Ignored, angry and anxious: the world of the white working class!

[treelover]

It's the 'racism radar' pinging again, innit?

HH said:
If you're trying to accuse someone of something, then who and with what?

 

[Harold Hill]

Professor Plum with the rope in the study. Eh?

Funny.

Could have just answered my question.

 

[belboid]

It's the 'racism radar' pinging again, innit?

ffs get a grip.

 

[Harold Hill]

newspapers, politicians, of hypocritical double standards?

You could find examples of double standards everywhere for every group of people if we really looked into it. Take the Met. Ian Blair criticises the media for concentrating on the murder of the businessman at kensal Green and ignoring the Asian guy dragged to his death by a car and a black guy shot dead. Yet he failed to mention a white guy killed in a pub straightener in Kilburn around the same time (the press didn't mention it either).

In those cases put in context there is a case of 'it could have been me' for the station murder more than any of the others.

 

[treelover]

what's a 'straightener, a dispute?

 

[belboid]

You could find examples of double standards everywhere for every group of people if we really looked into it.

yup, so?

The Blair comment struck me as one made by somebody who just didnt really undersand the issues at all, and who was attempting to shift the focus from criticisms of the police onto another group. Hardly surprising.

 

[Harold Hill]

yup, so?

The Blair comment struck me as one made by somebody who just didnt really undersand the issues at all, and who was attempting to shift the focus from criticisms of the police onto another group. Hardly surprising.

So Donnas little dig at the motivation behind reports like this isn't as straightforward as he/she might like to think it is.

As far as Blair is concerned Ithink the only murder he doesn't want in the papers is that of a certain Brazilian.

 

[treelover]

Er, lost!

So Donnas little dig at the motivation behind reports like this isn't as straightforward as he/she might like to think it is.

 

[Fong]

who are 'they' here? The saemas the next 'they'? Sorry, but what you are writing is very confused here.

No one is denying that the working-class, of all colours, are being deined representation, or even any pretense of it. That is true no matter what the colour or racial origin of the members of that class - even the ones who can go to a 'Bangladeshi Cultural Association' or whatever, as they are overwhelmingly run my middle-class people with middle-class concerns, same as the organisations that are meant to represent 'white' working-class people.

If you are Bangladeshi and in a run down area, or if you are black lad dealing a bit of dope on the sly, or if you are a chave or a scally - there is no one to speak out for you, because you are not a member of the 'respectable' middle-class, makes no odds what colour you are. There never really was either, Labour just did a better job of pretending then.

But what of the (I think) central point, that wihte working-class feel totally ewxcluded and its the fault of...the welfare state! It is very sad that some people simply see the words 'white working class' and 'ignored' anmd are then willing to buy any old shit that goes with it - like this article. The article, and, assuminhg it is a fair description of what is inside it, the book are both utterly reactionary justifications for further neo-liberalism, the thing which is actually the bloody cause of most of the problems in the first place!

To the, very small, extent to which recent immigrants have got some influence with local councils (yee ha - influence with the least powerful tier of government!) well fuckng good for them. To say councils make no effort to communicate with white w-c groups simply isn't true (not in my not inconsiderable experience anyway) anyway, the problem is that they arent there! Whilst umpteen factors have led to thier being a Bangladeshi Cultural Association whilst the local Tenants & Residents Association has collapsed, if that is how it is, that is how it is.

Depends on where you got the 'they' from, if you took it from the start of the message then it would be the person that wrote the original article?

Well it isn't true tho is it? Not everyone is being denied representation, they might be denied representation that means anything, but that is not what the question is.

There is a Tamil group, a Muslim group, an African group in Newham, there is no group specifically designed or tailored to answer the needs of the local white population.

I don't care if you think those other groups have an impact or not, that is not relevent. That is not what the debate is. The debate is that they exist for every possible group, except white people.

If you are a white english person, there is NO group that represents any of your views.

In fact, the very idea that you might have views that differ from other people, is tantamount to racism.

 

[detective-boy]

If you are a white english person, there is NO group that represents any of your views.

The point is that ALL of the usual arrangements of society represent the views and interests of the majority population in so far as any issues related to race / culture are concerned at least. Hence the majority population do not need any additional support group whereas different minority groups may/do.

Whether this theory works in practice is debatable, but that is the theory.

 

[William of Walworth]

It's the 'racism radar' pinging again, innit?

I think you'll find that it was YOU who posted the first post on this thread treelover.

I'm not (at all) saying you're racist, or that this subject shouldn't be discussed, but it's pointless denying that some of those most exercised by the supposed crisis of representation of the white working class are suspicious of and resentful towards other groups. I'm talking about in RL rather than this thread really.

I'm with belboid on all this -- unnecessarily racialising the discussion as if it's the white working class who are uniquely disavantaged, when in reality most of the problems affecting ALL working people are common to all of them, is negative IMO.

 

[Fong]

I think you'll find that it was YOU who posted the first post on this thread treelover.

I'm not (at all) saying you're racist, or that this subject shouldn't be discussed, but it's pointless denying that some of those most exercised by the supposed crisis of representation of the white working class are suspicious of and resentful towards other groups. I'm talking about in RL rather than this thread really.

I'm with belboid on all this -- unnecessarily racialising the discussion as if it's the white working class who are uniquely disavantaged, when in reality most of the problems affecting ALL working people are common to all of them, is negative IMO.

This is the problem with discussing race related issues like this, the moment the right wing get a wiff of a bit of unrest they hijack any debate that happens and what happens is the debate dies in the minds of anyone who isn't right wing.

Doesn't actually help the people on the ground who are still dealing with the issue.