anti-immigrant ad campaign is racism, pure and simple

[Del]

The policies the government is dreaming up to encourage illegal immigrants to leave Britain are becoming increasingly absurd. It is already targeting employers and landlords, and has tried persecuting children in schools. Now the Home Office is putting expensive advertising money into the mix: a new billboard campaign is being piloted this week telling illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest".

And it is just a precursor to the next pilot scheme, a Christmas gift for families of ethnic minorities. From November, visitors from "high risk" countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, will be expected to produce a £3,000 bond to be allowed in to Britain. For many people, that could equate to up to six months' worth of salary.

There is no less racism in Britain today than there was 50 or so years ago when my parents arrived. It has merely changed in type and style. And it has become bolder.

I am still biting my tongue with anger at the British Olympic Association's original decision (later reversed) not to give accreditation for a journalist at The Voice, Britain's oldest and biggest black newspaper, owned by a Jamaican publishing house, to the track and field events. Yet on the days that Usain Bolt ran, a man called Scott who sold national pins in Stratford's shopping centre, told me "everyone was Jamaican". And he sold out of Jamaican memorabilia – yes, even more than the union flag.

But because we don't want to be seen with a "chip on our shoulder" we use polite terms such as "outrageous". Call this new advertising campaign what it is: racist.

Two things about this latest scheme scare me. First, that the authorities are so bold with their racist tactics and their justification of them. Second, that this attitude risks encouraging and validating everyday personal racist incidents.

Racist attacks, both overt and covert, happen in small ways on a daily basis to many people in Britain. Sometimes they are laughable, because that is just a bit better than crying. And when I personally experience such an act, or see or hear of others experiencing it, I do feel like crying – for my parents, my friends' parents, and all the parents I don't know who came to Britain to make a better life for themselves; families back home and their children here.

You can't tell by the colour of people on the streets who is in the UK legally and who is not. Has anything really changed since Enoch Powell gave his "rivers of blood" speech in April 1968? This advertising basically says, it is easier to get rid of them all. I wonder how many of our parents now, if asked, would say it was worth it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/anti-immigrant-ad-campaign-racism

 

[Blue 1]

Can't see this going too well.

 

[tommye]

Hi Nik x

 

[degsy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/anti-immigrant-ad-campaign-racism

no it isn't...knee jerk maybe....but there are too many people coming in willy nilly, as always the ( relative ) few spoil it for the many. shut the borders for 5 yrs

 

[WA Toffee]

Or do what Australia has recently announced - all refugees will be sent to Papua New Guinea.

 

[McBain]

Or do what Australia has recently announced - all refugees will be sent to Papua New Guinea.

What do you think mate? Was thinking about starting a thread but you know how they all end up.

It's a basic human right and everyone *should* have a sense of moral responsibility to help out someone in need, but where does it end? At what point do you have to stop people just turning up? Whats the answer?

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

So the Govt wanting to rid the country of illegal immigrants (note illegal, as in not legal, as in shouldn't ****ing be here) is a racist act?

Get stretched.

 

[peteblue]

In the same way that no one would just let someone move into their house, we should not allow just anyone to move into the country...... The campaign however is crass beyond belief, just do your job properly and safeguard the borders.....

 

[bflefc]

In the same way that no one would just let someone move into their house, we should not allow just anyone to move into the country...... The campaign however is crass beyond belief, just do your job properly and safeguard the borders.....

This, absolutely this.

 

[bflefc]

So the Govt wanting to rid the country of illegal immigrants (note illegal, as in not legal, as in shouldn't ****ing be here) is a racist act?

Get stretched.

Also this. Too many leftie/liberal do-gooders conveniently overlook the "illegal" word when commenting on the immigration issue.

 

[Blue 1]

Crass, divisive, vicious? yes. Racist? I don't think so.

 

[Coach]

So the Govt wanting to rid the country of illegal immigrants (note illegal, as in not legal, as in shouldn't ****ing be here) is a racist act?

Get stretched.

I don't think that is the salient point here. I doubt anyone is disputing that it is correct for the Government to want to remove illegal immigrants but I do think the point here is how to go about doing that.

Personally I think driving huge mobile billboards saying "illegal immigrants go home" through areas of racial tension is just asking for trouble and does nothing for race relations in this country.

 

[Degs62]

What do you think mate? Was thinking about starting a thread but you know how they all end up.

It's a basic human right and everyone *should* have a sense of moral responsibility to help out someone in need, but where does it end? At what point do you have to stop people just turning up? Whats the answer?

Submarines and minefields?

Might make it my next presidential proclamation.

 

[Ratkiller]

I don't think that is the salient point here. I doubt anyone is disputing that it is correct for the Government to want to remove illegal immigrants but I do think the point here is how to go about doing that.

Personally I think driving huge mobile billboards saying "illegal immigrants go home" through areas of racial tension is just asking for trouble and does nothing for race relations in this country.

Like most things with politicians it's a gimmick. Hardly worth getting your knickers in a twist over.
But as usual someone plays the race card. Which is the real cause of racial tension in this country.

 

[Tree13]

There is absolutely nothing racist about paying suitable attention to a pressing concern. Illegal immigration is an issue worthy of debate and action, just like many others.

The campaign itself is not racist. Will demagogues shamelessly play the race card in order to derail it? Yes. But that doesn't make it racist. Quite frankly, people that are incapable of discussing illegal immigration (and the wider issues around it) without labelling those who hold different views as "racist" should be barred from the discussion, because they are part of the problem.