Racism and Socialism

A recent discussion I had with friends had us concluding that "Capitalism isn't working.". I've never really considered myself a socialist but the latest involvement with anti-racism/prejudice campaigns has founded the idea that capitalism has failed. Racism is on the up again, prejudice is growing and equality is regressing. Please read on...

A few questions I want answered are:

1. What role does Socialism have in reducing racism, prejudice and discrimination?
2. What are the origins of racism?
3. What local examples of racism are apparent in Shepway?

When googling “what is racism” I was met with pretty similar definitions:

CBBC (the children's wing of BBC) says that...

"Racism is when someone thinks different skin colour or religious beliefs make some people better than others."

Wikipedia says that...

“Racism is the belief that the genetic factors that constitute race, ethnicity, or nationality are a primary determinant of human traits and capacities and those ethnic differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”

But when reading into a yahoo forum you are met with angry public opinions. I found bold controversies such as:

“"Racist" the label used to silence anyone who speaks outside the box of political correctness.”

Or this, from the comment section of the Daily Telegraph website:

“A racist is someone on the right/centre who says something that the liberal/left does not like. It is a product of the Toynbee Factory and like many of its products, is a fake.”

There is a growing trend in anti-anti-racism. It seems people are increasingly becoming frustrated at the “walking on eggshells” effect of political correctness and this in itself is causing prejudice. This in itself has caused a complete u-turn on the progress we were making on equality and has caused an angry reaction to “political correctness” or “equality acts”. But with everything – it can be taken too far. The foundations for political correctness laws etc were essentially fantastic. It is progressive to have restrictions in place directing people towards an equal society however these rules and regulations have been used as a political scapegoat for right-wing propaganda and have been dramatised for effect to inspire and ignite a British racism disease that is spreading like wildfire today.

It is the fault of the government that UK welfare claimants are on the increase; it is the fault of the government that jobs are scarce. It is the fault of Capitalism that the gap between the rich and poor is growing at a terrifying rate. And it is the result of these things that we are faced with a generally accepted racism.

In Folkestone especially, racism is in its most dangerous form. Most of our towns’ population will come out with rubbishes like “I’m not a racist, I’ve got black friends, but…” and it is this exact mind-frame that fuels racist groups like the BNP or the street-thug EDL. It’s practically daily that I will hear someone say “the problem with this country is the lax rules on immigration.” Or “all those immigrants coming to sponge off our welfare state”. Or “Why should an immigrant get a housing benefit before me?”

I’ve actually just stumbled across a website called www.migrationwatchuk.org” which describes itself as “an independent, voluntary, non political body which is concerned about the present scale of immigration into the UK.” How scary.

The myths and lies that are government fed about the effects of immigration have caused a totally ridiculous but completely accepted opinion that immigration is a worrying thing. The website uses terrifyingly large figures of increase in a factual explanation of Britain’s current immigration situation. It says that “Net immigration quadrupled to 237,000 a year between 1997 and 2007. In 2009 it was 196,000. 3 million immigrants have arrived since 1997.”

Whilst these figures seem alarming on the surface, we must address the facts and stop encouraging the scare-mongering, scape-goating tactics of government-run media.

More people does not mean less wealth or a lower quality of life. Holland has almost twice as high density of population but is a rich country. Albania is half as densely populated but is very poor. There is not a fixed cake of wealth within each nation, with the slices getting thinner each time a new person arrives. Every immigrant is a person who can contribute to society and immigrants are on average younger than the existing population so can help support the old.

Migrants make a huge contribution to the UK economy, paying £2.5 billion more in tax each year than they take out in services. The taxes and national insurance contributions paid by migrant workers into the UK economy provide more resources to fund our public services.

So why are the Government feeding us these lies about immigration and migration? It ignites such a horrible prejudice and fuels any underlying racism. It is to steer away from the facts and failures of capitalism. The realities of our society are that jobs are scarce and job-seekers are abundant. This is not due to open floodgates of hundreds of immigrants. It is due to the spread of wealth becoming class-focused and disproportional. The ruling class are making money from the lower class and their misguided greed creates a complete cock-up of economy management.

So what role does socialism play in anti-fascism or racism? Will the overhaul of the economic structure mean that minority groups are not dropped straight into the poverty black-hole? 

I strongly believe that racism is not innate. It is a product of society mis-management, and part of our modern-day blame culture. Will a socialist society then stamp out these effects? 

What do you think…

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