Defence or unwanted interference?

pompa There are no doubt a number of reasons why some ethnic minorities (and other groups) have not done very well in education and employment - including the issue of access to public school education.

But I was talking about research conducted in 2009 which demonstrated that c.v.s which had non-European names on them were almost half as likely to result in an interview - even when the the remainder of the c.v. was identical to that of those with English/European names.

In 2013 a BBC undercover investigation found that that the majority of letting agents that they approached were prepared to discriminate against black families if the client requested it.

I agree that there is another form of discrimination (not racism) which affects people with non-RP accents. Only a couple of years ago, several people wrote into the BBC complaining about Steph McGovern's northern accent, which one person described as a "terrible affliction". That is obviously ridiculous, totally unacceptable and something that should be addressed - but it is a separate issue.

I remember the incident re Steph very well, the person I saw complaining was about as low on my popularity list as anyone could get.

Nothing to do with race, but I wish someone had stood up for my son when he was being verbally abused for having long hair and an ear-ring and was then kicked in the face by the same person. That was on the Metro in Newcastle over 25 years ago. The carriage was full, but nobody said a word.

Anyone seen the article by Katie Hopkins? That's real racial hatred.
I was sent an email asking for the Sun to sack her. I did.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/04/18/you-don-t-deal-with-katie-hopkins-by-calling-the-police

I did see it durhamjen - her viciousness is almost beyond belief.

It really says something about The Sun that they employ such a talentless, vile woman who makes her living out of being hateful.

Ideally you would hope that some Sun readers would cease to buy the paper - they can't all be vicious bigots can they?

I'm not sure that sacking her is the answer - some people would then try to present her as some sort of martyr.

I watched the shaky camera video made by the white woman who spoke to the white woman who was verbally attacking a muslim woman wearing a head covering. She was not shouting over anyone but saying that this is not who all Australians are . She sounded very reasonable and in the interview she did not come across as self aggrandising- but again very reasonable. She was making a public record of how some Australians think and how others think differently. This is a way to change public behaviour and perception. I'm sure it will make it more likely that others will chime in when they see and hear racial abuse as it has made me resolve to be braver in the future.