The irony being that these are groups are, then, by definition, racist. If racism involves discriminating on the grounds of race, surely any group or individual ignoring all white victims of racial violence and murder is, fundamentally and undeniably, a racist?

I’m not a member of the far right, I just think that the fact that whenever the press really publicises a racist attack or murder, it’s almost exclusively a white on black crime.
This distorts reality and actively plays into the hands of the far right – they have at least one argument it is impossible to defeat them on. The media shows horrendous bias.

In the post Industrial Revolution ghettos of Europe and America problems were mostly confined to poor areas as education and material diversions kept the rich not exactly out of trouble but in different kinds of trouble, now education seems to be failing to instil in the majority of its victims the basic values needed for civilised living. The “do as you will but harm none” of ancient pagan culture that was passed on, modified, through Christianity, Judaeism & Islam seems to have given way to “so long as you and your mates are having a laugh, fuck anybody else’s feelings.”

For instance: the rape and murder of Farah Noor Adams along the Kelvin cyclepath a little over a year ago. It was another heinous crime, and yet recieved very little coverage in comparison to this.

When it comes to the builders and the like, never having experienced gangs of women cat calling me (hard to believe I know)I don’t know what this would be like. Was it “alright darling” that sort of thing? Would the blokes doing it say that it was a compliment (unwanted I know)?

As I’ve said before I don’t think my experiences are unique. Not all men hate women but some men hate wowen all the time.

I don’t want to pry – and if I am, in Glasgow parlance feel free to tell me to Get Tae F*ck – but the sexual abuse you have suffered is sickening and has genuinely shocked me. Was this as result of modern life in Glasgow – or were you in situations where you might have been more at risk?

For the most part the ‘reasons’ given for attacking someone are just excuses by ‘hardmen’ to do what they do best. As I’ve mentioned previously I’m white, I’ve spent roughly twenty years of my life in Pollokshields and visit my parents there regularly. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I’ve been racially abused or felt I was being intimated because of my race.

On the other hand I have been raped twice, flashed eleven times and the victim of sexist verbal abuse more times than I can count. My experiences are not uncommon amongst women.

I don’t deny racial violence is a two way street. I just wonder at the emphasis placed on it when abuse of women remains more common.

I’d dispute that too. But no-one’s saying that. But they do seem to be suggesting that the relationship between gangs and racism is somehow a zero-sum game. This is not so.

That took place in the later years of primary school. I don’t dispute Kriss Donald’s murder was racist, I just dispute that gangs in Pollokshields are always split along race lines.

http://www.sundayherald.com/59039

The scum responsible for Kriss’ murder were quite happy to attack fellow Asians and I suspect anyone they perceived as weaker.

I think I’m teaching at this place. No names but this being the largest school in Western Europe? Has a fleeto who go by the charming name of the ‘Toryglen Nazis’? My point being while I agree this murder is part and parcel of Glasgow’s gang culture, I don’t think it’s tenable to say it’s gang-related in inverse proportion to its racist nature.

P.S. As someone mentioned above – Mohammed Sarwar? Hats off to him. Like many of those products of the Glasgow Labour establishment, I’ve never had a particularly high regard for him but on this? Righteous piece of work, no mistake. He’s got my vote. Except I don’t live on the South Side. Thank goodness. Temple Scurvy, ya bass

http://www.sundayherald.com/59039

http://www.sundayherald.com/59040

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/tm_headline=no-shame%26method=full%26objectid=18082345%26siteid=64736-name_page.html

‘I am haunted by his words… “I’m only 15″.’

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/opinion/columnists/elainecsmith/tm_method=full%26objectid=18082398%26siteid=64736-name_page.html

Once again we gather to celebrate those blog pieces which you think we should all have already read. If you’d like to make suggestions for next week then plesae do so by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT…

I have had experiences that would surprise you, I’ve experienced racism and prejudice in 3 different countries, in Britain i have seen the paki bashing culture up close although except for one incident I have not suffered directly from it.I have also experienced racism for being an ethnic minority in Pakistan and seen it up close in the middle east . I’m not a racist, and I will not allow racism to turn me into one..ultimately i feel there is a flaw in the anti racism mind set,…just because one suffers abuse in any form does not mean they being a victim are inherently good. ..in the end the character of a person is shown when they exercise power, whether by virtue of being a majority or by virtue of exercising power.

Exactly Clarwill. This is the crux of the matter.

‘Doubts crept in during the Stephen Lawrence inquiry when, believing people are innocent until found guilty, I thought it unfair the way the five lads ‘accused’ of his murder had been treated’

I was a bit alarmed that people who would sneer at a group of working class women bawling abuse a a sentenced paedophile being taken out of court were prepared to spit at and abuse a group of men who hadn’t actually been convicted of anything. I do wonder if they’d have been as tolerant of a white croed doing the same to five black suspects in similar circumstances.

‘I always keep a photograph of her while I blog because I want to remind myself that I do not want her to grow up in a country where Charlene Downes, Mary-Ann Lengehan, Kriss Donald, Ross Parker and many others, met such horrific fates.’

I can understand your revulsion at these crimes and the people who committed them but why are you so fixated on the racial element. Are you happy to bring up your daughter in the same country where Holly and Jessica, Lesly-Ann, John Kilbride, Pauline Read, Keith Bennett, Caroline Hogg met such horrific fates?
There is no excuse for such sadism, I have little interest in the’reasons’ of the perpetrators of such crimes.

I have been racially abused a few times. I don’t see why I should respond by becoming a racist. Anti-social trash is available in all colours, as are decent people, witty people, kind people and so on.

You strike me as a decent fellow who’s had his beliefs shattered, but I really don’t think you’re hardline response is in any way helpful.

I wanted to go to Tottenham County with my friends from Devonshire Hill primary but was sent to Wood Green instead.

My mum and dad were leftwing so my early political memories are of going on anti-Vietnam war marches.

While I was still at school I joined the ANL and the SWP, even though only a few years before my grandmother had to move out of Tottenham when my grandfather (an ex 8th Army WWII vetran) died because of all the muggings of old (English) people by, to be blunt, blacks.

I was beaten unconscious by the police on an anti-NF march in Lewisham in the late seventies.

I went on all the biggest demos of the late 70’s and 80 supporting Troops Out, CND, ANL, Freedom in South Africa, Freedom in Zimbabwe, and support for the PLO. I even went on a march to free Winston Silcott.

I called myself a socialist and anti-racist, met and shook hands with Bernie Grant twice, and voted Labour through thick and thin.

Doubts crept in during the Stephen Lawrence inquiry when, believing people are innocent until found guilty, I thought it unfair the way the five lads ‘accused’ of his murder had been treated.

I asked around and found out that my parents, who are the most harmless, kindest, and unassuming people you could meet had both been racially abused more than once while walking the streets of Tottenham (my mother was a dinner lady at Sommerset school and it happened to her there as well). I found out that my brother who moved to Cornwall to get away from London did so because of racial abuse he and his wife and children suffered in Wood Green.

I have had many black and asian friends, including some girlfriends. This includes a very close female african friend over the last ten years who knows how I feel. She has said to me many times she can not understand why the English are so tolerant and are not more angry about the ways things are going in this country, I have told her it is because they hold it in, but one day it will show itself.

I have my family tree so I know all my relatives who fought and died in WWII and WWI. I have a uncle who was wounded on the beaches of Normandy. I even have an ancestor who fought and died during the Napoleonic wars.

I’m lucky to be old enough to remember Tottenham when it was a normal crime free English working class part of the country where people really could leave their doors unlocked and open, but am still young enough to be bringing up a family so I can tell my children what it used to be like.

I got married late and now have a beautiful little daughter of twenty months with my hair and eyes. I always keep a photograph of her while I blog because I want to remind myself that I do not want her to grow up in a country where Charlene Downes, Mary-Ann Lengehan, Kriss Donald, Ross Parker and many others, met such horrific fates.

I hate no one. I love my family and country.

As it (nearly) said on the football flag that was banned:
Born in England, Live in England, Fight for England, Die for England

Well that’s my story, I could say more but it might get boring…

From what i’ve read from TL before, though, I’m not sure you really would have a pint with him (or he with you). I don’t think I would.

Funny enough, I hope Tottenham Lad reads this. I went to school in N17 — The Somerset School (even if I am N4 born and bred). Where did you go TL?