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Governments in France, Russia and Iceland have faced angry protests from citizens upset by their handling of the economic crisis. (Ibid)
One blogger, responding to an article on the scapegoating of Polish workers, said the problem is that the Polish workers are allegedly undercutting other European workers.
That's not racism it's a statement of fact. Ask any builders or joiners or plumbers and they will tell you about Polish workers undercutting them. The whole country knows about cheap Polish labour. (Ibid)
Ultimately, as another newspaper blogger noted, when too many people are competing for the same job, the locals get furious at outsiders.
If you increase the number of people competing for the same jobs, it makes no odds whether they come from the next estate, town, county, country or continent. It still drives down wages and/or increases unemployment in that sector. It is not racist to acknowledge this interaction of supply and demand. (Ibid)
Another interesting twist on targeting Polish workers in Europe is that it allows people to vent and blame immigrants, without being called “racist,” as indicated in the quote below:
"Don't hire any darkies/Muslims" sounds much more outrageous to most people than "don't hire any Poles/Slovaks." It shouldn't, but it probably does. Here on CiF one can slag off Eastern Europeans with much more freedom than more 'visible' minorities. (Ibid)
Regarding the new “colorblind society” and racial tensions in the United States, one researcher noted that the “beast” has merely changed form. Racism exists still and, “[t]he only difference between its nature today versus that of say, 100 years ago, is that in many ways, racism is now expressed in ‘colorblind’ terms. That is, racists now apparently think that racial equality has been achieved (they’ll point to Asian American socioeconomic achievements as one example), so it’s perfectly fine to make fun of Asian Americans and other groups because we’re all equal now — we’re all on a level playing field nowadays, so everybody is fair game.” (Racial Tensions and Living in a Colorblind Society, http://www.cnle.net/)
Unfortunately, that “level playing field” often exists only in the minds of those who are at the top of the economic food chain. Those who are ethnic or religious minorities are still struggling for acceptance and economic parity.
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