Blair blames spate of murders on black culture

[RamboLiberal]

Source: The Guardian

Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture. His remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance and failing to provide support for black-led efforts to tackle the problem.

One accused him of misunderstanding the advice he had been given on the issue at a Downing Street summit.

Black community leaders reacted after Mr Blair said the recent violence should not be treated as part of a general crime wave, but as specific to black youth. He said people had to drop their political correctness and recognise that the violence would not be stopped "by pretending it is not young black kids doing it".

It needed to be addressed by a tailored counter-attack in the same way as football hooliganism was reined in by producing measures aimed at the specific problem, rather than general lawlessness.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2055148,00.html

[Fenris]

1. Boy, Tony, do I have a radio host you'd love...

[OKthatsIT]

16. COINTELPRO WARNING...bringing Baghdad's Al Qaeda home

that inludes US, as well.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING PSYOPS...USES RACIAL, ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS DIVISIONS. MAKING GROUPS(I.E. SHIITES-SUNNIS) FIGHT EACH OTHER.

BEWARE.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Blair conveniently ignored racism, xenophobia, and poverty before he

jumped on the hackneyed and fallacious accusation of blaming "blacks" for being black as the reason for their own troubles. He really needs to get out more.

[AX10]

3. Maybe he'll have a career in talk radio after he retires in June.

[Solly Mack]

4. my my my

"I think that is to do with the fact that particular youngsters are being brought up in a setting that has no rules, no discipline, no proper framework around them."


Mr Blair is known to believe the tendency for many black boys to be raised in families without a father leads to a lack of appropriate role models.

He said: "We need to stop thinking of this as a society that has gone wrong - it has not - but of specific groups that for specific reasons have gone outside of the proper lines of respect and good conduct towards others and need by specific measures to be brought back into the fold."

[bemildred]

5. Boy, that was a stupid thing to say. nt

[DaveJ]

6. Absolutely Wrong...

Just as undocumented immigrants are the lower financial class in the U.S., they are just people. If there were only white people in the world i GUARANTEE you that the lower financial class would be rising up. It's not an issue of skin color!!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. It's a universal rule: Whoever is on the bottom of the heap economically

has the highest rate of violent crime.

[EFerrari]

9. Can Tony Blair really be such an ignorant @sshole

or is there some other explanation for these remarks?

My jaw is going to wear out from all these years of dropping to the floor.

[NuttyFluffers]

17. yup. poverty, a form of violence upon others, spawns violence in turn.

it's almost a law it seems in cultural studies and sociology. far too much history and current events bear out its truth. poor end up living nasty, brutish lives because they are trapped in a nasty, brutish cycle of poverty foisted upon them by the nasty, brutish (but seemingly civilized and delicate) powerful.

[orwell]

8. Nice to know...

...that good ole Tony decries violence... :crazy:

[NormanYorkstein]

10. Curious if anyone can comment on his "football hooligan" comparison?

?

[dipsydoodle]

11. It's a simple analogy

Football's issues were, by and large , fans against fans. In this instance it's mainly blacks against blacks. It's a fair comparison.

For football related info, for the general benefit of anyone not familiar with the name ICF for example, see here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_City_Firm They were extremely well organised, always planned ahead, usually travelled suited up in ones or twos only and then changed into their polo shirts and staypresseds whatever when they got near the ground.

[NormanYorkstein]

15. thanks

I don't know much about hooligans, but from what I gather they are gangs of Whites that go around physically attacking other gangs, and it's a culture of violence - similar to the some parts of the "gangsta culture" here. Sounds like a fair comparison if I understand it correctly.

[Donnachaidh]

12. Not to downplay his remarks - but I have to ask this

WHY - all of a sudden we have these comments coming out on both sides of the Atlantic?

This is NOT to downplay the offensive remarks - but is this another distraction technique? Why pay attention to what our governments are actually doing, when we can be watching something else?

[Delphinus]

18. That's an interesting thought.

I know I read a post in GD yesterday that said something about Imus and Duke being distractions; to look at what was really going on.

[jody]

13. True to DU tradition, I call on Blair to present facts supporting his assertion. n/t

[Doctor_J]

14. Tony's migrated from "New Labour" to "Classical Republicon"

yipes. I thought he was going to work for Carlisle after PM. why is he auditioning for a talk radio job?

[qwlauren35]

19. What if He's Statistically Correct?

Now, by that I mean the sheer numbers, not the percentages. If there have been 100 incidents, and 90 of them have been committed by black youth, why can't he say so?

Frankly, I have no idea what the statistics are. But I'm sure he knows that if it's just percentages, his neck is in a noose. I find myself wondering if it was the sheer numbers that drove him to make such a statement.

Also... I wonder what he means by "black". Indians, Bengals and Pakistanis? Middle Easterners? Africans and Afro-carribeans?

Here in the US, I see numerous black "spokespersons" invoking a double-standard. WE (African-Americans) can acknowledge a problem (or use a racial slur!), but white people aren't allowed to. There is a fine line between "racism" and "calling it like it is".

That's why I like to see data before I jump to conclusions.

[rcdean]

20. Cosby has said as much and been lambasted for it.

It is not permissible in our society to speak the truth about negative aspects of the culture of any group which has been historically suppressed.

Not that I'm defending Blair. He is a rightist neo-con who fooled his fellow laborites into thinking he was enlightened.

And there is no question that young blacks suffer the greatest indignities in our society. It is in their adolescency they come face-to-face with the lifetime limitations imposed upon them by our calcified system. They cannot escape unless they have profound sports skills or the good fortuneto get a top-drawer education or are very lucky.

Unemployment rates--in the US--for black males under 30 are over 30%!!!! Where else would that be tolerated? How the hell is a young black man supposed to find any dignity, much less have a family, and fulfill any of his dreams when he can't even find a job? How can there be any hope in these conditions?

Still this does not excuse the Boondocks-Gone-Wild nature of the black youth culture. It's understandable. It could be beneficial if it did not resort to labelling subgroups with epithets. But in its current state at least in the US, it is counter-productive. And it's not acceptable when it encourages racism, sexism, violence and lawlessness. Somebody ought to be able to say so. But even black role models like Cosby are prohibited from speaking forthrightly about it.