I think London is almost always a special case because of its massive size and diversity, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't at least fairly on track with the rest of the UK.
I was in London last week. I'd like to say on business, but I used work as a loose excuse to visit a friend and catch up. It is another world compared to the rest of the UK. Especially the city. Completely different from any other city in the UK, attitudes, focus, very different.
I just meant racial abuse in general. I'm guessing the government must have some criteria for what is a racially motivated crime or not which it would have statistics for. I am too lazy to find out for myself though.
Racial crime is higher against non-ethnic communities than ethnic communities, by a large number as far as the statistics go. But then you have to compare that to the number of one community versus the other and it all swings the other way, massively the other way.
The problem with UK statistics is they are skewed by political meddling. Look at the exaggeration of the gay community when the previous government were in office. They did it for good reason, but they skewed the statistics to push forward an agenda.
What I think the video is very good at showing is raising awareness on the issue and turning racism from something that was probably casually accepted in many walks of life and institutions prior to 1991 to being deemed too politically incorrect to tolerate in any shape or form. In finally catching the killers, the police have somewhat redeemed their image in London, (something that's been long coming, trust me), and in addition it brings the issue of race back onto the table. The fact that people are reevaluating their views and thinking about race relations is so important, especially in an England more diverse than ever before.
At the same time though, you have to consider the wider view. In the majority of places in the UK with the majority of the population, they couldn't care less about your race, colour or creed. We as a nation are not only tolerant, we're accepting, at least until something poses a threat. Now I grant you, that threat could be perceived by one group as huge and by another as a nothing, but in the communities I've mixed there is no ill feeling towards anyone on the basis of colour. As I said, you're more likely to get a jibe about being ginger.
The huge differences between London and the rest of the UK are only really highlighted when someone who has lived in London all their lives moves out to somewhere else in the UK. These people tend to see racism and inequality everywhere, whereas what they're actually seeing is a working, functional community that doesn't require political correctness to exist. The BBC moving to Salford for instance has been hilarious. You'd think the London office had sentenced them to Siberia or something the way they make a drama out of it.
Oh indeed so. I myself am half Greek on my mother's side, but I think what people often cannot realise is how differently your experience of life in Britain is as a minority. For example, my mother remembers the police coming round to her house after they received some complaints about 'the ******s next door' from their so called neighbours and being called a coon when she went to university in Manchester. Of course this was in the 60s and 70s, and this kind of treatment seems inconceivable now. But I always wondered that if that's what you get for being Greek, it must have been hell for black or asian families back then.
Now this is where the stereotyping comes in. The stereotypes of Greeks or Greek second generation in the north are terrible, but that has a lot to do with the business community. I've dealt with every nationality, first and second generation through my work and I have to admit, the Greeks live up to their stereotypes everytime when it comes to business. Sometimes I've not even know they were Greek and the same thing has happened again, but it's all about learning and adapting. And you know what, I've been lazy in recent times more because I can't be bothered to go through the whole charade of it all, but I should. It's all part of business.
Anyway...
Probably the worst I have encountered in my time other than the odd football chant is stop and search laws in London. The school I went to was probably about 60% afro carribean, so naturally a lot of my school mates were black. Countless times when we were on nights out police would drive past eyeing up our group, then get out and stop and search only the black guys we were with. I found it deeply disturbing and it's why I have such an objection to racial profiling. It can seem all well and good to say it's fine to implement policy based on generalisations when you won't be affected by it, but when you've actually seen it first hand, that kind of victimisations seems deplorable.
Want to know something that will shock you? You know the stop and search thing up here? It targets those between the ages of 15 and 18. Regardless of colour or creed, you're a target. I know because I was a victim of it and I argued my corner which got me a breach of the peace for my trouble. All I had done wrong was walking down the wrong street at the wrong time.
The police go for the easy targets and unfortunately the ethnic communities in London, believe it or not, make themselves targets by their own beliefs. It's a self-perpetuating cycle of police arrests and attitudes for the most part, but that does have the effect of rubbing off on the police when that circle widens. Hence the reason a chap I know was stopped, searched and arrested, despite being on legitimate business and he had proof. I know he had proof, because the proof was the job I'd given him, but he rang me from the police station to explain the situation and to him the most important thing wasn't the arrest, but that he'd let me down on our first job together.
When politicians make decisions for the UK, they need to widen their field of view. The UK is a diverse and bizarre set of countries, and should be treated as such. The world doesn't revolve around London.
