Dear Any Answers,
So your panel were discussing racism with a lot of acrimony directed towards UKIP.
UKIP leaves a bad taste in my mouth too but I believe that issues of racism shouldn't only be about who enters a country and who is excluded ...
Here in Cologne a well-known international budget clothing retailer has recently opened up and was promptly stormed by an enthusiastic public. And all around town I see shoppers loaded down with bags of clothes from this particular retailer, clothes that they have bought for "throw-away" prices.
So, when a factory collapses in Bangladesh or exploited workers commit suicide in China, are our shopping habits and our burning desire for "cheap" not racism by proxy? Yes, we in the West have rules against racist language or racist acts and we strive for integration (within our frontiers) but then, with hardly a qualm, we will go on shopping-sprees for cheap, (near-) slave-produced goods.
So the disagreements with UKIP, although certainly correct, are, in my opinion, a red-herring detracting from the racism and exploitation which is "embedded" in our globalised economic system.
Regards
