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Friday 14 January 2011

The BBC Today programme and are white girls 'easy meat'?

The furore over the statement of the obvious by Jack Straw and others over recent weeks has been lead by the BBC. A BBC that cannot bear to see any criticism of multiculturalism and especially of men of Pakistani origin, Muslims being all but above criticism to the ever so politically correct BBC. So I was somewhat surprised to hear a piece on the Today programme this morning that actually asked young men of Pakistani origin what they thought. I don't think that the interviews helped the BBC cause:
"It’s the way the white women dress, innit. Miniskirts. Encourages them, innit, to go jack ‘em and that, d’you get me?"
Or: "A lot of Asian women wouldn’t actually have their body showing, whereas white women you would find them like that."
Or: "White women drink, so when they under the influence of alcohol the Pakistani men probably – the ones from Pakistan that have recently come – probably think they can take advantage, innit."
Quotes 1 & 2 seem to be of the 'they are asking  for it' or 'contributory negligence' line of argument that the BBC would demolish in a minute if used by a 'normal' suspected rapist or paedophile, but as this is being said by young men of Pakistani origin, the criticism is muted and excuses must be found.

Andrew Brown in The Telegraph listened to the same Today piece and he seems to be of the same opinion as me. Here's how he ends his article:
'Then Nihal from the Asian Network came on and I can only imagine the hand-wringing among BBC multiculturalists when they heard what he had to say: “We did this story back in November and we asked the question whether there is something in the Pakistani culture that led men to do this. Many people called in my phone-in show and said: ‘Yes we know that this is happening. Our men have this attitude towards white girls.’ [On Monday] a caller said: ‘White girls are easy. Fact.’ That’s what he said and he was unapologetic about that. I told him it wasn’t fact it was an opinion.”
Webb responded that that was very tough on young men of Pakistani origin. And he’s right, of course: it certainly is not good for respectable young Asian men. The fact is, though, that hardly anyone now denies that there is a real issue here and it has be faced. Perhaps only Keith Vaz is left insisting the whole thing’s an invention, and no one takes him seriously. As Nihal said: “Even Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs select committee, on my show this week said that he had never heard anybody say this, that white women were easy or promiscuous. I said to him: Well, why don’t you check out the iPlayer, because ten minutes before he came on my show someone had said that very thing!”
“It’s certainly been well mentioned now,” Webb said, a bit testily, as he wound up the interview. Small wonder if he was inwardly peeved. Today the BBC took a good look at multicultural Britain – and they didn’t like what they saw.'
There is trouble brewing in many towns in the north of England, trouble that the coming cuts will not help. A hot summer could see race riots that will make those of the 1980s look like a picnic.

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