Comments on: British Airways and Casual Racism

By: alistairwilliamson

alistairwilliamson — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:42:36 +0000

But then it is always possible that Doug Maughan may have another reason for making these allegations. It may be possible that his previous disastrously unsuccessful attempts to achieve election to public office have decided the said gentleman to invent a story that is likely to generate publicity for him.

By: alistairwilliamson

alistairwilliamson — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:42:36 +0000

By: nemogbr

nemogbr — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:38:51 +0000

Good Luck to Maughan. Brave man.
I suppose, it would be easier to tackle blatant racism. It's right in your face.

If someone calls you using a pejorative term, I am quite within my rights to break their face…. Not so much when they would be your colleagues, I suppose, it becomes harder.

By: Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:00:16 +0000

That's inherently the problem with institutionalized racism; it becomes a norm accepted by the community where challenging it becomes a greater "phenomenon" so to speak that people start criticizing you for doing the right thing.

It's always the little things too; like dog eating jokes, a "that's so gay", or something about acting like or throwing like a girl.

Then you start touching territory where people do it mindlessly, knowing that on one level or another its wrong but think its such an insignificant action or that they, when it "matters", will always be conscientious or aware to not offend... that they just blow off any sort of minor confrontation.

like telling someone to not say "gay" when they mean annoying or bad followed by a "yeah, but you know what I mean"

Props to both Maughan and your partner for doing what they do.

By: mitsuru_mitsuru

mitsuru_mitsuru — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:00:35 +0000

damn. well, i'm glad that i'm not the only one who confronts 'casual' racism head on and gets shit for it. good on Maughan. i have personally never really found comedy an affective way of addressing racism. i say, if it isn't scaring them, it's not working.

what i find more disturbing than the many others who won't speak up when we hear something racist, is that fact that many of us agree with the racist statements being made about/for us. a good example of this disappointing and dangerous phenomenon can be found in the myriad of pro-banana comments on teresa's post, http://www.8asians.com/2009/05/23/no-welcome-ma...