Wednesday 5 October 2011

I don't Like Black, Asian or Gay People





So I've recently had a conversation, with a friend of a friend. He was such a nice guy until he sprung it upon me the actual fact that he's a rampant racist and is quite comfortable in being so. To some extent I think he was trying to bulk up his personality to come across as cool or opinionated.


Let's set the scene. We're in a bar and the girls are dancing, we're just chilling on the sofas and chatting. He was totally enamoured with my Irish nationality and we got to discussing what we studied at university. He studied sports management; I study Abuse Studies which he screwed up his face at.

He eventually spoke about how he doesn’t really think human rights are relevant and how in the UK our human rights aren’t as good as in other countries. At the time I spent half the conversation trying to source what he meant by Human Rights.

 
He spoke how he thought immigration in the UK should be banned; there were too many immigrants and the fact that he couldn’t wear his hood up to "hide his identity" but “Asians” can wear “head things” to hide theirs. Why is he hiding his identity in the first place? It gets better... He also said he doesn’t like black people because "they think they own the place". Gay People are another "dislike" of his. He doesn’t mind gay people who don’t let people know they're gay. People shouldn’t wear or flaunt their sexuality. They should accept that they don’t have boobs and move on.

 
When I challenged him, his response was that he has some Asian, Black and Gay friends and he doesn’t mind them. But for these groups of people he gave me examples of why he doesn’t like them, these being based on experiences he has had. These experiences were based on a very limited sample of people.

He also gave me a scenario where he wanted a job at his dads work and he didn’t get it because an Asian person got it. I suggested that maybe this person got the job because he was more qualified or suitable for the position. He disagreed and simply put him not getting the job down to him being white.

Me being totally sober I let him rant nodded along. I let him have his space to talk openly. Then it was my turn...

I didn’t see how he could brand a whole race of people based on his experiences of just a hand full of people. He took my point on board but it wasn’t staying on board. It became blatantly obvious that this racist streak was deeply indoctrinated. No matter what I said he came back with a rubbish example of why he doesn’t like “them”. What is them? I think this is the very essence of humanity that we could do without. We brutalise each other’s souls because we fear the unknown. People are different. I think as human beings it’s our duty to step outside our comfort zones, explore the unknown and take each person as an individual. Not what they are or who they are.

Does racism come down to the fact that the individual isn’t that bright and thinks that he is culturally superior to everyone else? It’s a problem we’ve had since the dawn of time. In the new age of diversity and globalisation it’s now more than ever a major issue.

Open your mind but don’t lose sight of your values.
Please leave me your thoughts.