Joseph Harker opines once more on CiF about his favourite subject; racism. In this instance it is the case of the teacher who dared to express “extremist” and therefore “racist” views online. Harker feels that such people shouldn’t be allowed to teach.
When Maurice Smith, a former chief inspector of schools, ruled that it was OK for BNP members to teach our children, he exhibited an astonishing level of naivety about how racism works in the classroom. That the then schools secretary Ed Balls chose to accept his advice was one of the most depressing examples of how the dying New Labour government showed it had completely forgotten why it was in power.
In reaching his decision, Smith had said that barring the BNP was “taking a very large sledgehammer to crack a minuscule nut”. And he added: “The existing measures in place to protect children and young people from discrimination or political indoctrination are well-grounded, and comprehensive enough to mitigate the risk.”
Today his lack of understanding was exposed when Adam Walker, a teacher and BNP activist, was cleared by his profession’s watchdog of racial intolerance – despite using a school laptop to claim in an online forum that Britain was a “dumping ground for the filth of the third world” and lauding the BNP as “the only party who are making a stand and are prepared to protect the rights of citizens against the savage animals New Labour and Bliar [sic] are filling our communities with”.
There’s more of this egregious twaddle, but let’s just look at the basics, shall we? Did Adam Walker allow his views to affect his teaching? No evidence has been proffered. Therefore, the decision to clear him was the appropriate one. His use of school equipment is another matter entirely.
Did Maurice Smith rule appropriately? Well, it is not for the chief inspector of schools to decide what political parties teachers may belong to and it is not his place to decide what views they may hold. His reasoning for his ruling, far from being naive, is perfectly sound. Have any of the teachers who belong to the BNP been shown to have allowed their views to affect their professional behaviour? If not, then there is no case to answer. Those of us who are capable of thinking will determine that freedom of speech and freedom of conscience are cornerstones of a civilised society – even if the views and thoughts of those we defend are abhorrent.
Of course, for Harker, thought crime should always be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And, let’s bear in mind that this is the Joseph Harker who, in 2002 said this:
White people need to accept that, no matter how many anti-racist demos they’ve marched on, they inevitably make assumptions, however subconscious, which are influenced by a racist society and which help to form their views and opinions. To refute this is to be in complete denial.
There is only one conclusion that we may draw from this comment and that is that, despite in the same piece saying that he cannot be racist because he is black, Joseph Harker is a racist. Anyone who believes that a whole group of people make assumptions because of the colour of their skin is, by definition, a racist. Joseph Harker is, by his own execrable argument, a racist.
White people need to accept that, no matter how many anti-racist demos they’ve marched on, they inevitably make assumptions, however subconscious, which are influenced by a racist society and which help to form their views and opinions. To refute this is to be in complete denial.
I wonder if he’s a Guardian reader?
.-= My last blog ..Quality of living – where’s the UK? =-.
Typical leftist doublethink, all other opinions apart from the great liberal/leftist opinion need to be crushed and removed from view. In part they are probably more Nazi than liberal because of this, certainly Harker is.
Well said.
A Guardian writer…