Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Joseph Harker Writes About Racism- Who Would Have Guessed?

Joseph Harker is upset that racists are allowed to teach in schools, in particular members of the BNP. I'm also upset that members of the BNP are teaching- because they are largely illiterate. The number of BNP members in the teaching profession is so small that the fuss over the issue smacks of a moral panic anyway and besides people should only be sacked for their beliefs if they intrude into how they do their jobs.

Of course as Joseph Harker has previously stated that all white people are racist by definition he might not be the best person to make the case as presumably this means that white people should be automatically excluded from the teaching profession.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

With all due respect, Harker can go and f**k himself.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Woah! Feel free to generalise and say that most BNP members are illiterate, but Nick G went to Oxford and their other MEP is a university lecturer :-)

Further, the maths is as follows: BNP members 12,000 out of working age population 36 million, ergo out of half a million teachers, statistically you would expect there to be 170 teachers who are BNP members (at about 25,000 primary and secondary schools nationwide).

Samuel Buckett said...

I think it is a myth that all BNP supporters are illiterate; some may well be because of the BNP's appeal to alienated sections of the white working-class, but when the Guardian planted a journalist in the BNP a couple of years ago they found the active membership in the South East to be intelligent and concerned (and, whisper it, even decent). None of which detracts from the dire leadership and policies of the BNP.

Banning BNP members from the teaching profession is very questionable in my view. Belonging to the BNP, or holding racist views, is not against the law. The argument is around the duty on public bodies to promote good race relations, but so long as teachers, including Muslim teachers, do not undermine this it is difficult to defend banning them. But if we do have to ban people from teaching because of the risk of ideological contamination, let's begin with Marxists, who after all are committed to the downfall of our society.

James Higham said...

What colour is he?

Senior said...

Banning all white people from teaching would be racist, but if racists were banned from other jobs for being racist as well, the only positive would be a diverse queue at the Job Centre.

Ross said...

Mark & Samuel- it was an unfair generalisation, but it served two purposes- it added a humourous touch and it was the equivalent of the "I have many black friends" gambit designed to innoculate me against accusations of sympathy for the BNP.

Sam Buckett said...

understood

Edwin Greenwood said...

Damn it, Ross! I was looking forward to having a splenetic rant about your succumbing to "I'm not a racist but..." syndrome. Now I can only have a go at you for misspelling inoculate.

Ross said...

"Now I can only have a go at you for misspelling inoculate. "

It is an iron law of the internet that any comment mocking someone's intellect or literacy will contain at least one spelling or grammatical error.

Robert said...

Better BNP member than a Cameron fan.

Ross said...

That's like arguing that Syphillis is worse than Herpes.

Robert said...

Just saw a photo of the classically beautiful monument to the dead of 7/7. Certain to win approval in Riyadh and Tel Aviv.