A few questions for you on the above:
1) Is it worth posting a statement from a company with 8,000 employees made by a junior sales member?
2)Why in any way whatsoever would this same person “lie” to you, what actual real benefit would he see from it?
3) When you quote conversations, why do you not do just that? Does it not fit well with the point that you are trying to make?
4) When someone clearly says ” i do not wish to make a statement”, is there anything that can be clearer?
5) If you have access to the internet, why did you not contact the actual newspaper/site that ran the advertising? You do of course realise that you rang completely the wrong centre?
6) Not a question, more a statement- I’d suggest that the “lying” you refer to is proved in someway. You’ll be hearing in due course…

in every generation, there seems to be a number of people who are tolerant, and a number of people who are bigots.

From everything I have read up on as a new parent, I am convinced that parenting style – particularly in the early years of life – has a lot to do with this.

Books like The Continuum Concept, Why Love Matters and Three In A Bed hold the keys to the beginnings of being able to repair ourselves, and it starts from birth. (Actually, it starts from BEFORE birth!)

Speaking for myself, even as an adult who was not parented in this way (though was parented with love) it has been valuable to read these books and come to terms with my own missing crucial life experiences. Doing this has helped me to understand the shaky emotional foundations that my life has been built upon, and to recognise some ways forward, to help me become a more secure person with less emotional problems.

But this is a really slow process, and I know it’s going to take me perhaps ten years or more of quite serious effort and emotional turmoil to undo the damage that missing out on these crucial life experiences has caused me.

I’m already finding that in sharing certain life experiences with my baby daughter, I’m beginning to “close” certain problematic chapters of my life that ideally should never have been “opened” in the first place, and could easily have been avoided.

We really can repair much of what has been taken from us, but much better would be to not bring our children up to need “repairing” later in life – as I require now.

I am thankful that despite missing out on huge sections of my emotional foundations, I’ve somehow managed to survive far enough to recognise that I have problems, and that with some sustained effort from me, a few lifestyle changes, and support from my partner and friends, I’ll hopefully be able to to something about it.

I’m hopeful that despite having two emotional wrecks for parents, our new-found awareness of what lead us to become this way will help our daughter to have a much better chance of avoiding these type of problems as she grows up.

But I’m not surprised that racism exists in a world where despite genuine best intentions and a lot of love from many parents, most (if not all) children in our society are raised – from day one – in a way which is really damaging to the foundations of their emotional and psychological development.

As my partner put it after reading “Why Love Matters”, a more appropriate title would have been “Why Love Is Not Enough”.

Our society is raising most of it’s children – even “nice” children from loving homes – in ways which are hugely damaging to them.

We are systematically denying them (thus ourselves) a whole list of essential developmental experiences – experiences that without which, we can only ever hope to turn out fragmented, emotionally stunted human beings. (Myself included.)

Unless we recognise this and put in the effort to remedy it (which if I’m honest, requires a massive overhaul of the way we think about things like “school”, and probably ultimately a remodelling of our entire society to one which cares about and has time for people a whole lot more) then social problems like racism are unlikely to go away.

I believe that a different type of world can be created – if we want it hard enough, and put in the effort with our children and with ourselves. I also believe that the solutions to many of our current environmental and social problems lie down this route, and that in due course, we may have few choices left other than to pursue them.

But unfortunately, a society of stable, caring, emotionally self-sufficient, non-needy human beings would present a much harder marketplace for the people who want to sell us products to fill the gaping voids in our life experience.

There are entire industries devoted to maintaining the status quo, and keeping us in the emotionally fragile state to be “good little consumers”. Spend 5 minutes reading any “women’s mag” or deconstructing the actual message behind a billboard ad, and perhaps you’ll know what I mean. (Though again, we’ve all been conditioned to be completely unaware of being manipulated by marketing and the media in this way, and that is hard to unlearn.)

This is the same emotionally fragile state which leads us to pursue alienated expressions our own dissatisfaction with ourselves, such as the empty promise of “a career path”. (A career path to WHAT? Unless we fix ourselves, we will never be truly happy, no matter what.)

Unhappy people make good consumers, a docile workforce, and an easily manipulated population – they are good for the economy. While the state and multinational corporations can profit from maintaining this situation, it is unlikely to change.

Thus, to conclude, I believe that we will ultimately be rid of racism when we are rid of capitalism and authoritarianism. Which is why politically, I am a libertarian anti-capitalist – better known as “an anarchist”.

Nothing exists in a vacuum – everything is interconnected. Racism is no different.

Make of my ramblings what you will.

Kane and Abel syndrome perhaps?

Racism hasn’t always existed, it became widespread during the creation of the European empires.

Around the 18th century, European powers began to conquer the world and become immensely rich, enlightenment started the rational age in the Western world, and “scientific” ideas about race and white supremacy came about at that time.

Still, I feel that the mindset of “us” against “them”, be it along caste, ethnicity, race or class lines, have been with us for a long time. Irish were considered niggers, lazy, drunks, in the 19th century. It is amazing how stereotypes remain, while the actors change. And in every generation, there seems to be a number of people who are tolerant, and a number of people who are bigots.

I am guessing that perhaps, this is all about the capacity to empathise with your fellow Men, and to put yourself in someone’s shoes.

Perhaps this is a simplistic explanation.

Racism hasn’t always existed, it became widespread during the creation of the European empires.

Mellie’s actually correct, in relation to Britain specifically, at least with regards to genuine race-based prejudice towards non-white people and assumptions of the latter’s inherent inferiority (as opposed to just disliking people because they’re from a different country to oneself).

Racism against, for example, South Asians only became really prevalent from the early 19th century onwards, because of a combination of Victorian-era evangelism, the theories about race which became widespread during that era, and the corrosive effect of imperial success and colonial expansion.

There’s a mountain of historical material confirming that white British attitudes towards South Asians (and the subcontinent’s culture & history) had been very different prior to that period, both here in Britain and amongst the majority of East India Company officers who were in the subcontinent (not to mention the various mercenaries from Britain, other parts of Europe, and even America who were also present there at the time).

I mentioned this briefly on the “token ethnics” thread, but William Dalrymple’s book “White Mughals” goes into an extensive amount of detail about the matter (there are plenty of other sources of information around as well, of course, many of which are referenced in Dalrymple’s book).

Is politics not about manipulating psychology in any case?

Racism hasn’t always existed, it became widespread during the creation of the European empires. They needed an excuse for why they were murdering and enslaving many thousands of human beings. So they said the indigenous populations were inferior and it was for their own good.

To this day racism is encouraged because it provides political scapegoats. It’s much easier for our rulers to blame unemployment, the housing shortage etc on minorities than to solve those questions, which would require social investment they don’t want to pay for. Or Islamophobia is used as an “excuse” for killing thousands of innocent people to take control of their oil.

The rise of the BNP is assisted by Islamophobia, attacks on immigration and asylum-seekers, etc. If right-wing Labour hadn’t conceded to the racist narrative on these matters, the BNP wouldn’t have been given the ammunition they now have.

It’s not a psychological problem but a political one.

My view on the ‘one-policy voter and that policy is having a white-only Britain’ is that there is a psychopathic tendency involved, which would make it pretty difficult.

Agreed.

Some people are obviously going to be open to negotiation and reason (even though it may take a lot of time and effort), but others have the aforementioned psychiatric disorder which results in a severely diminished (even non-existent) level of basic human empathy towards (and identification with) their “targets”; the subsequent distorted perceptions cause them to view & treat the latter as subhuman or even inhuman.

In those cases, force has to be met with force. The only way to deal with psychopathic people like that is to be smarter and stronger than they are.

Has anyone wondered why people become racist?

Practically every day, at least at the moment.

If we really want to – if we really take the time to listen and communicate with someone, and genuinely empathise with their fears (while not necessarily agreeing with their diagnosis), then we can offer them the first hand up out of the pit of misplaced hatred that is racism and fascism.

Good stuff, David S.

In another thread, I have been debating something along these lines – that we should engage with non-violent Islamists even if we find their views extremist or hateful. It is a pity that some find this approach of engaging people we do not agree with, as appeasement, as compromising our views and ideals, or giving credence to extremist views.

I admit that this is perhaps no easy task, but clearly something is causing some people to develop racist points of view. We can either fight against those points of view and further marginalise those who hold them, or we can extend the hand of compassion to them and guide them through the exploration of their misinterpreted unmet needs.

Totally agreed.

This is exactly right. Of course it excludes the the category Ravi mentions. I am not sure if there is an answer for them.

I might be wrong on that account, Refresh… the fact that is harder, doesn’t mean it is impossible.

Has anyone wondered why people become racist?

This is exactly right. Of course it excludes the the category Ravi mentions. I am not sure if there is an answer for them.

The response by Blunkett to the far-right instigated riots of 2001 was a turning point in the fortunes of the BNP. Blunkett thought the unthinkable, leaving us to pick up the pieces.

I was grateful for this later on, when my cat ate his dinner too fast and promptly threw up on the carpet.

I’d like to personally extend my thanks to the BNP for providing me with an instant disposable cat-vomit scoop. The density of the paper and the glossy ink on your leaflet made it perfect for the task.

Anyone else found any creative uses for BNP election literature?

Ravi @ 17:

Obviously, if you are a one-policy voter and that policy is having a white-only Britain, then there is nothing you can do to convince that voter to move away from the BNP.

I used to hold this view, but recently I came across the Nonviolent Communication work of Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, and I began to believe that, with enough compassion and good listening skills, it may actually be possible to communicate with racists in a way that is sufficiently genuine and non-judgemental that it would enable the permanent deconstruction of their racist views.

I think it all comes from recognising that behind their apparent hatred of foreigners, is actually a misplaced, alienated expression of a different unmet need. Perhaps it’s one that they aren’t even aware of on a conscious level, because goodness knows – don’t we all feel that “something is badly wrong” at times, yet we can’t always work out what it is?

Perhaps it is the need to feel secure in their communities, or safe in their jobs, or even just their need to feel heard, cared about as a person, and not exploited left, right and centre. I’m sure there are as many reasons for racism as there are racists themselves.

If we really want to – if we really take the time to listen and communicate with someone, and genuinely empathise with their fears (while not necessarily agreeing with their diagnosis), then we can offer them the first hand up out of the pit of misplaced hatred that is racism and fascism.

I admit that this is perhaps no easy task, but clearly something is causing some people to develop racist points of view. We can either fight against those points of view and further marginalise those who hold them, or we can extend the hand of compassion to them and guide them through the exploration of their misinterpreted unmet needs.

I’m no apologist for fascists or racists, but I still try to recognise that behind those hateful views is a human being with needs and fears of their own. If we can break through the hardened outer shell and expose enough of our own humanity, then we may just be able to find theirs too.

I’m not saying it will work every time, but I think it’s a at least a viable and positive approach to try on the floating BNP voter.

why aren’t they voting for mainstream parties? how do mainstream parties attract them if not by promising them immigrant-free jam tomorrow?

There is a considerable number of people who voted Labour and other mainstream parties and moved to the BNP, so there is definitely room to get them back without promising racist policies. Obviously, if you are a one-policy voter and that policy is having a white-only Britain, then there is nothing you can do to convince that voter to move away from the BNP.