Racism Is Not a Simple Problem.

I’ve been vehemently opposed to racism all my life. I once had an argument with a man in the street because he was intervening in a dispute between two kids, and obviously making bigoted judgements purely on racial grounds. And I spent three years working for a charity, a primary aim of which was to counter racist attitudes. Let there be no doubt: I greatly dislike racism. I wonder, however, whether the law and other regulatory bodies might be slipping over the line and trying to go too far, too quickly, too simply.

A woman in London was jailed recently for indulging in a racist rant on a tube train, and football teams are being fined large sums of money as punishment for their supporters making racist remarks against opposition players. In neither example could a case be made for racial discrimination, although it could certainly be argued that the offending behaviour amounted to racially aggravated assault, albeit non-physical.

So were the punishments justified? Well, that depends on what constitutes justification, especially in a so-called democratic culture where the will of the majority might be iniquitous. (What price the will of the white supremacist majority in the old Deep South, for example? The majority view is certainly not always right to a compassionate and broad minded mentality.) So maybe the examples sited above were well justified, but I think we need to be careful because it strikes me that there are two dangers looming.

1) There is a line beyond which sanctions against ‘racist’ behaviour could be entering the area of denial of free speech. It’s a vague line, but it’s one that needs watching.

2) If the law and other regulatory bodies indulge in overkill, it’s likely that the public will become fatigued and apathetic on the issue. What’s more, they are likely to perceive the sanctions as stemming only from manic political correctness, and that will do the anti-racist message more harm than good.

It seems to me that racism stems from more than one root; it’s part instinctive, part historically conditioned, and part blindly bigoted. It’s a complex issue that needs careful, intelligent handling. A simple, harsh response might be right for one situation, but other situations might need sensitivity and patience.