Documentary on Racism in Britain

[bobalot]

Bullied, attacked and racially-abused more than fifty times in eight weeks. That's the experience of two British Asian reporters posing as a couple and living undercover on a housing estate in Britain during summer 2009.

Undercover Hate on the Doorstep






Startling stuff, I didn't realise racism was this much of a problem in the U.K. Judging by some of the comments on youtube and Richard Dawkins forum (where I found this), people seem to think it's "Islamophobia", I think it's just simple racism and picking on minorities.

My family and I have copped our share of racist bullshit from wankers, but nothing compared to this.

[Zac Naloen]

It's a sink estate in Bristol isn't it? Low of the low etc.

Although it is a big problem and bad that it is happening it's not evidence of a greater malaise in the UK.

These are the people that have no jobs, leech off the system and have no qualifications and no education. It's exactly the sort of environment that breeds racism and right now our government has no idea just what to do to deal with it.

[Rye]

No surprises on how the main culprits dress or what their hairstyles are like. I'd get similar shit if I walked past them, and have done in the past. There is an underclass of contemptible idiots who are nothing more than street hyenas. They're not all white, either.

[Big Orange]

Ahhh, this is the kind of pond scum that put me in hospital last year.

I see these kind of simians hanging around other oneway crapholes in Bristol such as Kingswood and Noel West, and the more dreary parts of Fishponds, Longwell Green and Redfield. The hollow eyed Sonny seemed the most crazy.

[Crazy_Vasey]

Reminds me of my teenage years going to a comprehensive school on an estate in Hartlepool. They're plenty racist alright but they'll find other targets to give hell to if there are no dark skinned folk around to take their inadequacies out on.

[Big Orange]

Yeah, the sort of lowlifes seen in Panorama would also start hounding white people for having different fashion tastes and body types, or worse still people who are in wheelchairs and the elderly. And of course the documentary creates a backlash, although not on the same scale as the farcical Question Time with Nick Griffin. Here is a quote from the linked article:

Barry Jakes, 65, chairman of Southmead Rugby Club, who was born in the area, said the programme was one-sided.
He said: "Half the stuff that they showed took place outside Southmead. The programme made the whole of the Mead look bad.
"Southmead Rugby Club is mixed. We have Nigerian players, Polish players. Everybody gets on."
Club director John Knights, 59, said: "Southmead is quite a multicultural area. There are a lot of Asian families here including Muslim families and I haven't heard of any of this before.
"I can't deny what was shown on the programme but it was the same group involved in the incidents."

I can agree that the people harassing the journalists were the same handful of the usual suspects and doubtlessly the authorities are on their case, but the whole neighbourhood is a real dive, with business properties converted into casemates and the higher number of police patrols. I liked the bit where that middle aged man went out into the street, frightening the cowardly Sonny into creeping away on his oversized bike, so the journalists were not going out of their way to be completely one sided and they put themselves in real danger, amongst hollow headed mouth breathers who howl out at strangers and throw the first punch.