Something to be worried about?

So, maybe some people are going to tear me a new one for this, but whatever. Racism in Europe today- I find the fact that many european countries are turning more to the right-wing, anti-immigration/anti-arab immigration parties to be disturbing, to say the least- especially since said parties often say that dark-skinned people from turkey/iran/the middle east, or anyone who happens to practise islam is almost certaintly a 'terrorist' or 'barbaric' and shouldn't be allowed into a 'democratic' country at any price-overlooking the fact that many immigrants who come to europe do so because of the freedoms provided there. And yet there seems to be an attitude of 'it doesn't really matter', or 'they brought it on themselves', or 'the nationalist parties do actually have decent points.' It's a little disturbing.

Right wing parties do seem to be winning out; and not of the fiscally right-wing variety. This is troubling...

I agree, but racism seems bad in any part of the world, so unless you have a fear of being attacked, I wouldn't worry if I were you.

edited 19th Apr '11 7:20:08 AM by Enzeru

Nah, if I go to europe I have no fear of being attacked, I'm total whitebread. It's just the attitude of "arabs brought it on themselves" that really bothers the shit out of me. It's like what people said about the jews during the 1930's. EDIT: and even then, more people actually 'officially' were concerned to some degree about their plight. Granted, it was worse persecution, but all it takes is for some racist party to get legitimate power.

edited 19th Apr '11 7:31:21 AM by kylerenner

I never understand the "brought onto themselves" portion. The ability to project the wrongs of some random person, especially ones that aren't even in their country, across an entire group of people that spans the globe is amazing. Oh hey the Taliban are bad, therefore we should really clampdown on muslims in Toronto... because that makes perfect sense.

I know, right? "What? 10,000 taliban? Who are Muslim? That must mean all the muslims here are in league with the taliban! Let's deport them, or something." Apparently people don't learn anything.

Since I am from a country where we were electing racist douche-bags before it was cool (well, in 2001), I might have a bit of insight on the issue. While I am an ardent opponent of Dansk Folkeparti, both due to their immigrant policies, but also due to their anti-intellectualism and populism amongst other things, I do think that you people are doing yourself a disfavour by painting a straw-man the way you do.

The very reason that a party like Dansk Folkeparti (or Sverigedemokraterna or whatever they call themselves) manage to get so many votes and influence, aside from populist pandering, is because a lot of the established parties refused to recognise that there was a problem. When you hear anti-Muslim/immigration rhetoric in the Danish press stuff like 9/11 and whatever is hardly an issue, what is an issue to most of them is in fact the people who are here. Higher rates of crime and unemployment amongst immigrant groups, second-generation immigrants who don't speak Danish, lack of proper immigration etc. Also, serious culture clash with stuf like attitudes towards women, religion (remember the Muhammed drawings?) etc. Now, the proposed solution to these problems by parties like Dansk Folkeparti is total assimilation, nothing else will be accepted. Another solution is of course to severely limit the amount of people getting into the country, sometimes framing it as though they are doing those poor oppressed women, who get forced into arranged marriages, a favour.

I really, really dislike how a party like Dansk Folkeparti has so completely taken over immigration debates, with their harsh rhetoric, harsh laws and (perhaps) thinly veiled racism, though I honestly think it's more like cultural facism, IE hating anyone who doesn't conform to ours, than actual racism. There are problems and we must look for solutions to these problems. The solution does not lie in parties like Dansk Folkeparti, in my humble opinion. However, exactly because a lot of major parties refused to recognize the fact that there are problems with immigration, a party like Dansk Folkeparti has managed to get a stranglehold on the debate and the solution - a solution in their image. That is why I believe the straw-manning of "they just hate Muslim immigrants, because they confuse them with terrorists" is dangerous, it leads to the kind of environment in which extremist parties gets a foothold.

edited 19th Apr '11 2:13:33 PM by Mathias

About poor girls... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11613992 Her own family burned her, beated her and wanted to kill her. All because she was born as gay into muslim family.

Only the dark skinned ones? Are you positive?

Cause places like Turkey tend to mostly just have dark haired lightish skinned people, with a minority of dark skinned (from my own experiences, at least) so that seems a bit...confusing as to why they would use that as a basis for judgement.

edited 27th Apr '11 8:39:10 AM by MrAHR

Damn you Mathias, you just stole the words of my mouth.

edited 27th Apr '11 2:58:06 PM by Arikitari

At least the BNP aren't in, or someone in Ireland would surely follow suit. All our politics tend to either play follow the leader with Britain or are still divided down civil war lines.

Yes, we suck at politics.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Look at Africans in the US, and you'll find an intense atmosphere of racism, while they just have to put up with a certain amount of “ooh, how exotic” awkwardness in Europe. Then look at mideasterners in Europe, subject to intense religious and cultural harassment, while (prior to 2001, admittedly) in the US they had no real trouble.

The former was caused by slavery in the 1700s, the latter indirectly by neoliberal assaults on the middle-class labor market (and a population whose birth rate is decreasing to comfortable levels) today. Smarter people attack the cause by asking for protectionism and fair trade, dumber people flail at the symptoms by promulgating racism and euroskepticism.

Where do you live? Most African Americans are doing just fine, the only places where racism is still a major problem is in the really, really poor neighbors and what people consider to be stereotypical and bashing the people who act stereotypical.

To be honest, I can see a point to some of what's going on there.

Eject anyone who proposes Sharia Law, let the rest stay. And make sure their damn kids learn the language, I hate it when a second generation hasn't at least somewhat assimilated, I'm very pro-assimilation.