Thanks for your comments on this — although it’s disheartening to learn that something similar is happening on the opposite side of the globe.

I liked that commentary in the first link you posted, and I certainly hope she didn’t get fired!

It’s odd to me that something which so hints at xenophobia seems to be occurring simultaneously with what seems to be a general trend toward hyper-sensitivity regarding racism. I could be totally wrong in my perception of this hyper-sensitivity, but I wonder whether anything like it looks familiar to you or others in countries outside the UK?

As an example of what I experience as rationality-robbing hyper-sensitivity, in the UK the following form of reasoning seems to have become popular:

1) Some measurable characteristic occurs with a different frequency across two racial or ethnic groups.

2) Therefore, there must be a difference in how the two racial or ethnic groups are being treated, and

3) Therefore, someone is being racist.

This general form of reasoning cashes out as arguments like: More [insert ethnic group] people than [insert different ethnic group] people are being arrested for [insert crime], so the police must be racist. Woe to those who might question whether this is a valid form of reasoning, lest they be seen as racist themselves or — even worse! — so unaware of cultural nuances that they don’t even realize they are being racist. It seems to me that hyper-sensitivity with regard to race issues prevents much of the media from thinking carefully about whether the form of argument itself makes any sense — only the conclusion seems to matter.

Yet, if someone were to argue something along the following lines, we would probably just look at them like they were confused: More 20-year old people than 95-year old people are being arrested for armed robbery, so the police must be agist.

The fundamental point that the underlying forms of argument are identical seems to be lost in most of the British media.

(Obviously, it may be the case that the police really are racist — or agist, for that matter — but these forms of reasoning just don’t demonstrate that; nor do any of the myriad similar ‘arguments’ which conflate correlation with causation.)

That what seems to be borderline xenophobia can be occurring simultaneously with what seems to be hyper-sensitivity about racism is remarkable!

All the best,
Greg

I wonder if it is some sort of media/air meme floating around the globe causing racial disrest and finger pointing…

See : http://www.publicaddress.net/default,3128.sm

(apparently I won’t get fired for this entry)

Which is related to:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/0,2106,3652611a6005,00.html

Kind regards

JoelW