The acceptable new faces of the unacceptable

July 6, 2009 12:53 PM

Babes of the BNP [probably NSFW]
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady (83 comments total)

Short version:

What do you think the BNP could do to improve its appeal to gay voters?
Erm, ooh, I don’t know. I haven’t a clue.
posted by rokusan at 12:58 PM on July 6, 2009

You see! This is what I'm always saying! The horrible people aren't just Americans!
posted by America at 12:59 PM on July 6, 2009 [7 favorites]

Al Jolson – hero or villain?
I don’t know who he is. Um, hero.

This proves it. She's not racist - she's just uneducated.
posted by tapeguy at 1:00 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

As grim as the JPEG over-compression on the photos.
posted by Artw at 1:01 PM on July 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

Let’s try a word association game. Just say the first word that comes into your head.
OK.
Golly.
Wally.

Rag.
Rug.

Goose.
Duck.

Oswald.
Place.

Concentration.


OOh, the tension is palpable, isn't it?
posted by boo_radley at 1:01 PM on July 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

In Britain Ann Coulter is considered to be a villain in a popular series of childrens books.
posted by Artw at 1:05 PM on July 6, 2009 [20 favorites]

From the comments:

Who’d have guessed that racists would also be dangerously ill-informed?
posted by ob at 1:06 PM on July 6, 2009 [14 favorites]

I don't appreciate all these ignorant people taking all the good jobs in call-centers and kitchens.

Dey tuk Ar Jahbs!
posted by sunshinesky at 1:08 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

There is no way in hell the last girl who claims to be nineteen is a day less than 55. And my grandma called, she wants her clothes back.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:08 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I kind of got into it through my friend Danny. He’s really racist. Everyone calls him “Nazi Danny”

I think I need to meet new people. I feel like I'm just not hanging out with that interesting a crowd.
posted by allen.spaulding at 1:10 PM on July 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

And my grandma called, she wants her clothes back.

Um.
posted by gurple at 1:13 PM on July 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

my grandma called, she wants her clothes back

Awkward.
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 1:14 PM on July 6, 2009 [7 favorites]

"If you see these women, you are in the wrong pub. Leave immediately."
posted by lackutrol at 1:20 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

HEY WHERE ALL THE WHITE WOMEN AT
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:21 PM on July 6, 2009 [7 favorites]

I kind of got into it through my friend Danny. He’s really racist. Everyone calls him “Nazi Danny”.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that "Nazi Danny" still lives with his mum and that he cries himself to sleep every night wondering why he can't get a girlfriend. It's because you're a nob-end Danny, it's because you're a nob-end.
posted by ob at 1:21 PM on July 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

Ein Nischt-Nischt, oder ein Ja-Ja?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:23 PM on July 6, 2009

You see! This is what I'm always saying! The horrible people aren't just Americans!

Yes but we are winning.
posted by spicynuts at 1:23 PM on July 6, 2009

I wouldn’t mind them if they actually worked and didn’t take all of our jobs, basically.

^ This is a beautiful thing.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:25 PM on July 6, 2009 [47 favorites]

Say what you like about the tenets of British nationalism, at least it's an ethos.
posted by Abiezer at 1:31 PM on July 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

"Nixon can't have won; no one I know voted for him"
posted by codswallop at 1:35 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

What do you do for a living?
I haven’t got a job at the moment...

What if immigrants could prove their usefulness – should they then be allowed to stay?
No. I just don’t think there should be any. You see, just because they’re black, I haven’t got a problem with that. If they’ve lived in the country for a long time and they’re working, and say they’re a doctor or they’re actually doing something...
posted by Midnight Rambler at 1:36 PM on July 6, 2009 [7 favorites]

I wouldn’t mind them if they actually worked and didn’t take all of our jobs
The Schrödinger's immigrant: simultaneously works and doesn't work.
posted by elgilito at 1:40 PM on July 6, 2009 [29 favorites]

When people say the BNP is a fascist party, what do you think?
Fascist – I don’t understand that word.

Think of Nazi Germany, or 1930s Italy.
I can’t even remember when that happened really, but I’m against them anyway.

Those who forget 1930s Italy are doomed to be on Vice.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:41 PM on July 6, 2009

I'm not British, female, a skinhead or an immigrant yet I still don't know: What's with the spoons?
posted by Dr Dracator at 1:42 PM on July 6, 2009

What's with the spoons?

Anyway, the great Private Eye magazine has (had?) a regular feature called "Me and My Spoon" satirizing insipid celebrity interviews. A celebrity would answer a string of absurd spoon related questions. The article always ends thusly:

Q: Has anything amusing ever happened to you in connection with a spoon?
A: No
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:52 PM on July 6, 2009

Thank fook this is a parody, cause the real thing would look exactly the same.
posted by Sova at 1:58 PM on July 6, 2009

LOLWASPoFASCISTS
posted by Decimask at 1:59 PM on July 6, 2009

Thank fook this is a parody

I don't think it's a parody.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 2:09 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

dear bnp women

i just held a seance and contacted boudica - she thinks you should all leave for your homelands
posted by pyramid termite at 2:37 PM on July 6, 2009

The upside of American electoral politics being a winner-take-all system is that no national party would openly endorse the racism and nationalism that's at the heart of a lot of parliamentary fringe parties, and the open racists here have absolutely no chance of winning national office.

The downside of American electoral politics being a winner-take-all system is that the racists and nationalists represent a significant bloc to be pandered to, and that covert racists have a pretty decent chance of winning national office.
posted by klangklangston at 2:42 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Hey! Remember when Vice was subversive and cool and edgy?

No?

Me either.
posted by orville sash at 2:45 PM on July 6, 2009 [6 favorites]

I misread the post title as "Babies of the BNP".
posted by Ndwright at 2:57 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure the BNP is just a front for track suit manufacturers.
posted by srboisvert at 3:12 PM on July 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

Poorly written parody
posted by fire&wings at 3:17 PM on July 6, 2009

In Britain Ann Coulter is considered to be a villain in a popular series of childrens books.

What are you talking about? Nobody mentioned Ann Coulter. Leave the poor woman out of this.
posted by Avenger at 3:32 PM on July 6, 2009

It was a joke, Avenger.
posted by haltingproblemsolved at 3:36 PM on July 6, 2009

I moved to the UK 4 years ago and still watch this kind of thing with open mouth and slowly shaking head. I can't help having the creepy feeling that millions of people here hold (and flaunt) knowingly ignorant and bigoted opinions like these because, on some level, their society tells them it's acceptable to do so. Under the race problem illustrated here is also a class problem. It's somehow okay for people from council estates to be dangerously racist, because nobody expects anything more of them.
posted by stuck on an island at 3:40 PM on July 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

My "favorite" is the one who would be OK with the Chinese on two conditions:

(1) They "actually worked";

(2) They "didn’t take all of our jobs".
posted by Flunkie at 3:46 PM on July 6, 2009

Note that these heroes of the working class most likely don't even have jobs, or make much effort to get them.
posted by Artw at 3:49 PM on July 6, 2009

If Vice or Metafilter had asked me questions at the ages of 19 or 23 I wouldn't have sounded very intelligent or informed. Only certain.
posted by eccnineten at 4:06 PM on July 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

... FUCK, thems be some airheads.
posted by kldickson at 4:07 PM on July 6, 2009

The upside of American electoral politics being a winner-take-all system is that no national party would openly endorse the racism and nationalism that's at the heart of a lot of parliamentary fringe parties, and the open racists here have absolutely no chance of winning national office.

Yes, except for all the times a national party has done so, and the open racists who've had a strong chance of winning national office.
posted by Tomorrowful at 4:15 PM on July 6, 2009

That POOR woman. That POOOOOR WOMAN! That poor slut did it to herself.
posted by Operation Afterglow at 4:26 PM on July 6, 2009

So like a while back I was googling to find out which female celebs had grey eyes and a link to the Stormwatch forum came up. So morbid curiosity took me into the middle of a debate of whether grey eyes were an indicator of Jewishness... this was in a thread on who was the hottest female celebrity. The temptation to sign on just to add 'Halle Berry... no, wait a minute, Barbara Streisand!'... was almost irresistible
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:40 PM on July 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

fire&wings: "Poorly written parody"

So forgive this ignorant American but I can't tell, are these interviews real or is a parody?
posted by octothorpe at 4:40 PM on July 6, 2009

I wouldn’t mind them if they actually worked and didn’t take all of our jobs, basically.

So presumably they support immigrants setting up their own businesses and creating new jobs for non-immigrants... right?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:42 PM on July 6, 2009

shudder
posted by mattoxic at 5:09 PM on July 6, 2009

So forgive this ignorant American but I can't tell, are these interviews real or is a parody?

I believe they're parody, and even though I earlier joked that the real answers would be exactly the same, I've thought about it some more and that's not really true. There's quite bit of social commentary wrapped up in these fake interviews, and whoever wrote them displays a real contempt for women, for working-class people, and for northerners. I have to applaud him though, cause he manages to socially and culturally kick the shit out of his targets while making us hate them too. I'm almost tempted to say the BNP are irrelevant to this piece, as it's just a vehicle for the writer's own prejudices. And that's something even worse: the writer can be exercise his own hate of other groups and yet justify it in this way.
posted by Sova at 5:13 PM on July 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

There's no evidence this isn't real. There's nothing particularly unlikely in it and it is surrounded by articles which are clearly not parody.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 5:14 PM on July 6, 2009

Yeah, they're stupid, ignorant chavs. But probably not significantly more stupid or ignorant than many (most?) of their age and class.

And if you really believe in Democracy, their votes should count as much as the vote of any Oxbridgian. You do believe in one (wo)man, one vote, right?

And they have fears of immigrants, from the interviews (one girl doesn't rule our sleeping with black men) economic fears more than explicitly racist hate. Fears which, given current economic trends especially for the ill-educated, make some sort of sense.

The lower class has its balls in the vice of "globalization", and they're being squeezed. Squeezed up against, and competing with, immigrants, the vise handle being turned by corporations that prefer the nativists scapegoat the immigrants, and that the immigrants (and liberals) demonize the nativists, and that everyone ignore the corporatists behind the curtain.

When we chuckle about these chavs, or damn then (as ritual requires) for their racism, whose agenda are we advancing?
posted by orthogonality at 5:25 PM on July 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

my favourite film is This Is England – it’s about skinheads, but they’re not really racist, because one of them is a black kid. They turn on him in the end, but because he was one of the gang they’re not really racist. They just believe in what they believe in.

I really hope Shane Meddows, the cast and the crew never see that. It's just unbelievable that someone could see that wonderful, funny, moving, emphatically anti-racist film and misunderstand it so completely.

Oh, now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense - the anti-racist skinheads and the racist skinheads and the confused skinheads in the film are all the same, because... they all look the same.

And your parents?
No. What are they? I think Liberal Democrat. I dunno.

wat
posted by jack_mo at 5:26 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

There's no evidence this isn't real. There's nothing particularly unlikely in it and it is surrounded by articles which are clearly not parody.

France's jizz drought

Painting the town (and below my waist) red

Sure, these articles ain't parody, but they're hardly very assuring as to the nature of the site, you know? Find me a reference from elsewhere, something to backup these interviews and I'll believe you. Otherwise, I'm basing my judgement on what I know.
posted by Sova at 5:37 PM on July 6, 2009

It never crossed my mind that this could be made-up. I mean, the leaked BNP membership list included members described as Former policeman. Lecturer in human rights/data protection. and Will not be renewing 07 (objects to being told he shouldn't wear a bomber jacket).

That's the thing about contemporary fascists, they're so bloody ludicrous its impossible to spot a parody. A dangerous thing, admittedly - the BNP are simultaeneously laughable and no laughing matter.
posted by jack_mo at 5:39 PM on July 6, 2009

I really hope Shane Meddows, the cast and the crew never see that. It's just unbelievable that someone could see that wonderful, funny, moving, emphatically anti-racist film and misunderstand it so completely.

Was talking to a guy the other day about how great Gran Torino was & then discovered he liked it 'cuz he agreed with all the racist claptrap Clint was spewing at the beginning...this is not a parody btw...
posted by scratch at 6:02 PM on July 6, 2009

I never once thought this might be a parody until I read these comments.

I still don't.
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 6:21 PM on July 6, 2009

OK, but what is it?
How did these interviews -- and pin-up pictures -- happen?
If there had been, say, a Babes of the BNP calendar, and this website tracked down the models and asked them questions -- that would be one thing.
If they just picked the chavviest girls they could find who were willing to claim BNP and have their pictures taken -- that's less funny.
posted by Methylviolet at 6:39 PM on July 6, 2009

This is a pretty obvious parody unless you truly believe those who don't think like you do are obviously a pack of retards.
posted by codswallop at 6:53 PM on July 6, 2009

For what it's worth, I believe this to be genuine. I've got no reason to believe that these aren't real people answering questions sincerely and to the best of their abilities, even though the questions are a slapstick set-up job intended to ridicule. 'Helen' even pops into the comments section to explain her position further, and if you've spent any time at all on Facebook looking at the pages of former junior school classmates from the Midlands, as I have acquaintances of mine have, you'll recognise her prose style, which is surprisingly hard to mimic credibly.

The only thing that seems suspicious is the quality of spelling, punctuation and grammar in the original article, which means that these exchanges can't possibly have been conducted via email (or if they were they've been heavily cleaned up/translated into English).

I hope I'm wrong, but if it is a parody it's an extremely mild one, given the steaming arsevomit that gets splattered all over the comments section on supposedly mainstream 'news' sites like the Daily Mail.
posted by Beautiful Screaming Lady at 7:08 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Helen Riddell is a real person and BNP member, so one would think the interview is genuine.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:38 PM on July 6, 2009

The other women are also in the BNP Facebook group, so that's probably how the writer contacted them.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:40 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think that's pretty decent proof. Thankyou.
posted by Sova at 7:51 PM on July 6, 2009

codswallop: "This is a pretty obvious parody unless you truly believe those who don't think like you do are obviously a pack of retards."

This is a pretty obvious parody only if you truly believe those who don't think like you can't possibly be a pack of retards.

Then again, maybe 25-35% of my classmates growing up were hilarious parodists I was too closed-minded to appreciate, rather than racist idiots who saw absolutely no irony in flying the Stars & Bars and burning nooses into football fields while blaring rap music, idolizing its stars, and trying to emulate black urban culture and fashion.

My point being: racists/white supremacists aren't necessarily brilliant.
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 8:11 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Interesting. It read like parody to me, so one wonders whether there were actual interviews conducted.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:43 PM on July 6, 2009

"That's the thing about contemporary fascists, they're so bloody ludicrous its impossible to spot a parody. A dangerous thing, admittedly - the BNP are simultaeneously laughable and no laughing matter."

Contemporary fascists are fucking morons who are incredibly angry about being told that they're fucking morons all the time (which no one would if they weren't so fucking moronic) and so, being morons, blame minorities and immigrants.
posted by klangklangston at 9:37 PM on July 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

BNP Wives "If we still had National Service they wouldn't come over."
posted by tellurian at 9:49 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

i would say these are real interviews, edited for readability. completely unsurprising based on the writing i see on a daily basis. though at least one of them is lying *shamelessly* about her true age.
posted by RedEmma at 10:32 PM on July 6, 2009

goodnewsfortheinsane: Interesting. It read like parody to me, so one wonders whether there were actual interviews conducted.

When you're talking with members of the BNP, I imagine it's difficult to conduct an interview that doesn't seem like a parody.

And since I've spent plenty of time explaining to people in Europe and elsewhere why precisely my country does so many fuck-all stupid things, maybe some happy resident of the ancient homeland of the Celts Anglo-Saxons (we Americans know the principle well—if you manage to kill all the natives, it's not called “immigration” anymore) can tell me: why the hell has the BNP's popularity and representation been growing? I mean: it doesn't strike me that the UK public is actually getting stupider—as opposed to, say, my American public, which I have to say takes the cake as far as coming up with new ways to stupefy and unintelligize itself—and it doesn't seem like the UK public is becoming more racist or intolerant…although, granted, I've never been there, so I don't exactly have my finger on the pulse here.

So: what's the deal, Britons, Scots, Irish? Why is the BNP actually getting votes?
posted by koeselitz at 11:29 PM on July 6, 2009

Yeah, they're stupid, ignorant chavs. But probably not significantly more stupid or ignorant than many (most?) of their age and class.
Fucking hell. With attitudes like this from 'liberals' its no wonder lots of people want to stick two fingers up to the whole establishment. It's young working class people in Britain who are at the forefront of changing bigoted social attitudes, e.g.
The leader of the BNP is an Oxbridge graduate; their vote comes slightly more form the working class abandoned by Labour but they get plenty from suburban middle England too; UKIP even more so, who are fishing in the exact same xenophobic pond with only slightly more of a veneer of respectability.
posted by Abiezer at 11:33 PM on July 6, 2009 [3 favorites]

Every time I see English speaking people acting stupid and not being from the USA, it fills my heart with a disturbing mixture of joy, national pride, linguistic inferiority and disgust.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 11:42 PM on July 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

koeselitz: Most power wielders see this part of the population only as a dumb underclass to be ignored, managed or exploited. The BNP promotes itself as the only party that addresses the concerns of "real Britons". As for why the BNP is suddenly accumulating votes, I think the operative R-word is actually recession.
posted by stuck on an island at 1:42 AM on July 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

So: what's the deal, Britons, Scots, Irish? Why is the BNP actually getting votes?

There's an argument that it's not so much the BNP getting more votes as the complete collapse of the Labour vote, allowing the BNP to appear to rise. This is the effect of New Labour becoming, essentially, a center right party, targeting its policies towards swing voters, continuing the shift from a generally high-wage union-organised industrial economy to a low-wage non-union service economy started by the Tories under Thatcher, a lot of their heartlands have been left behind and their old core vote is drifting away. It doesn't help that the tabloids and middle-brow schlock like the Daily Mail cry 'Immigrant Horror!' every five minutes as the cause of half the social problems of the country.

Also the recent MP expenses scandal has allowed the BNP (and other BNP-lite parties like UKIP) to position themselves as an alternative to the 'establishment'.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:36 AM on July 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

If Vice or Metafilter had asked me questions at the ages of 19 or 23 I wouldn't have sounded very intelligent or informed. Only certain.

God knows I've said things I regret in the past, but I've never committed myself to something I didn't understand.


There's nothing particularly unlikely in it and it is surrounded by articles which are clearly not parody.


Bit hard to tell with Vice magazine, mind.


This is a pretty obvious parody unless you truly believe those who don't think like you do are obviously a pack of retards.

I'm not into calling people 'retards', but there is something very retarded about BNP policy. Also, a former schoolfriend of mine once told me 'I was going to stand for the BNP as a councillor because I was worried about immigration and taxes and things - that was until I realised how racist they were.' He was working cash in hand as a roofer.
posted by mippy at 3:29 AM on July 7, 2009

I got your Aryan Master-Race right here...
posted by acb at 4:26 AM on July 7, 2009

I misread the post title as "Babies of the BNP".

I misread it as "Babes of the BJP." And was disappointed as always.
posted by jdotglenn at 4:53 AM on July 7, 2009

So: what's the deal, Britons, Scots, Irish? Why is the BNP actually getting votes?

This report from the Runnymede Trust is instructive: Who Cares About the White Working Class?
Chapter six of that looks at how the BNP have succeeded in racialising social housing issues; this today shows how spurious the BNP's (and much of the Tory presses) claims are.
posted by Abiezer at 4:59 AM on July 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

fearfulsymmetry: There's an argument that it's not so much the BNP getting more votes as the complete collapse of the Labour vote, allowing the BNP to appear to rise.

This is exactly right. The BNP did gain in the recent election but it's still a small party. Its perceived gain is largely because labour supporters simply didn't turn out to vote or swapped to other parties allowing the BNP to be a much bigger fish after making tiny gains.

Year.............................2004......................2009.....
Total votes cast.......16,853,249...............15,625,823
Votes for labour........3,718,683.................2,381,760
Votes for BNP..............808,200...................943,598

(Data for consecutive EU parliament elections, as reported by the BBC. Sources: 2004, 2009. I love the internet.)

So from 2004 to 2009, 1.2 million fewer voters turned out and Labour lost 1.3 million votes, while other parties made small gains or stayed roughly level. Labour have been having problems, but it's probably safe to say that a big part of this was caused by the expenses scandal, which was really hurting them at the time. The BNP did gain, which is worrying, but not nearly enough to have made a difference if Labour hadn't suddenly crashed so badly.

Indeed, Nick Griffin (who holds one of the BNP's two seats) actually lost votes between 2004-2009:
From Nick Robinson's blog at the BBC.

Nick Griffin is now a Member of the European Parliament even though he won fewer votes than he did five years ago.
[...]
In 2004, the BNP in the North West polled 134,959 votes. In 2009, they polled 132,194. So, why did he win?
In short, because of a collapse in the Labour vote from 576,388 in 2004 to 336,831 in 2009.

Since Griffin took over, the BNP has gained some ground by controlling its message more carefully (it's about "national identity" and "Britishness" which, er, only white people can have) and we do need to be very careful of that, but their gains are much smaller than they'd like people to believe.
posted by metaBugs at 7:09 AM on July 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

I'd say that was one forceful reminder about how Britain desperately needs more immigration and interbreeding to raise the average level of physical attractiveness. Fewer chips & beer too.

I find it odd how Britain is the only major world empire that never raise it's own people's physical attractiveness by bringing back beautiful natives form the colonies.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:10 AM on July 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

This is a pretty obvious parody unless you truly believe those who don't think like you do are obviously a pack of retards.

That's not the point. The point is, there are a horrendous number of uneducated chavs in this country who think exactly like that, who are exactly that stupid. The excuses - sorry - reasons, given by so many of the people who just voted those two arseholes - sorry - BNP members, into the EU parliament were some of the most scarily stupid I've ever seen, and that's not even going down the route of some of the idiots who are actual supporters.

Again, I made a post the other week about a film I helped a friend of mine work on about troubled kids and the level of education in respect to immigration, and it was a terrifyingly depressing project to work on! To see just how few facts some people care to know before making judgements...

Also, in response to koeselitz there - very few Scots vote for the BNP. The percentage was something like 2.4% I think. They really ought to just be called the English Nationalist Party. Scotland has the Scottish Nationalist Party after all (though they are at least a whole lot less backwards and scary - just a bit retarded). I don't know about Wales.
posted by opsin at 7:41 AM on July 7, 2009

Can we not use the 'chav' word, here, please? Class snobbery isn't going to help us understand the issue any better. In fact, it's probably helped it to arise to begin with.

Wales' equivalent of the SNP is Plaid Cymru.
posted by mippy at 8:52 AM on July 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

"I wouldn’t mind them if they actually worked and didn’t take all of our jobs"

This simultaneously fills me with laughter and horror, and now I'm just glad I got 6000 miles away from South Bristol and never plan to return.
posted by saturnine at 9:59 AM on July 7, 2009

Most of the middle class white folks who agree with the BNP that I have spoken to dislike the fact that people come here and receive social security benefits, council housing and use our national health service. It's not "they're taking our jobs" but "they come here and don't work and we pay for them!" Some people have complained that immigrants get preferential treatment when it comes to council housing etc and they don't see why they should. Every application form for anything now comes with an section marked racial background and people see all these different options and then "white caucasian" at the end. They are frightened to tick this box in the fear that it will put them to the back of a queue. Even White Irish might get them a better or quicker service.

It's hard to convince these people why someone from Sudan should get a flat when their disabled mother has been waiting 3 months for one but I still try. There are a lot of people who vote BNP because frankly they are just racist, the majority just voted BNP because they think they will make it "fair". Then you have professionals like the Police who vote BNP because they see nothing but the negative sides of immigration (and by this I don't mean the police are inherently racist - I mean they must deal with obstruction by people who wish to deal with things in their own way rather than abiding by the laws of the country they have settled in or criminal families moving into an area and taking it over).

Both my parents have left the UK. My father, who is a cunt of the highest order moved out because he didn't like all the Somalians moving to Sheffield so he moved to France (where I am sure they welcomed him with open arms). My mother just wanted nice weather so now lives in Lanzarote. She's never had a racist bone in her body but she has worked for the Deparment of Work and Pensions fraud unit and has no doubt seen plenty that could have reinforced prejudices if she had them.

It doesn't take much to start thinking racist thoughts. Everyone has a group that they stereotype - I know I do it sometimes. Someone will do something and I will think "that's just like a typical insertethnicminority". Moments later I will think "You silly fucker - three other folks did exactly the same thing this morning - you are just stereotyping". Luckily I know I am doing it and can identify and overrule my initial impressions.

I just think it's the usual bullshit - categorising the other as a subhuman and laying blame for both personal and social failure on this nebulous concept of "foreign people". These self same racist bigoted idiots will shop at Marks & Spencers and say how wonderful it is and what an English institution it is whilst complaining about all those dirty Polacks stealing our jobs (that English people don't want to work).

Marks & Spencers was founded by a Polish immigrant in 1884. Times change and it's a sad person who is unwilling to accept or embrace that change.
posted by longbaugh at 10:34 AM on July 7, 2009 [6 favorites]

Can we not use the 'chav' word, here, please? Class snobbery isn't going to help us understand the issue any better. In fact, it's probably helped it to arise to begin with.

Hmm. There's room for some thread crossover between this comment and this one.
posted by Artw at 1:10 PM on July 7, 2009

Bristol, meet Bristol.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:18 PM on July 7, 2009