The New Racists

14-11-2006

The recent conviction of three men for murdering a schoolboy in Glasgow proved that racism doesn't only run in one direction. Derrick Campbell argues that this should be a wake up call to the entire race relations industry.

At last the penny has dropped…black peopleare just as guilty of racism as their white counter parts. We have just seen three men jailed for life for murdering schoolboy Kriss Donald in an horrific race hate attack.

Imran Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan Shahid, 28, and Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, were found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh of racially aggravated murder. Kriss, 15, was stabbed 13 times and set on fire while he was still alive, on a quiet walkway behind Celtic FC's training ground in Glasgow in March 2004.

For many years we have seen an almost one-sided view that only whites can be racist and all blacks cannot be…this is a myth.

Many of us within the race equality movement have been fighting against this insidiousbelief for many years, but have been gagged by the popular press, and other black and minority ethnic groups, who fear that their exclusive industry of race relations would be destabilised.

Now we muststart to root out those racist tendencies that have so dogged our everyday living experience. The arrogance and hypocrisy of certain Black and Asian groups who pretend to be loving, and willing to integrate into British society, has now been exposed.

Too often in the past race relation lawshave come to be seen as the exclusive weapon of certain ethnic groups; and they've been pandered to bythe politically correct who overlook their abuses, and try to justify unjustifiable behaviour. It's as though certain groups have been excused criticism simply because they are the "right" race or colour.

In Britain, racism and race crime are still a serious problem. Race crime rose by 29% last year and 4,660 defendants were prosecuted for racially aggravated offences in England and Wales in 2004/5.

But how many racially aggravated crimes were perpetrated against the white community?

In recent discussions we have seen Asian businesses that have made it clear that they will not employ black people but only white, and have been allowed to continue for decades unchallenged, under the nose of the race movement. We see so called honour killings taking place right under our nose, but yet try to justify this racist practice as "culture".

It is time for Asian and black people to start facing the music; if they are racist then they should be brought to book and face justice. In the meantime the rest of us must stop treating them like innocent victims of racism. The race relations laws should be reclaimed by all, they are here to protect victims of racism whether they are white or black.