Three cheers for racism and segregation!
Here's a story from the Guardian about an all-black drama school.
Inside, a class of students line up, their backs pushed up against the walls of the studio, the room already thick with the warmth and odour of hard work. "In," bellows the vocal coach as he strides around the space. The students inhale. Eyes shut. Focused. He counts four beats. "Out," he says. The students exhale. "Sha," he calls. "Sha," they reply in unison. It's a fairly routine vocal warm up, so what is going on here that's unique?
It's simple. All the students present are black. Set up eight years ago, Identity is Britain's first "black" drama school and, partnered with its talent agency, IAG in Covent Garden, and a sister school in Birmingham, is fast becoming a powerhouse in the promotion of black and minority ethnic talent to the entertainment industry, both at home and abroad.
You'll gather from the gushingly reverential tone that the reporter isn't going to stop for a second to consider whether there's anything dodgy about this. Yet there's absolutely no question that, were anyone to try setting up an all-white drama school they would instantly fall foul of Britain's race relations laws.
Is it just me or are there serious double standards and hypocrisy at play here?
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Apr '11
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
There is a simple way of protesting this. We should all change our official race to "African". If challenged, submit the simple fact that there is no scientific way of proving you incorrect. We all have the same genetic code for everything that matters in being a human. Since humans originated in Africa, this is correct.
Aug '11
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
We are approaching a race, gender, religion, origin neutral system in the US. The Left is fighting it, as preference and grievance politics helps them bind their constituencies; they are the the guardians of the preference and affirmative action state. However, evidence of prejudice as the cause of disparate social maladies is becoming more and more difficult to find. Bastardy, family disintegration, self-segregation, government subsidy of irresponsibility are starting to point to other causes of the problems affecting racial populations disproportionately. Much of this can be improved by weaning people from governmental dependence, discouraging out of wedlock birth, encouraging marriage and family and creating a race neutral government and legal system.
One by one, states are passing race neutral policy. Though at the federal level things have been backsliding with this Administration, racial neutrality is in our future. We all know that discrimination is bad in all its forms. No government can interfere in the game of life with artificial help for some and burdens for others; Soloman was wise, but politicians cannot help themselves; their wisdom will be compromised by politics and that's corrosive.
May '11
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
Valiuth
Well I think the non-racist thing to do is to move Shakespearean theater away from performing plays only written by a dead white guy (the worst of all white people). · 6 hours ago
Val, not to quibble, but wouldn't live white guys be worse than dead white guys?
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
@dougkimball If this is true then there may be hope for America yet....
May '10
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
I suspect Doug's long view is the correct one. MLK wisely built his movement on color-blindness and that interpretation will prevail.
Sadly, we'll probably have to wait until the baby boomers become too old and feeble to wheel themselves into voting booths to see this change completed. They have a dream, and that dream is that this incorrigibly racist society can only be fixed by eternal government micromanagement of all our relationships.
Jul '10
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
"Eden." We are All Edeners. Edenists?
Oct '10
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
I think you're confusing what this school is, James. Black is a race, but it's also an ethnicity. Schools for whites would not be acceptable, but schools for, say, Irish, or English, or Scots would be. Blacks don't really have an ethnic heritage outside of their race, so their ethnic institutions are called "black," too.
Oct '10
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
Don't get me wrong. There are fine lines here, and racist black institutions do exist. But I wouldn't put every black college, or scholarship program, or drama school under that category. I'd have to investigate this school for sure to know if it's racist or not, but given their word choice ("minority ethnic talent") I suspect not.
Oct '10
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
And by the way, who invented the idea of "whiteness" as an ethnicity? I seem to remember historians in the 19th century basing "whiteness" off of German or Nordic descent. American Southern upper-class whites also used the concept to unite poor whites against blacks, despite the rather ridiculous notion that (for example) Germans and Irishmen are ethnically--as opposed to racially--similar.
Europe fought too many wars over ethic differences for me to buy the notion that "white people" exist as anything other than a race category.
[edit: Ah, sorry for the triple post]
Edited on March 11, 2012 at 1:21amNov '11
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
Mr. Delingpole,
Irony, indeed. I was educated early on in the benign (or benighted) segregation of specialized schools for the disabled. Fortunately, my later education proceeded with physical accommodations, but without constraint. Employment was much the same, thankfully. Labels do no one any sort of service. By the way, your podcast is my favorite here, by far.
Feb '12
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
What is more interesting than the blatant racism-in-reverse that is found in affirmative action-like programs is the ideas that predicate them. These programs and those like them assume the that racial minorities are incapable handling a world without special hand outs, preferential treatment, and other breaks. When white, insecure liberals are realizing their grand ideas of "racial equality" are in action three things happen: they assert their racial superiority over those they help, they engender the same inferiority they imagine themselves to be curing, and they feel as if they're helping the disadvantaged. But they only manage to perpetuate their status quo of disparate racial abilities, which reinforces their need to help out the disadvantaged persons.
I find affirmative action to be the most dangerous kind of racism; it is racism masked in self-deception and good intentions. It really does a great deal of harm, and it is exactly the opposite of MLKs wonderful standard.
Mar '11
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
Is this unusual for UK? Because it sure is not in the U.S. This happens a lot more than you think most of it with tax payer money.
Edited on March 12, 2012 at 3:28amJan '12
Re: Three cheers for racism and segregation!
In Toronto, On, Canada, the Public School Board created an "Africentric school" All black pupils, all black Teachers.
In fact the Principle was sacked and when a white teacher was installed, some community activists thought it would be "bad optics"
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