Britain is still a racist country.

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“Britain is still a racist country.”

A subject, which always arouses strong feelings on both sides of the argument, is racism in the UK. I believe that, although racism still continues, Great Britain can be a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-coloured country. It is important to distinguish between institutional racism and street racism; colour racism and cultural racism; the racism of discussion and attitudes and the racism of behaviour and structures. Racisms have been a fundamental constituent of the deformation of British history. Racism in the UK should be tackled more overtly, directly and forcefully. The softly, softly approach that is in action to this current day, will not and does not work. I wholly believe that racism is awful, groundless and fallacious.

        One of my main reasons for saying this is that Asians, dark-Europeans and black people in this country alone should be allowed to live and feel just like any other human being. The way they are treated, both by members of society and the law, make them feel inferior. Ruthless white members of the general public have attacked many of them. In the case of Mal Hussein, an Asian shop owner, the police force and the local council did absolutely nothing to prevent racist neighbours from the petrol bombing, abuse and assault attacks that they have had to deal with for several years.

        Moreover, it is not just those from ethnic minorities who get bombed and abused. In Northern Ireland, in a little town named Ardoyne, little girls as young as the age of four years old, have been subjected to racist abuse and attacks because of their beliefs. The little girls, some of whom were going to school for the first time, were walking with their parents to the catholic school, Holy Cross Primary. To get to their school however, they had to walk through a protestant ‘area’. Some people threw bombs at the girls and their parents, because of the on-going feud between the two religions. But throwing a bomb at girls on their way to school is the lowest you can possibly sink. The bomb blast injured four riot policemen. The horrific and sickening scenes in Belfast’s town of Ardoyne present one of the worst images of Great Britain since the bombing in Omagh and Warrington. In America, and around the world for that fact, the reaction is stunned disbelief. Is this really the Great Britain of the 21st century? Is this really the Northern Ireland, where they claim there is a ‘peace process’? The truth is that the only small minority on either side of the divide is directly involved in violence. Peace could have a chance if all sides could unite in their condemnation of the alarming horror of Holy Cross School. If Martin McGuinness, a man who for years was an IRA spokesman, and Gerry Adams could find common ground like Billy Hutchinson, a hard-line Protestant politician, there could be some hope. For the sakes of the children in Belfast, this past mutual hatred must be buried. Should this continue, Northern Ireland would rapidly sink to the level of Kosovo.

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        In addition to this, cases such as Ahmed Ullah, Damilola Taylor, Stephen Lawrence and Michael Menson, such evidence that they were the subjects of race-hate gangs, supports my argument that Britain is still a racist country. In the case of Ahmed Ullah, a 13-year-old Bangladeshi boy who was stabbed to death by a white student in the playground of Burnage High school. This happened when Ahmed went to the aid of another student who was being bullied. Another white student attacked him with a knife. As Ahmed was dying, 13-year-old Darren Coulburn asked him; “do you want another one, you ...

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