Don't get me wrong, I'm not shrugging off racism that's black vs. white, in fact, when I started this article, that was going to be my focus, (using the story placed at the bottom of this post, which for once, ends cheerfully) but then I found these figures, and asked myself, do we focus on the racism that's rooted in our skin too much?
1998
Out of 7,755 incidents, 4,321 were committed on racial, and 754 were on an ethnicity/nat'l origin bias.
This means roughly 6 out of every 10 crimes were on racial bias, blacks being 38% of the total.
Out of those 7,755 incidents, there were 12 murders--8 of which were on racial bias. That's two-thirds.
1996
Out of 8,759 incidents, 5,396 were commited on racial bias, and 940 were on an ethnicity/nat'l origin bias
This means roughly 6 out of every 10 crimes were on racial bias, blacks being 42% of the total.
Out of those 8,759 incidents, there were 13 murders--8 of which were committed on racial bias and 1 on ethnicity/nat'l origin bias
http://library.thinkquest.org/C006274/race/stats.html
Think about it, if you said a black joke (or a white joke) someone would call you a racist, or say you were out of order. However, if you said a German joke, or an Irish joke, or a Polish joke, they'd probably just say that that was harsh, after laughing. So are we focusing on the right racism? Or, have things just gone too far, and should we all ease up a little? Personally, I think this story tells me otherwise...
A group of seven teenage skinheads who carried out 19 racially-motivated murders in Moscow have been sentenced to jail terms of between six and 20 years.
The gang targeted non-Slavic migrants in Russia's capital between Aug 2006 and Oct 2007 and then posted evidence of the brutal murders online.
In addition to killing 19 people, the gang also tried to kill a dozen more, the court heard.
Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky, seen as the ringleaders of the group, were given 10-year sentences in a penal colony, the maximum the judge could give as they were minors at the time of the crimes.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/3777299/Russian-teenage-skinhead-gang-jailed-for-19-racist-murders.html
Although, that was four years ago, so, how about this, which was written in January, 2011.
In the last six months, a number of cases have been before the courts following attacks which appear to have been racially motivated.
From top to bottom: Nachhattar Singh Bola, Simon San and Papa Mbaye Mody.
Three of the four deaths detailed below took place in Scotland and one of these was on a takeaway worker, a profession at high risk of racially motivated attacks, identified in the IRR's briefing paper Racial violence: the buried issue.
Just last week, the young assailants of Nachhattar Singh Bola were all given life terms for the unprovoked attack. Indian man Nachhattar Bola (26) who was visiting friends in Renfrewshire, Scotland for a few months, was attacked on 2 July 2010. He was chased and then attacked by youths as he walked down Thompson Street in Renfrew. The group kicked and beat him, knocking him unconscious, stamping on his head and body. He was taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where he remained in intensive care for five weeks until he died on 6 August 2010. His wife arrived from India in the UK too late to see her husband before he died (because of visa problems) and then did not have enough money to fly his body home. Two 16-year-olds were initially arrested for attempted murder. The charge was changed upon Nachhattar's death to racially aggravated murder, which they were formally charged with when they appeared in private at Paisley Sheriff Court on 16 August 2010. In January 2011, three young men - Dillon Cherrie (16), Dean Logan (16) and Stewart Patterson (20) - all pleaded guilty to murder and were sentenced to life imprisonment, with Cherrie and Logan ordered to serve at least nine years and Patterson ordered to serve at least ten and a half years.
In December 2010, Mustafa Elsherkisi, 40, from Libya, was convicted of the racially aggravated murder of his neighbour Mohammed Idris Mirza in May 2010. Mohammed, a 47-year-old Pakistani man who had lived in Stenhouse Gardens North, in Edinburgh, for fifteen years, had previously argued with his neighbour over the issue of his dog fouling their common garden. Edinburgh High Court was told how Elsherkisi, who denied the charges, had shouted racist abuse during the argument ('P*** bastard'). He had said that he had been carrying a knife for protection and that it was 'a terrible accident'. Elsherkisi was sentenced to life, and told he must serve fifteen years in prison before the possibility of release.
http://www.irr.org.uk/2011/january/ha000028.html
Is certainly raises the question of just how much racism still goes on. I mean, there are still websites online that offer you to join the KKK, I think it's sick personally. As much as the world moves on with technology, and medicine, we still haven't solved the basic issues that have been ongoing for centuries!
However, there is some hope, and justice in all this, (here's the story I mentioned earlier:)
On British Airways flight FR112 from Johannesburg, a rich, middle-aged white woman from South Africa was on the plane. She was running up and down the aisles she was that rich, and if people said stop she would give them money and say “now do I have to stop?” and then she’d keep on doing it. When the plane was about to take off she sat down in her seat and was immediately disgusted because she was sitting next to a black man.
“Stewardess, bleeeuurrrgghh,” she wailed to the stewardess. “Stewardess there’s a black man, bleeeuuurgh I’m going to be sick, this is repulsive euuurrrggghhh.” She kept making vomiting noises and pointing at the black man though she wasn’t vomiting. The black man was getting a bit embarrassed. The stewardess came over to the woman and asked what was wrong.
“You put me next to a black man, bleeeuuuurrghhh, that is so euuurrrghhhhh. I can’t believe this,” she complained and complained.
“Oh, I’ll see what I can do!” enthused the stewardess as she scurried up the plane and behind a curtain. After a moment she came back and said, “I’m soooooo sorry, but there are no more seats in economy, but there’s a seat in first class.” The rich woman’s eyes lit up. First class was her kind of thing. The stewardess continued talking, “it’s really rare that we allow this sort of thing, but we think it’s completely unfair that you have to sit next to such an obnoxious human being.”
“So that is why,” the stewardess went on, “WE ARE GIVING THE SEAT TO THE BLACK MAN because you (the woman) are the obnoxious human being I was talking about.”
For full story, click below:
http://blog.misterbrilliant.com/?p=18
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