It seems to me that black, asian and any-other non-white person can make any comment about white people, or seclude them from anything, that's perfectly fine. When a white person does it, however, that's racism! Take for example Don Imus, a white radio host, who said something about blacks, and media outcry results. Kamau Kambon, a black College instructor, gives an entire speech as to why white people should be exterminated, and next to nothing is reported in the media. I think this is a little more than double standard. Those of you not familiar with Kambon, watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMOkDOXAovQ

It's a very difficult question to answer because if one does not tread carefully then you are in line for some accusations of being racist or ludicrously PC. Anyway here's my take on it....

A caucasian (white) person can never (and shouldn't as it is incredibly wrong to, this of course goes without saying) victimise someone because of their race. This is generally viewed as unacceptable and it condemned heavily (by everyone except the BNP who I abhor). Racism against caucasions seems as SF points out less publicised. I remember the 'race row' of celebrity BB in which Shilpa Shetty was bullied on grounds of race, this of course was unacceptable and the general public supported the condmenation of the racist bullies. What was not picked up on much was the racist abuse from Jermaine Jackson towards the bullies - he called them "white trash". The bullies deserved to be judged and scorn, but the implication is that Jermaine put down their narrow mindedness to the race. I realise that "white trash" is a common term in USA and used to describe trailer parks residents (and Britney Spears) and is a kind of a fair comment, but still it is technically racism....

Yes I found that all rather hypocrtical. And whilst I dont; condone what happened on BB I feel that in some way it was over exaggerated and fixed - as those shows often are - and that we did nto see the whole story. Read quite a few things on that and it seems to me that these 'bullies' were over scapegoated, possibly as they were white.

Movign off th etopic a bit but what I found ludricrous was all thse folsk in India burning effigies and protesting about Endemol productions because of racist treatment of Shilpa - protestign very vehemently and primitvely in the name of equal rights. Fair enough. But later on Shilpa I think kissed Richard Gere and there was equal outcry in India because of him beign supposedly gay ! They then hated Shilpa. What a load fo equal opps hypocrysy! :lol: Sorry to laugh, but it makes me laugh.

The Shilpa thing was HUGELY over-hyped. Remember the series beforehand when that Shabaz person was ganged up on? He was from Pakistan. And did the media make any claims to a racial attack? No.

Basically, the Shilpa/Jade/fellow witches was just a nice juicy story for third-rate newspapers to get their grubby mits on.

Back to SF's question - yes there are double standards in racism, as there are in many things. Racism is a more complex beast than it is made out to be and I think a flawed general conception is that most racism comes form white caucasions towards thier ethnic minorities (in some cases almost majorities) - mainly black, Afro Caribbean, Asian origin people.

Wrong! I know Asian people who will be th efirst to admit that the racism between some Asian nationalities eg. India and Pakistan is deeply rooted and in many ways runs much deeper than some of the white v black racism. I've also worked in a very ethnically diverse environment and one with a much higher number of Asians in the workplace than many folks are used to. I found the racism between Indian people fo different castes very distrubing, I even worked with a lady who felt she was more 'desirable' than the 3 ladies in the other team as she had a paler skin tone. :unsure: There was a lot of tension between different groups of Asians in my office and they were quite outpsoken and obvious about it. However, had I said to this lady that then I woudl eb more desirable as I was paler, I'd never say that btw but just an eg, then she'd have had me for racism and I would have been foudn guilty I am sure.

In the same workplace, myself and a colleague who were white found oursleves receivign what we felt were racist comments and attitudes towards us, but our complaints were ignored. However, two people I worked with were alsways on the look out to use racism against them as an excuse when it wasn't there. A lady form Trinidad was the Union rep, in private she said to me she'd been actively looking for a reason to get them for racism for 10 years! An Indian lady whose work was awful ran into trouble with her boss and deservedly so - but she accused him of racism, they got scared and moved her to a better job. :blink: Happened a few times. One fo the reasons I left actually.

Not saying everywhere is like that, but that si an example of racial double standards in action and i does often seem to me thatthe possiblity of racism coming from a white person to an ethnic minority person is considered more likey and taken more seriously than the other way around. Shame really.

It seems that way! And to use ti to boost ratigns was diabolical. :angry:

Yeah funny of they never said anythign abotu racsim for Shabaz.

Yep,
and it's enshrined in the law, this is now mere figment of the imagination, it's a hard political reality.
take for example the idea of a hate crime for example-now this does cover crimes committed with sexual orientation, and religion as well as race into account, but interestingly tougher sentences are given for offences motivated by hatred of the victims race, sexuality or religion etc.
Now if some stranger stabs me, i would have thought that my sex, race or religion was irrelevant-the fact that i have been stabbed is a crime of hate-i cannot see how it cannot be, so why should someone get a more lenient sentence for stabbing me than someone who might kill another person becuase it's racial or religious, it's the same bloody crime.

I'm someone who considers himself a liberal, and don't give a damn about the race, sex or religion of a person, but i reckon some of the measures taken in 'behalf' of racial minorities are actually counter-productive and play into the hands of bigots who can use the kind of absurdity of these laws, to their own misguided ends.

Yes sadly, because there's 'an eye for an eye' culture going on, and race is disposable for revenge, which i absolutely hate. Racism is one of the crux's of my life, seriously. I think there's nothing worse than prejudice against a fundamental element such as skin colour. It's barbaric and ubelievably cruel. Unfortunately it's still rife, i mean the Deep South still crawls with racism, no matter how much dust they sweep under the carpet :rolleyes:

Like SB said , it's despicable how the media work racial hatred and add fuel to the fire for headlines. What a violation of moral decency :rolleyes: