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How the self-serving 'racism' industry works.

darkislanddarkisland Posts: 3,178
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The link to a Daiily Telegraph story (below) illustrates perfectly just how the 'racism/offence' industry has capitalised on one particular murder. It seems that some lives are more worthy than others.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/seanthomas/100229154/the-murder-of-stephen-lawrence-and-the-strange-case-of-the-missing-wikipedia-entries/

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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,138
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    “nothing particularly notable – unless there was an uproar over the girl being served in food”
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    DaisyBumblerootDaisyBumbleroot Posts: 24,763
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    I think the Steven Lawrence case has had more infamy because of the exposé of institutionalised racism within the met and the CPS, authorities who are supposed to protect and administer mustice, not just because it was a black guy killed by white guys.
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    Alan1981Alan1981 Posts: 5,416
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    I'm not sure what you are on about, Oldham and Bradford is a racial utopia. It's only those evil White racists that exist that are spoiling it .
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    ShutupShutup Posts: 299
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    Well the novelist pretty much answered his own questions...

    In modern Britain it seems there are racist killings, and racist killings. And some are deemed very important. And some are “non-notable”.
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    scottie2121scottie2121 Posts: 11,284
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    darkisland wrote: »
    The link to a Daiily Telegraph story (below) illustrates perfectly just how the 'racism/offence' industry has capitalised on one particular murder. It seems that some lives are more worthy than others.

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/seanthomas/100229154/the-murder-of-stephen-lawrence-and-the-strange-case-of-the-missing-wikipedia-entries/

    BIB - perhaps it would help to understand where you're coming from if you explain what you mean by this 'industry'. At the moment it comes over as vague as the 'PC brigade' and other such bogeypersons/organisations.
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    neelianeelia Posts: 24,186
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    I think the Steven Lawrence case has had more infamy because of the exposé of institutionalised racism within the met and the CPS, authorities who are supposed to protect and administer mustice, not just because it was a black guy killed by white guys.

    and we need the stupidity of using the term "institutionalised racism" in this instance to be exposed.
    It has been said that it was deliberately done and as it was almost too stupid to be credible, I think they may be right.

    The term had been used for the worst type of racism eg South Africa, where it was intentionally written into law (and other institutions). It was used in this case for the mildest form, unknowing unintentional disproportionate disadvantage.
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    juliancarswelljuliancarswell Posts: 8,896
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    Is this a current article? I see it shows todays date but that doesn't always mean much.
    I only ask because I notice that comments at the foot of the page are closed. This normally only happens when an article is pulled up from the files.
    Either way it is an interesting one, to which I would add Kriss Donald.
    What happened to Stephen Lawrence was despicable, The scum that did it should be put away for life.
    But, even though I was appalled by it, I didn't follow the case too thoroughly yet I can name his parents, the friend who was with him on the day and 4 of the suspects off the top of my head and without trying. All through media coverage, of which there has been , quite rightly, a lot.

    In all of the cases listed in that report from the Telegraph, I knew nothing about any of them and only heard about Kriss Donald and the torturing to death that the 15 yr old school boy went through when somebody mentioned it in a post on DS
    I couldn't have named his parents or killers which were a gang of young Asian Men.
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    DaisyBumblerootDaisyBumbleroot Posts: 24,763
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    neelia wrote: »
    and we need the stupidity of using the term "institutionalised racism" in this instance to be exposed.
    It has been said that it was deliberately done and as it was almost too stupid to be credible, I think they may be right.

    The term had been used for the worst type of racism eg South Africa, where it was intentionally written into law (and other institutions). It was used in this case for the mildest form, unknowing unintentional disproportionate disadvantage.
    We are not in South Africa for starters, any kind of racism in my opinion does not belong in the prosecution and justice system no matter how 'mild'. It doesn't have to be written in law to be institutionalised.

    My point was, the Steven lawrence case is a lot more high profile because it involved those institutions(forgive my stupidity, I can't think of another term). Murders, horrible murders, some racially motivated, some not, happen on a daily basis. Of course Wikipedia isn't going to list them all.
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    Lil_MLil_M Posts: 2,105
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    We are not in South Africa for starters, any kind of racism in my opinion does not belong in the prosecution and justice system no matter how 'mild'. It doesn't have to be written in law to be institutionalised.

    Welll....you say that and the facts are quite different.


    Although S.Africa has grown up a lot and is far better place than what it was in the 80's.
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    DaisyBumblerootDaisyBumbleroot Posts: 24,763
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    Lil_M wrote: »
    Welll....you say that and the facts are quite different

    Sorry, you've lost me there :confused:
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    Deep PurpleDeep Purple Posts: 63,255
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    I think the Steven Lawrence case has had more infamy because of the exposé of institutionalised racism within the met and the CPS, authorities who are supposed to protect and administer mustice, not just because it was a black guy killed by white guys.

    And was there ever a term more misunderstood by most people?
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    neelianeelia Posts: 24,186
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    We are not in South Africa for starters,
    so? how does that make my choosing it as an example of how the term was widely used, even minutely less valid.
    any kind of racism in my opinion does not belong in the prosecution and justice system no matter how 'mild'. It doesn't have to be written in law to be institutionalised.
    that is the way it had been widely used. Where did I imply IN ANY WAY that any form or racism belongs in the CJS?
    My point was, the Steven lawrence case is a lot more high profile because it involved those institutions(forgive my stupidity, I can't think of another term). Murders, horrible murders, some racially motivated, some not, happen on a daily basis. Of course Wikipedia isn't going to list them all.

    The case got a lot of profile due to incompetence, the campaign and the report that a) used evidence of incompetence as evidence of racism and b) used a term for that racism that in many people's mind's had a significant element of intention.

    There were comments in the McPhersen reports about the way the family was treated being the most regrettable and symptomatic of institutional racism. This totally ignored the way many (probably most) families were treated regardless of race. It was a disgraceful dismissal of the experiences of many murder victim families at that time and before it.

    Of course the good thing is that they have had to improve on this across the board as a consequence. The danger now is that they sometimes go overboard and meander into councelling territory.
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    darkislanddarkisland Posts: 3,178
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    BIB - perhaps it would help to understand where you're coming from if you explain what you mean by this 'industry'. At the moment it comes over as vague as the 'PC brigade' and other such bogeypersons/organisations.

    Fair point. My view is that since the (ill conceived and socially disatarous) Macpherson report, we have two classes of crime victim in the uk.
    It seems that an entire generation has been inculcated in the ways of self-loathing, proxy offence taking, and that any serious debate on the issues is far too dangerous territory for most to dare tread.
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    DaisyBumblerootDaisyBumbleroot Posts: 24,763
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    And was there ever a term more misunderstood by most people?

    Christ almighty, that's me told. I promise never to use the term again. I was trying to make a point to the OPs question why the Stephen Lawrence case has remained high profile, while other cases havnt. I shall choose my words more carefully next time.
    neelia wrote: »
    so? how does that make my choosing it as an example of how the term was widely used, even minutely less valid.

    So what if the term is widely used? Here or other countries? Is there a law against that?

    neelia wrote: »
    that is the way it had been widely used. Where did I imply IN ANY WAY that any form or racism belongs in the CJS?
    .
    I don't think i SUGGESTED ANYTHING OF THE SORT
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    pickwickpickwick Posts: 25,739
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    I'm not denying that racist murders of black people get more coverage than vice versa (I don't know), but man, that is a dim article. For a start, the reason the Stephen Lawrence case is so well known, and why it's notable on wiki, is BECAUSE of what Thomas talks about in his first paragraph - "With her remorseless, dignified campaigning she made it impossible for British society to ignore the appalling slaughter of her son." The fallout from the murder is the story, not the murder, particularly.

    For another thing, there are racist murders of white people that are well-covered on wikipedia - Kriss Donald and Ross Parker, off the top of my head. So clearly it's not a straightforward "racist murders of black people are newsworthy, racist murders of white people aren't" thing.
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    gulliverfoylegulliverfoyle Posts: 6,318
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    Lil_M wrote: »
    Welll....you say that and the facts are quite different.


    Although S.Africa has grown up a lot and is far better place than what it was in the 80's.

    is it? the facts speak otherwise

    murder rape and burglary have tripled since the 70s

    its 30 times the uk rate

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
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    neelianeelia Posts: 24,186
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    So what if the term is widely used? Here or other countries? Is there a law against that?
    FFS it is not a problem that it was widely used but that it was widely used TO MEAN SOMETHING DIFFERENT. If you can't see the problem in use of a term to mean something different than its wide use and thus build in misunderstanding, then I can't help you.

    There are a lot of unadvisable things that are not against the law.
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    neelianeelia Posts: 24,186
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    And was there ever a term more misunderstood by most people?
    Indeed and as I said possibly deliberately chosen to that end. I think a lot of people actually think that McPherson's report concludes that the Met botched the investigation because they couldn't be bothered doing it properly because he was black.
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    Deep PurpleDeep Purple Posts: 63,255
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    neelia wrote: »
    Indeed and as I said possibly deliberately chosen to that end. I think a lot of people actually think that McPherson's report concludes that the Met botched the investigation because they couldn't be bothered doing it properly because he was black.

    Very true. Most people have seen that term, without looking at what it means, and just made the assumption that the Met are all racists, which is why they messed up the investigation.
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    Deep PurpleDeep Purple Posts: 63,255
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    Christ almighty, that's me told. I promise never to use the term again. I was trying to make a point to the OPs question why the Stephen Lawrence case has remained high profile, while other cases havnt. I shall choose my words more carefully next time.

    A rather over the top response to a reasonable point I thought.

    I wasn't actually having a pop at you. merely pointing out that the term is known by all, yet understood by few.
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    VoynichVoynich Posts: 14,481
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    The Kriss Donald murder was covered in here in Scotland. The men who did it were caught and got huge sentences. The fact it happened in Scotland is one of the reasons the national news didn't cover it. For example the recent "heatwave drownings" were covered on the national news when it happened down South. Did any southerners notice that two lads drowned on Monday near Ardrossan? The BBC national news didn't mention it. It's just the way the media is.
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    2+2=52+2=5 Posts: 24,264
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    First the article is actually a blog entry. Not a news article. It's someone's personal view. Imagine it like they had posted it on here as a thread.

    Secondly the blog entry seems to be in general a comment about the way Wikipedia is considered a de facto source of information and the way its contributors debate and decide which stories should have pages on it.

    I'd heard of all the stories listed in the blog except the Charlene Downes case which is exceedingly sad. But there is an entry in Wikipedia on her.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Charlene_Downes

    It's sad that these other deaths were not championed to continue to be in the public limelight. I think they should be.
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