of their whiteness, as they tried to fight back the flames and rescue them?
But if ‘whiteness’ is a certifiable condition, what about ‘blackness’? Are ‘blackness’ and ‘colour’ not in need of deconstruction too? Are victims any less susceptible to hate, prejudice, resentment, paranoia and delusion than their assailants? Is victimhood not also a condition in need of deconstruction? Perhaps a journal should be founded entitled ‘Blackness and Education’ to consider and reflect on some of these problems. But we should not hold our breath.
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>>>>>>>And anyway, if crime statistics by race were released it’s plain that whites would be statistically underrepresented as perpetrators in every category of violent crime, and quite possibly every crime, and persons of color would be heavily over represented. Oh come on, you know it’s true.
It is, but you forget a important point. If whites are overrepresented in some crime category, it’s because they’re evil. If blacks are, it’s because crime is a natural result of opression by evil white racists. It’s all whitey’s fault, either way.
>>>>>>>he black talking head female seemed thoroughly conflicted by this and went off on a tangent about white racism where white men had dehumanized black females to the point they considered them unworthy of sexual relations.
…and if Whites HAD raped black women, that, too, would prove they consider blacks subhuman sex slaves who have no right to say no to their masters, of course. You’re a white man? You’re guilty of SOMETHING. We’ll find out what later.
The same happened in Israel. Some liberal moron researched rape by Israei soldiers in the war of independence, to prove how evil they are. But, unfortunately for her, It turned out Israeli soldiers in the war of independence did not rape a single Arab woman in the war. Undeterred, she wrote an MA thesis claiming this “proved” they saw Arab women as “subhumans”.
P.S.
Remember — rape has nothing to do with sex, it is purely matter of violence and control. But robbery has nothing to do with violence and control, it is purely a matter of redistributing property. Just ask any liberal.
I do find the pathology of casting whites as uniquely hostile and threatening to folks of other ethnicities bizarre. The white western male is just about the nicest, most placid and accommodating fella going around.
And anyway, if crime statistics by race were released it’s plain that whites would be statistically underrepresented as perpetrators in every category of violent crime, and quite possibly every crime, and persons of color would be heavily over represented. Oh come on, you know it’s true.
I did watch a horrifying segment on US cable news a while back which was discussing the FBI stats for violent rape and I think the host had some stat that there were no rapes of black women by white men during some certain period of time, none, nationwide, in whatever way the Feds had collated the data. The black talking head female seemed thoroughly conflicted by this and went off on a tangent about white racism where white men had dehumanized black females to the point they considered them unworthy of sexual relations.
A truly bizarre spectacle where the lady was arguing the mere fact white men weren’t raping black women in sufficient numbers was proof positive that they were racist. I guess the pale face really can’t win these days.
Raven,
RIP -Peter Simple
Rollock seems to suffer from severe unconscious bias against you white people. Her definition of white racism actually describes the characteristics of all racism around the world. For instance, here in Asia, a (non-white, of course) majority in one country can be observed displaying “casual microaggressions” towards (non-white) minorities (or macroagressions in the case of, say, Myanmar).
So racism is (counter-intuitively perhaps) nothing to do with color. Racism is a universal human species trait. You whites don’t have a monopoly on racism. Rollock just demonstrates what a dreadful racist she is by focusing on attacks on white people only.
If Rollock had any experience of the world outside her indoctrination camp (i.e. British universities humanities courses) she’d realize that the idea that white people are uniquely racist is a monstrous calumny. Most white people I’ve come across in Asia are on average far less racist than the people of the countries they visit. Ask any Philippine maid working in Hong Kong, or visiting Japan. Many Koreans share the belief that they are the Herrenvolk of Asia…
Granted, it’s difficult to know what Rollock actually thinks because her prose illustrates how woolly and muddled her thinking is: e.g. she writes about the ‘the violence of whiteness’, but I’m struggling to see how the color of one’s skin can BE violent, or, to give her the benefit of the doubt, how membership of a group of humans whose skin color is white (through no fault of their own) can automatically allow an observer to determine that the member is violent just based on their skin color.
It’s alarming and sinister that someone such as Rollock with such strongly held racist bias can guide and determine British government policy towards institutions. Her views are frighteningly close to the now outdated and appalling belief widely held in the nineteenth century that non-whites in the British Empire were somehow inherently less intelligent and less capable than their white rulers.
Rollock’s entire thesis is bollocks. She needs to be called out as just yet another race hustler and exposed as a bigot before your fine country is ‘deconstructed’.
If all the firefighters who attended the Grenfell fire had been people of colour would they have acted differently?
What makes Lawrence so sure that the firefighters who fought the Grenfell fire knew what color the residents were before they went into the stairwell?
Doreen Lawrence should be asked for comment on the conviction of two black males for murdering innocent schoolgirl Jodie Chesney in an East London park. Though as the Guardian repeatedly tells us, there is no such thing as anti-white racism.
The Recent case of Matthew Furlong, who was refused a job with The Cheshire Constabulary, because he was a ‘white, heterosexual male’, is a clear indicator of current corporate/government policy. His father, who was serving with the force, managed to find enough proof to enable Mr Furlong to win his industrial tribunal case. Without that inside knowledge he would just be another white man rejected from a job. I don’t expect an in depth series of documentaries on Channel4 about this widespread ‘discrimination’, nor do I expect questions in the Commons or the Lords… but we know it exists. Second class citizens in our own country.
To quote Dr Heinz Kiosk “We are all guilty!”
The Left has developed a well-practised routine of blame after any disaster in which the people at fault are the emergency services and, by extension, free enterprise and the British state itself.
Does anybody care anymore about accusations of “racism” from so-called “progressives”? Obviously “racist!” just means “I want attention!” or “shut up!”.
If white people had been in Grenfell they would have been “people of color” anyway by the time the blaze had died down. Do British firefighters only pull charred bodies out of wreckage if they’ve stayed white? Perhaps they have a triage chart showing how toasted the bodies can be before they refuse to act: “Lightly browned? Rescue! Burnt toast color? Move on to next condo!”
If you permit “Social Justice Warriors” and their allies in our major institutions to define racism then concept creep is all but inevitable. Racism is what they say it is. Anyone who disagrees is clearly defending white privilege and hate-not-hope.
Their chief target will not be out-and-out racists – too hard a target and too few in number. Instead they aim for the softest target of all – the well meaning white liberal. These poor wretches are so sure they have risen above racial prejudice. Wrong! They have just not been thorough enough. They harbour all kinds of hidden prejudices. These must be exposed to the light of day and subjected to a vigorous purge and cleansing. There is no way that white people can be permitted to feel good about themselves – not even if they spend every waking moment attoning for their privilege and celebrating diversity.
Serious criticism of the claims of the race relations industry and its encouragement of a deep resentment of white people is long overdue. Yes, Stephen Lawrence was killed by a vicious group of white racist thugs but these days a black youth on the streets of our cities is more likely to be killed by other black youths. Nothing “micro” about that level of aggression.
That ‘universities’ employ people who spout such semi-literate racist trash is bad enough, and the case against whitey is easily refuted. Heard of Kriss Donald anyone? Want to have a guess how many Huddersfield men have been convicted of gang rape of white school girls?
You won’t find the answers in MSM. Kriss was kidnapped and tortured to death by Pakistani-origin men who found safety in Pakistan afterwards. So far 27 Asian-heritage gang rapists convicted in little old Hudd and plenty more in the pipeline, as is the case in other Yorkshire towns. If you’re quick you might catch a brief comment on regional news from time to time.
I used to teach mostly overseas post grad students. Aside from the difficulty understanding the inglish wot we speak ‘ere int Leeds, they unanimously, year after year, said how welcoming and helpful the British were. And how different it could be back home and other places they’d been.
Kriss Donald not the only one to be killed based on his race. Attacks on the indigenous take place up and down the Country on a regular basis purely because they are white’s. I gather the MSM didn’t make much of the young tree surgeons recently, attacked by a gang, called white b*****d’s and one very nearly had his hand cut off with a machete. By the way they were only going to the aid of a woman driver (elderly I believe) who’d committed some transgression against the self-styled King of the area “his Country” he claimed. What do we do? Carry on being compliant “tolerant British”
Oh well at least people’t Gt.Grandchildren will be able to be proud of that once they are the minority group and have to tread on eggshells for fear of upsetting those who will be in charge!!