Happy St George's day!

i actually beleive pollitical correctness has warped the meaning of racism to many people and is often confused with prejudice or stereotyping thus creating a barrier in society. There are many incidents i observe in day to day life where people have said to others 'You cant say that!!!' when merely it was an observation of things going on around and not a remark about colour or creed. That is what i believe is stopping people from saying things, i have a few asian friends and mixed race friends who all say the same thing when this topic has been brought up where theyve experienced others being shy about calling them asian or black because there is such uproar and tension around envoking these 'jittery mannerisms', im sure there are many people who have had similar experiences of mis-interpretating written or spoken conversations concerning stuff and have been scrutinised because the person who has taken offense doesnt really know what the word racism means any more......

this is my view though...... i'm not a racist person at all and have many different friends from korean to nigerian but i must say i am quite open to talk about the things we of a nation are afraid to do as a collective and this is what is preventing us from getting along.....as BT once said 'Its good to talk' :)

I think that's fair enough - a lot of it I agree with, some of it I don't, but there's nothing there really worth getting upset about.

A lot of people know this here, but I'm actually an equality professional. My main aim has always been to get people to talk about equality, and what diversity means for us as communities and as a country as a whole.

The biggest barrier though is to get people talking, and I'm very conscious of the fact that almost everyone who's "anti" will wheel out a story about their friend being arrested for wearing an England shirt, or how the "coloured fella" at number 68 got given his house by the council when poor, hard-working white families have to wait for years - very few of which stand up to scrutiny.

The term 'political correctness' is my kryptonite though - hence my reacting as I did.