Loopy Logic: Racism 3

Everybody should have equal rights – apart from THEM.
Everything would be all right if only THEY would go away.


The Labour Party's disciplinary guidelines are explained here. Some of these comments are anonymous, but they are a paraphrase of views I've seen or heard expressed. Again, I don't agree with any of them.

Every time I speak up for the Palestinians, or criticize the Israeli government, I get told I’m anti-Semitic. Therefore there is no anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. (Argument sometimes continues “These complaints are just a plot to attack Corbyn”.)

There is no anti-Semitism in the Labour Party because there is anti-Semitism in the Tory Party.

I don’t understand anti-Semitism because I really don’t understand who Jews are – there’s no such thing as a “race”, and they don’t all belong to the religion. 

If you accuse me of anti-Semitism you are really anti-Semitic because [reasons].

Complaining about anti-Semitism is anti-Semitic because it’s exploiting the suffering of Jews for centuries.

Anti-Semitism is OK because Jews think their religion is better than all the others.

Anti-Semitism is OK because Israel.

All Jews are responsible for the actions of the IDF/Israeli government. All Muslims are responsible for knife crime and paedophile gangs.

It appears that you cannot deplore Israeli treatment of Palestinians without being labelled 'anti-semitic', which is odd, since Palestinians are semitic. (Via FB)

Making false allegations of antisemitism is in fact antisemitic in itself, by belittling a very serious matter for political purposes. (Via Twitter)

Israel has nothing to do with Jews, Ben Gurion forced Jews to go there, Jews have no history in the land, Hitler persecuted Jews because they were money-lenders. (Mahmoud Abbas, paraphrase)

Split hairs. Debate etymology. Gloss over the abuse of your fellow citizens by attacking the actions of another country's government. Would your response to any other form of racism or bigotry be to squirm, deflect or justify? (JK Rowling)

"The thing about racism is, it's not racist when I do it, because I'm anti-racist. I make racist things unracist by doing them. What's outrageous is not what *I've* done, but that anyone should dare accuse me of racism over it." © every "Rothschild"-ing "Zionist Lobby"-er ever. (@DavidBennun)

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. (The American Declaration of Independence did not include women and slaves in its definition of "men".)

WE don't have labels, THEY have labels. All labels are pejorative. I’m not a racist/bigot but...

Guys it is never OK to call people racist or to use swear words at them. These thing are worse than any actual racism... (Rachel Shabi She claimed she was being sarcastic, but many agreed with her.)

Bahar Mustafa, Goldsmiths welfare and diversity officer, explained that she could not be guilty of sexism or racism against white men "because racism and sexism describe structures of privilege based on race and gender and therefore women of colour and minority genders cannot be racist or sexist, since we do not stand to benefit from such a system." (Independent)

Lefties all live in gated communities and so won't have immigrants "imposed" on them; or else they live in mixed areas and have become "used to" different people. Hence it's unfair to house huge numbers of immigrants in rural villages (as if that was likely), planting them next to people who have neither gates nor acquired immunity. These country folk aren’t racist, it’s just that they live in a more mono-cultural area and have had less opportunity to mix with brown people and discover that they are people (or “all right really”). And their feelings must be respected. And don’t forget that there are more of them than there are metropolitan latte-sipping quinoa-munching Corbyn-worshipping blah blah blah like you.


I’m just trying to have a rational debate about...
We can’t be too nice to immigrants or there'll be a racist backlash.
A racist joke isn’t racist, because it’s a joke.
There are some situations where it is socially acceptable to use the N-word.
I’m not being racist, you’re being ultra-sensitive.
Neo-Nazis: The alt-left (which I have hastily made up) are the REAL bullies! 
Yes, but that was the past. (I was talking about MODERN fascists.)

By calling people racist, you've introduced the concept of race, but race doesn’t really exist, so YOU’RE the racist.

Americans are racist because of “economic uncertainty”, not because of slavery, the KKK, Biblical justification, “scientific” racism, decades of propaganda about white races being superior etc.

Someone suggests that the way to deal with bigots is to be “civil” to them, June 2018. They’re only bigoted because we’re so rude to them, you see.

This is what happens when people’s genuine concerns are not addressed and called fascism, you get real fascism. Happy now luvvies? (Via Twitter, in response to the resurgence of fascism in Italy. The concerns are genuine, but they are based on prejudice, not fact.)

Don’t tell me that your racist relatives are “the product of their time.” If they’ve figured out how to use cellphones & the internet, they can figure out how to not be racist. (@harikondabolu)

‘I’m not prejudiced, I really am not prejudiced. It’s just that I can’t help noticing that all Roman Catholics are the most terrible liars. It’s not prejudice, it just is so.’ (Agatha Christie, parodying prejudiced acquaintances in her autobiography)

Allow me to clarify: [name redacted] is a vicious racist who deserves to be pilloried as such. As a refugee from a totalitarian country, and a student of its authoritarian heir, I find the mob unsettling even if it’s a mob whose motives I agree with. (@juliaioffe)

“Racism? Oh, that’s a thing in the heads of black people!” “Oh, that’s just another form of mimimi (whining) by blacks who don’t want to take personal responsibility for their situation”. “We Brazilians aren’t racists.” (Black Women of Brazil website)

POC: Hi guys, erm, sorry to bother you but can you please stop shouting Paki at us and beating us up? 
Columnist: Snowflake culture will be the death of millennials. 
POC: Haha gammon memes! How funny.
Columnist: 4000 words explaining why left wingers are the REAL racists.
(Kavya @Kav_Kaushik)

There's a belief here – a dangerous and pervasive one, I think – that any racial prejudice tamer than snarling dogs, fire hoses, and "Whites Only" signs isn't really racism, but something ingrained in a lost culture, something not malicious or active, but embedded, covert, and therefore forgivable. (vice.com on South Carolina)

School PE is racist because it celebrates “white privilege”, a study claims. Traditional school sports uphold elitist ideas that were an extension of nationalism and the British empire... giving advice about fitness could be racist by imposing cultural norms. (Times 2018. Lord Ouseley, former CRE chairman, says the study is “crazy”.)

More here, and links to the rest.