A number of parents have been campaigning to have Cerrie Bernell, a one-armed TV presenter, removed from CBeebies (Digital Spy: Disabled BBC presenter 'scaring' children). Apart from this being a horribly right-wing disablist campaign, I have a number of other issues with it ...
First of all, I fail to see how pre-school children are 'scared' by a disabled presenter. Young children are not prejudiced, for one simple reason. The Establishment's indoctrination which creates and reinforces prejudice, of any kind, is a slow, gradual, 'drip-drip' process rather than a rapid one. So young children simply haven't yet been exposed to enough of the subtle Establishment propaganda, to yet be brainwashed into oppressive thinking!
Secondly, if they were genuinely interested in stopping kids being scared, they would be far better off campaigning for the complete abolition of corporal punishment, which is still used to instil fear into kids. And the abolition of the SAT tests, which create undue worry among kids who become scared of failure at a very young age. Unlike any TV programme (including the likes of DeadEnders, whose violent storylines are far more scary than any portrayal of disability will ever be!), the belt or the exam result do not have an 'off' switch!
Last but not least, it is not kids who will end up 'having nightmares'. It is disabled people, indeed people of any oppressed minority, when these bigoted gits' campaigns bolster the support of murderous far-right Nazi parties. Indeed, the racist fire whose flames have been fanned by New Labour's increasing attacks on immigration, has led already to the BNP winning a council by-election in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Thankfully, prejudice can be countered and anger redirected against the real enemy. Intervention by the left in recent strikes against foreign labour has successfully won many workers to see that their real enemies are the bosses, not migrant workers who are being exploited while British workers' wages and conditions are undercut. And that the real answer is not to say 'British jobs for British workers', but to instead demand equal and decent pay and conditions for all workers.
It is this message of unity which we must use to counter not only the Nazis' message of hate in the run up to the European elections, but also to counter the capitalist Establishment's divide-and-rule tactics which weaken us all!
Showing posts with label prejudice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prejudice. Show all posts
Monday, 23 February 2009
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Swimming against a tide of hate
It's not often I agree with something I read in the Daily Telegraph. (No, this has absolutely nothing to do with Respect and the split between the SWP and George Galloway, lol). Or have any sympathy for the military. But then I read the Daily Telegraph's Disabled veterans jeered at swimming pool news report.
It really is appalling how common disability prejudice is in our supposedly "civilised" society, and how deep it runs. This ignorance is far from unprecedented; as far back as 1998 I was banned from using certain facilities at a local swimming pool because of my disability, and 2 years ago the parents of a disabled girl (involved with the local "A pool for Megan" charity) were abused by other parents at a local country park for "scaring their kids".
What is unusual this time is that disabled combat veterans - normally treated as heroes, even by the Establishment - are the subject of such abuse. It is true that our soldiers - who have been recklessly sent to fight illegal, immoral and dangerous wars by our government, for the benefit of the British and American capitalist Establishments, and have been killed and maimed for oil - deserve far better than this!
Yet it does feel bitterly ironic that disabled military veterans are now on the receiving end of such prejudice; back in 2000, a heavily-charged debate about whether people with disabilities should be employed in non-combat jobs within the armed forces flared up, as a result of General Guthrie (then head of the British Army) decrying such a possibility. (My views on this issue can be found at Red Disability's Disability and the British Armed Forces article - which has itself attracted an amount of feedback, both positive and negative).
The usual myth parroted by the Establishment is that disability prejudice is a part of "human nature" and therefore "apolitical". But disability discrimination and prejudice are very much a product of capitalism and propagated by the capitalist Establishment - my views on that matter can be found in more detail on Red Disability's Is Human Nature a barrier to Disability Rights article.
More recently, it seems too coincidental that disability prejudice is rearing its ugly head again, so soon after the government has announced plans for yet another attack on Incapacity Benefit claimants. Apolitical? Maybe. Maybe the German Nazis sent over 100, 000 disabled people to the gas chambers just for a laugh ...
The individual parents responsible for such abuse should be dealt with; what I find "scary" is that such parents are not just brainwashed themselves, they are actively helping the Establishment to brainwash their kids with such poisonous prejudice. (Although the idea of "naming and shaming" them goes even further than my idea, mooted in July in my Register of emotion article on this blog, for a "hate crime offenders register"!)
But to stop others like them, we must first get rid of the root cause not just of disability prejudice (see Red Disability's Got a problem? article) but also of racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and countless other forms of oppression. Namely, the capitalist system.
It really is appalling how common disability prejudice is in our supposedly "civilised" society, and how deep it runs. This ignorance is far from unprecedented; as far back as 1998 I was banned from using certain facilities at a local swimming pool because of my disability, and 2 years ago the parents of a disabled girl (involved with the local "A pool for Megan" charity) were abused by other parents at a local country park for "scaring their kids".
What is unusual this time is that disabled combat veterans - normally treated as heroes, even by the Establishment - are the subject of such abuse. It is true that our soldiers - who have been recklessly sent to fight illegal, immoral and dangerous wars by our government, for the benefit of the British and American capitalist Establishments, and have been killed and maimed for oil - deserve far better than this!
Yet it does feel bitterly ironic that disabled military veterans are now on the receiving end of such prejudice; back in 2000, a heavily-charged debate about whether people with disabilities should be employed in non-combat jobs within the armed forces flared up, as a result of General Guthrie (then head of the British Army) decrying such a possibility. (My views on this issue can be found at Red Disability's Disability and the British Armed Forces article - which has itself attracted an amount of feedback, both positive and negative).
The usual myth parroted by the Establishment is that disability prejudice is a part of "human nature" and therefore "apolitical". But disability discrimination and prejudice are very much a product of capitalism and propagated by the capitalist Establishment - my views on that matter can be found in more detail on Red Disability's Is Human Nature a barrier to Disability Rights article.
More recently, it seems too coincidental that disability prejudice is rearing its ugly head again, so soon after the government has announced plans for yet another attack on Incapacity Benefit claimants. Apolitical? Maybe. Maybe the German Nazis sent over 100, 000 disabled people to the gas chambers just for a laugh ...
The individual parents responsible for such abuse should be dealt with; what I find "scary" is that such parents are not just brainwashed themselves, they are actively helping the Establishment to brainwash their kids with such poisonous prejudice. (Although the idea of "naming and shaming" them goes even further than my idea, mooted in July in my Register of emotion article on this blog, for a "hate crime offenders register"!)
But to stop others like them, we must first get rid of the root cause not just of disability prejudice (see Red Disability's Got a problem? article) but also of racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and countless other forms of oppression. Namely, the capitalist system.
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