No point debating racists

New Statesman - There’s nothing to debate about racism

Mehdi Hasan, the NS’s senior politics editor, on why racism should be condemned and fought, not indulged and appeased:

I recently sat in a radio studio debating with a caller who turned out to be a BNP supporter. “Michael” claimed that I could never be “true British”, though I was born here, because I was of “Asian origin” and Britain belonged only to its “indigenous” population. “Where are you from?” I asked Michael. “I’m Norse,” he replied. How do you reason with a man who claims descent from the Vikings? Did I have to point out to him that they, too, were immigrants?

The point about people like “Michael” is that they cannot be reasoned with. It is not immigration that drives them; it is racism. Like paedophilia, racism is morally wrong; it is evil. It requires no further debate or discussion, no tolerance or engagement. For too long, liberals on the left have pandered to conservatives on this issue, indulging racist and reactionary views in the name of free speech.

More about how politicians play up to the racist gallery, and how Channel 4 put on a programme purporting to encourage a “heated debate” on race which actually featured “intellectual” racists touting theories which have long since been disproved (the article he cites by Steve Jones, but doesn’t link, is here). (More: Sumera @ Rumoured.)

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