racism on the streets of bristol

bristol | community | opinion/analysis Monday October 19, 2009 11:12 by viral

tonights panorama (8.30pm - bbc) documents two undercover reporters experiences of 8 weeks living on an estate in southmead....

... and from the promotional material it doesn't look like pleasant viewing...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_830...9.stm

while we need to be mobilising for edl and wdl demonstrations up and down the country, let's not forget about the work that we need to be doing in our own backyards.

young people, like the ones shown physically and verbally attacking the couple throughout their time on the estate, are not born racist. what are "we", antifascists and antiracists, doing to stop hate brewing and growing in the first place?

while there's a necessary place for taking the battle to the streets, quite literally, we need to be looking more broadly too at the causes of the hatred in the first place. 13 year old's racially abusing people in the street are not the "enemy" so to speak, it's this society and the racist mainstream discourses that create the acceptability and street kudos behind this behaviour that needs to be tackled....

so let's make sure we take the grown-ups head on in newport this weekend - but let's also be thinking constantly about what else we need to be doing....