For me being patriotic breeds xenophobic(ness?!) <- Is that a word!?
And from being a xenophobe we're then looking at fine lines between that and racism, and many people get them confused (i'll hold my hand up on that one too).
For example, visit the local car boot sale now and it's full of foreign speaking people, visit your local chippy and chances are it's foreign owned, or will be within the next 5 years... I don't know why this is, but i think as british people we've moved on to another level and the foreigners coming over are far more like us during 70s-80s, and thus taking up those voids which have been left. What i mean by that is that the average family back then wouldn't be wasteful like today, they would spend within their means, and if you waved an iphone/ipad in their face and told them the price they wouldn't even comprehend buying one. Most toys and clothes were hand me downs, and stuff would only go to the dump/bin if it couldn't be repaired. And now many youngsters would rather sit on their arses waiting for a top paid job to 'turn up' than grafting it in a chippy through the week, whereas back then it was a queue to get the job of local paperboy, fence painter, brusher etc. whatever you could to get some cash in your back pocket without getting it on a plate.
Basically we've completely disappeared up our own arses. Most of the people you see in Charity shops are just looking at making a few quid, buy for 20p and sell on ebay for a tenner as some kind of 'retro'/'designer' item for people who would rather 'dare' go in and buy it themselves - Those in need just get the pickings left over, And charity shop have been well and truly done - That's us all over that is!
Anyway... i'm drifting away
.... I know a lot of people that won't go to places like the car boot, or a foreign owned traditionally 'english' takeaway because they feel they're either Dirty, Dishonest (i.e. will rip you off, or won't pay taxes) or they just find it very hard to communicate with them - I can't make the call on what's deemed as racist in that lot, or purely xenophobic and/or ignorance. It's very well sitting here and saying 'well it's all 3', because that doesn't identify the problem we've got and where the lines are drawn. These people could/will go their entire lives without deliberately harming, or being abusive to another fellow human based on colour/creed but they will discuss it and talk about them in that nature with people within their circle - but if we picked up these thoughts/conversations up, like in Malky's case, and forced these people to walk their lives holding a sign outlaying their thoughts on the local kebab shop man, are we saying this is the correct solution to addressing racism/xenophobes/ignorance? and in return we should condemn these people?
For me, i look at foreigners coming over, and (Sweeping generalisation alert!) notice that they're generally less wasteful, far more hard working, and the men are definetly men! And honestly i've got nothing but respect for them. But, it's my way as a patriot of accepting them and thus fitting within a 'british' mould which helps me become more accepting, hence my bit about 'us' moving on, leaving this void. And honestly i feel more ashamed of ourselves and what we've become than what i do with foreigners 'taking over' here.
If i'm 100% open and honest, It took me a few years to get over the mass of eastern europeans coming in to the area i must admit, mainly because i'm proud of this country and feel it's struggling without the extra intake to support. And in all honesty, i'm quite worried with the whole muslim/jihad thing here and feel as though we're heading towards all-out civil war. So i can see how patriotism could be a large factor of someone going from xenophobe to all-out racist chanting in the streets, honestly i can. And i can see how it works both ways - i.e.. for other races hit to be vocal in their host country with hatred. And i'm not even including religion in this which by far distorts matters to the x degree!
And it's that working both ways that i think is the cause for many people to appear to be racist, when it's actually fear that causes this 'They hate us, so i won't like them', reaction.
And therein lays my biggest concern with adopting this approach that we jump on anyone for displaying *any* form of racism, no matter what the source - it just creates more opportunities for groups to approach people who feel as though their voice has been taken from them, who will ultimately develop to be a far bigger threat than Malky MacKay, who unfortunately pays many people's wages right now, solicitors, PR people, journalists, organisations, associations etc. and that's ultimately what the race card has been used for in this game of cat and mouse.
I don't believe that anyone who's behind making this story public truly feels angered by what he's sent, but it's shockwaves has the potential to affect thousands both positive and negative. If he's publicly hung for these initial text messages then for me, for the reasons i've tried to give above, we're a little bit screwed, just as we were when our media decided to broadcast the message of a guy who was happy to mow down and cut the head of a young british lad in public view. It's a media battle and we'll just sail with it and give our verdict, X Factor style. All the while, behind the scenes, i feel there's trouble brewing, big trouble. Sometimes i wish the world outside of me just didn't exist.
