A seemingly nice young man doing some breast-beating in the Thunderer:
It’s an unsettling moment when you realise you might be a racist. The thought occurred to me as I walked to my home in North London and I saw a group of black lads coming towards me. Instinctively, I crossed the road.
I think Murad Ahmed (for that is his name) is being too hard on himself. What think ye?
December 18th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Of course not. He was just being careful, in my opinion. If I came across a large group of lads, I’d cross the road, whether black or white.
December 18th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
Only he would know whether or not he was being racist. According to the article, he crossed the road simply because he saw them. There is nothing in the article to tell us whatever else he was thinking.
Assuming things happened as he said they did, I don’t think he was being racist. I agree with you Torylady, it was probably a wise move.
December 18th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I don’t think he is racist, I think he has been told that he must be by society.
I think his comment about becoming middle class gives far more away, it appears that he has become, horror of horrors, a snob. The next to last paragraph makes me think Gaurdianista!
(Says the working class, Telegraph reading, Conservative)
December 18th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
If he is black then statistically speaking (silly phrase, I know) he was smart. So much violent crime is by blacks on blacks.
If he thinks all blacks are violent, he is racist.
If he thinks black youths are more likely to be violent than white or yellow youths, then he knows the facts.
If he thinks that there is no risk encountering this black group, he is deluded.
December 18th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I remember being in a gas station in the suberbs of Chicago earlier this year. I was with a white American friend. I felt intimidated. Everyone around us was black and the place was busy. I bumped in to a very tall black guy and he apologised to me! You can’t judge a book by its cover, but I still think it is natural to feel intimidated in those type of situations. I am sure if I was black and I was surrounded by white youths, I would feel the same.
December 19th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Nobody should be inhibited from following their instinct based on their own experience/understanding of risk. Here in Prague you would be foolish to put your coat/bag down in a club or not be wary of a group of loud gypsies boarding a tram as not to do so would massively increase your risk of being a victim of crime. There are many expats here who insisted on learning these lessons the hard way as they did not want to behave in a manner that could be perceived as racist.
December 19th, 2006 at 10:43 am
It depends on whether he’d have done the same thing if it were a group of white lads. On the information provided it’s impossible to make a judgement.
December 19th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Are you a racist becuase of how you act or how you think? I am sure under the law it is because of how you act. If he crossed the road to avoid a group of black kids he IS a racist. The police should arrest him if the kids complain….
I only make this point to show how far PC thinking has taken us down this road, so to speak.
December 19th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Yikes! Morag must be kid-ist as she crosses the street for gangs of white youths, black youths, pensioners………I’ll stay in one spot for pregnant women though because I know I can outrun them
But seriously, this business of hollering ‘racist’ every two seconds is becoming tiresome. Trust me crossing the street to avoid isn’t racist. Wishing you had a gun to blow them to smithereens - now that would have been racist 