Those “Asian” men in Rotherham
Well, they say you learn something new every day, and yesterday was no exception.
Yesterday I learned that “Asian” means something quite different in Britain than it does in the US. Several commenters to this post of mine revealed that in Brit-speak the word “Asian” commonly refers to people from South Asia (India and Pakistan, as well as Bangladesh), whereas I already knew that in the US it ordinarily means people from the Far East.
Just another example of the fact that the English language on both sides of the pond differs in subtle ways that are not immediately apparent to a native speaker on one side (in this case, me).
The context of that post was the PC response in Britain to the discovery of widespread sex abuse in Rotherham, a case in which authorities allowed the abuse to go on for a long time in part so as not to offend the tender sensibilities of the community there from which the many perpetrators had come. And what was that community? Hint: it wasn’t the “Asian” one, even if you use the word as the British do, although it was a part of that group. It was the Pakistani community in Rotherham.
So it seems that the use of the word “Asian” itself, in reference to this story, is a way of at least partially hiding the origins of the criminals, because it lumps all South Asian Britons together, and they are most definitely not a unitary group. By doing so it not only hides the actual country from which these people came, but it hides the religion they practice, which is predominantly the Muslim religion.
This is not a meaningless or arbitrary distinction. People who live in Britain and whose origins are Indian differ significantly from those who are from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Pakistan and Bangladesh (originally known as East Pakistan) were created during the partition of India after the British left there in 1947. Countries are not partitioned for fun, they are partitioned because of differences and strife, and in this case the main difference was between an Islamic majority in both Pakistans and a Hindu majority in India. The partition was both preceded and followed by an enormous amount of bloodshed (estimated as involving the killing of up to a million people), and involved “14 million [people who] were displaced during the partition; it was the largest mass migration in human history.”
When people from the regions emigrated to Britain these differences remained, although they can become tempered as a function of how long people have been away from the homelands and as assimilation occurs. But assimilation does not occur at the same rates in both groups, nor does economic success, and this difference persists even for the small percentage who happen to hail from the same region and yet differ in religion:
The term ”˜British Asian’ fails to recognise the diversity of British-born, second-generation Asians according to policymakers and researchers who took part in a roundtable discussion at LSE on cohesion, integration and social mobility among these communities.
A pilot study presented at the roundtable suggests that even Hindu Bengalis and Muslim Bengalis that live side by side in the East London Borough of Tower Hamlets have different experiences. This is in spite of the fact that the two communities come from the same ethnic group, speak the same language, migrated at approximately the same time, have the same socio-economic origins, emigrated from the same region ”“ Sylhet in Bangladesh ”“ and settled in the same places…
Hindu Bengalis from Tower Hamlets show relatively high levels of social mobility when compared to the findings of research on other Asian communities in East London. Although the first-generation had largely come without professional qualifications and took up ”˜blue collar’ jobs in East London, most of the second-generation respondents worked in ”˜white collar’ professions, such as jobs in the financial sector or as medical doctors.
They felt high levels of self-identification with the term ”˜British’ relative to other options. They felt least affinity with the term ”˜Asian’ when choosing between ”˜Asian’, ”˜Bengali’, ”˜British’, ”˜Hindu’ and ”˜Indian’ because they felt it had negative connotations, particularly in the media. Hindu Bengalis, and British-born Asians in general, in London were found to prefer more nuanced identities instead of umbrella terms such as ”˜British Asian’.
You can bet they do.
This Wiki article indicates that the immigrants from Pakistan to Britain are almost entirely of Muslim origin and culture: 92%. In contrast, those from India are predominantly of Hindu or Sikh origin: 55% for the former and 29% for the latter, with the remaining percentage Muslim.
So if we go back to the original story that engendered the discussion of “Asian,” it seems that in Rotherham the use of the word to describe the perpetrators reflects a very common practice that obscures the large differences within the “Asian” population in Britain, a difference based on national origin/religion. What’s more, in terms of the Rotherham story, there was either very specific pressure by the Muslim community to coverup the crimes and/or a very specific desire on the part of government to cover them up in order to soothe that community and not reflect poorly on it:
The extent to which the former Labour government tried to play down criminality and extremism among British Muslims for fear of undermining community cohesion is revealed today, as the fallout from the Rotherham sex abuse scandal continued…
Sources revealed that the July 2001 race riots in Bradford, Burnley and Rochdale marked a “turning point” in the way that Mr Blair’s government responded to Britain’s Muslim communities, and that there were efforts ”“ more in “good faith” than in an attempted cover-up ”“ to play down examples of disunity…
At the same time, it is now known that a Home Office researcher was conducting an investigation into trafficking and underage prostitution by mainly Muslim gangs in Rotherham, but it was never published, and the files were seized in 2002 by the Labour-run council when she tried to blow the whistle. The researcher faced intimidation by the police and council officials, the report by Professor Jay revealed last week…
Local council officials are to be called before the Commons Home Affairs committee about the suppressed 2002 report and the wider issue of the abuse of girls.
While there is no suggestion that Mr Blunkett or his close advisers knew about the 2002 Rotherham report, sources said the Government was obsessed with keeping the Muslim community onside ”“ even if it meant sidestepping serious criminality and extremism.
Hope that clears up the confusion from the previous Rotherham post.
[NOTE: And what of the people in Britain who are of “Asian” origin in the way the word is commonly used in the US—in other words (literally), from China, Japan, Vietnam, or other countries in the Far East? What are they called in Britain? The best I could tell from Googling it is that the word “Oriental” (which in the US is now considered racist or colonialist, and verboten) is used, or they are designated by their specific country of origin.]
the asian thing is new in briton… it was the fabians attempt to change the discourse on the targets by changing their moniker to one that people have no problem with… it was brought up here years ago, but again, unless it actually happens, people tend to ignore any comment or information that they can pretend is not meaningful, then ignore it.
its why warnings go unheaded.
the answer to this is in the klemperer post with reference to his linguistic books, not his diary media.
its a sprachregelung that they did not like the term pakis, and wanted to replace it with another word and so picked asian…
people are not learning the games that are being played on them and are making up all manner of reasons to make them seem olk to be played
Sprache des Nationalsozialismus
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprache_des_Nationalsozialismus
translation from the page:
The language of the vocabulary aimed primarily at non — Nazis .
today, its aimed primarily at those that are not part of the party system, or the fabians or despots or whatever you want to call them. its both a change and a test… which i have explained over half a dozen times in ten years – AND empircally backed it up seveal times, ranging from the techniques source in the chinese mandarins, all the way up to the nazi party that perfected it, onwards to the feminists that copied it, and now to the general state of the western democracies
—Use as an identifying like-minded people (especially in the period before 1933)
—Creating an emotional togetherness and community of values
—Exclusion of dissent, [through] intimidation
so in terms of the confederate flag, asians, manhole covers, actresses now actors, and all manner of such games, its this process of Nazi Sprachregelung or Political Correctness.
if a rose had another name, would it not smell as sweet? no, cause people are idiots who think that labels change contents… the process of relabeling poison as food, is good enough for them to sit down and feast.
this is all old hat
unless your ignorant and born yesterday
like most people seem to be
so in this case, they want to take the positive concepts, metaphors and adverbs of the chinese, japanese, and pacific asians, who are hard working, low crime (comparatively), low on riots, low on violence, very low on things like rape, prostitution and so on… and use that to bump over the attribution of the “paki” community, of which the muslim population in that group causes disproportionate problems.
the same idea was tried in the united states when the same political ideological groups, especially feminists did their lets take back the words game, and decided to remove “ni**er”, “n*gro”, black, and so on with “african american”.
not americans from africa…
the point is to share the misery of the group doinng negative things with a group that does more positive things… to mentally dilute the concepts as if brains were moldable by their environments, and not just influenced by the information they consider
[edited for length by n-n]
Salami slicing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing
Salami slicing refers to a series of many small actions, often performed by clandestine means, that as an accumulated whole produces a much larger action or result that would be difficult or unlawful to perform all at once. The term is typically used pejoratively. Although salami slicing is often used to carry out illegal activities, it is only a strategy for gaining an advantage over time by accumulating it in small increments, so it can be used in perfectly legal ways as well.
In politics, the term salami tactics has been used since the 1940s to refer to a divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition.
and
Salami tactics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_tactics
Salami tactics, also known as the salami-slice strategy, is a divide and conquer process of threats and alliances used to overcome opposition. With it, an aggressor can influence and eventually dominate a landscape, typically political, piece by piece. In this fashion, the opposition is eliminated “slice by slice” until one realizes (too late) that it is gone in its entirety. In some cases it includes the creation of several factions within the opposing political party and then dismantling that party from the inside, without causing the “sliced” sides to protest. Salami tactics are most likely to succeed when the perpetrators keep their true long-term motives hidden and maintain a posture of cooperativeness and helpfulness while engaged in the intended gradual subversion.
from the 1940s, eh?
once again, they are cupying the previous converstion from democracy to socialist fascism
African America, has little to do with being born in Africa or connected with Africa.
British Asian, same thing.
It’s a mind control technique using linguistics.
The PC response in Britain to the discovery of widespread sex abuse in Rotherham is indicative of a much deeper societal ailment. Nor is the abuse an anomaly;
“South Yorkshire Police ‘ignored Sheffield abuse claims’ “
“Child sex abuse gangs could have assaulted ONE MILLION youngsters in the UK”
“The grandchild, far from being incidental, is decisive. Civilization persists when there is a widespread sense of an ethical obligation on the part of the present generation for the well-being of the third generation –their own grandchildren. A society where this feeling is not widespread may last as a civilization for some time–indeed, for one or two generations it might thrive spectacularly. But inevitably, a society acknowledging no transgenerational commitment to the future will decay and decline from within.” –Lee Harris, “The Future of Tradition”
A society that will not protect its young has no future.
A society that refuses to identify a mortal threat will fall victim to that threat.
“1 in 3 British Muslim students back killing for Islam and 40% want Sharia law”
“Young Muslims: ‘The better integrated, the higher the risk of radicalization’ “
“42% of Muslims in Canada think Islam and West “irreconcilable”
The confusion resulting from the different meanings given to the term “Asian” in the UK and in America is yet another example of the truth behind the old quip that “England and America are two countries divided by a common language.” (variously attributed to Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw or Winston Churchill).
I come from the north of England, a small town not too far from Rotherham. When we spoke of Asians in my town we meant Pakistanis. There was no vagueness in our understanding of the term. There are very few Indians around there and lots of Pakistanis. There were also vanishingly few Asians from the Far East. I suppose we thought of them as Orientals if I’m honest. I’ve been away for 15 years now, so I am not totally sure of myself.
I am theorizing here, but I think the word Pakistani is not used, as it sounds a lot like “Paki,” which was a racist slur in the seventies and eighties. I remember my Gran once saying Pakistani to me then apologizing and saying Asian (which she pronounced Ayshan, to make things even weirder). “Pakistani,” as an extension of “Paki,” became a curse word.
My overall point is, as a northern English person, I don’t feel there is any obfuscation when I hear “Asian.” It simply means Pakistanis. And I imagine most southerners know that “Asian” and “Northern Town” means Pakistanis. Which of course means Muslims.
neo – It may be immodest of me to mention this, but I’ve been explaining this difference in usage, and what “Asian” meant in British news stories, for years now, at my site.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3138984/Police-withheld-bombshell-report-revealing-gangs-Muslim-men-grooming-100-schoolgirls-young-10-case-inflamed-racial-tensions-ahead-General-Election.html
I am theorizing here, but I think the word Pakistani is not used, as it sounds a lot like “Paki,” which was a racist slur in the seventies and eighties. I remember my Gran once saying Pakistani to me then apologizing and saying Asian (which she pronounced Ayshan, to make things even weirder). “Pakistani,” as an extension of “Paki,” became a curse word.
Double plus bad think vs the good think.