That frakks me right off! If they insisted on broadcasting this then they should have done it back to back with another C4 programme made by Andrew Graham-Dixon a while back which took a number of Britons who held similar views and then genetically tested them, examining their mitochondria, to determine where they actually did come from.

Not one of them was “pure” white race. Hardly a surprise considering black soldiers came over with the Roman army and human history has been one of migration ever since homo sapiens competed with the Neanderthals.

The brilliant upshot of a wonderful programme was that the white racist who’d demanded that you could only call yourself British if you were 8 generations white, on discovering that he had a third or more Indian or Asian in him, laughed and self-deprecatingly admitted that was his argument shot down.

The squaddie who had similar results welcomed it as he thought this would stop his mates’ racist views.

On the other hand, the woman who claimed Britain had gone to the dogs in 1066, practically went into cardiac arrest when she was given the news she had a whole lot of Asian and Indian in her, and then tried to sue C4. She failed.

I’d like to see Kieren and his girlfriend (and Griffin) take this test and then see how his claims of racial purity stack up. Is there an agenda at work in the media’s soft approach to racism?

http://science.howstuffworks.com/evolution/female-ancestor.htm

If Ofcom gets more than 10 complaints, they’ll have to start an investigation… here’s the link
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/progs/specific/?broadcaster=Channel+4&submit=Submit&itemid=285269

How do you find young men willing to voice these beliefs, other than contacting the Youth NF?

Surely his NF membership could equally be either cause or consequence of his beliefs. It doesn’t prejudice or invalidate his story either way, and claiming otherwise is not something I’d advocate.

The only way to confront dogmatic hatred of this sort is to take a compassionate look at the people keeping it alive. We need to know why people find comfort in the idea of a racially pure society, and we can’t do that without getting to know those people’s lives.

Re: 1

I’d like to see Kieran treated like a young man in need of advice, rather than as some kind of liberal pinata.

I saw the programme and I think you’re kind of missing the point.

It was on channel 4, hence the assumption is that the viewer, being reasonably well informed, *already knows* what the BNP/NF are about. I think the programme deliberately tried to get away from “oh he’s a racist, what a nasty person” patronising style that these programmes normally adopt, especially when done by the BBC.

They were trying to see the world from his perspective in a non-judgemental way. I think they succeded and he came across as lonely, isolated and angry.

Nothing positive (or admittedly negative) about far right politics was said and I certainly did not see it as “little more than a half-hour party political broadcast for the National Front.”

Gwyn, how would showing Kieren that we are all related be using him as a pinata? (This begs the question who actually does get used as a pinata in issues of race.)

I agree that compassion is needed for many of these angry young men and women who feel let down and some sort of education and a place of pride in society would go a long way. What was great about the Graham-Dixon programme was that he didn’t have to lecture them — he allowed the evidence to do the talking with the results as outlined above.

Ad for genetic profiling. We are mixed genetically.
Many of us have Mongol blood. I read account about 25% of the so called white population
The issue with immigration should not be about racial purity. It should be about resources.
The trouble many arguments are transfixed by “Muslim” immigration and yet the growth areas of immigration is from areas such as South Africa and Poland

The thing with the DNA tests other posters refer to here is that C4 legitimised the idea that racial purity can be scientifically tested for and determined and now the UK immigration people are using the same test to determine who is Somalian and so forth and deporting people on the basis of it. c4 allowed its hatred of people who asserted that the English were a racial group and that each considered that he or she belong to that group to blind it to that fact c4 was giving authencity to a basic nazi idea, that is that the existence and membership and levels of race purity of a racial group can be determined and classified scientically. The English have been in law since 1972 classed a racial group on a par with any other racial group. Its a real shame that hatred and prejudice is allowed to be dressed up as left wing morality. The English have not suffered any lost of legal rights as a result of programme, just the people forced to take DNA tests against their will and deported on the basis of the result. Not the Right Wing doing that but a Labour Government, yes the grotesque sight of a Labour Government with a little help from C4. Any half decent left winger should have spotted what C4 was up to and opposed it on principle not support it on the basis of hate and prejudice of people with differrent views of how their own legally recognised racial group identity is arrived at.

One can not reach conscensus on any discussions on such things via the web so this is posted simply so you know those of you who think that C4 programme on Engisness was so great just what was the real agenda behind it and as we post the national police data base is being used via that test to draw up “ethnic” DNA classifications, linking “ethnic” DNA compositions to phsyical features and to engage in ethnic/DNA criminal profiling. Above all C4 in its programme declared that Englishness could be scientifically determined and the person who statisfied that test the most was Tebbit, on ya bike, cricket test Tebbit.

In the long run which is more threatening a government approved DNA race purityand determination test or a England sports lover’s cricket test.

Ignoring the idea that the English are a racial group, I wouldn’t make a claim on the basis of DNA. If someone is ’25% Asian or Indian’ what that actually means is that a quater of their DNA is of a type most commonly found in Asia and/or India, but does not preclude the fact that the common ancestor may have been from Africa back at the dawn of humanity. It is a mistake to assume a DNA pattern can firmly identify origins – just give a probability of it.

More to the point, those assualting the far right’s view of racial purity by citing DNA are making the same mistake, assuming race is a purely biological function. But I am biologically Scottish, Borderer and Midlander, as well as definetly Huguenout and probably Irish and Welsh. So can I be English? Well, yes. Easily, because I can identify as such (I don’t – I’m British personally).

I’m not sure what ’25% Asian’ means: I’m about 96.4% chimpanzee. The genetic make-up varies more within ethnic groups than between them.

Re: 6

I got the wrong end of the stick with your first comment, it sounded like you advocated some form of coarse bullying, which I realise now was not your position at all.

Exactly, we should be helping him, and others like him, understand his true genetic heritage.

I’m 50% banana.

http://www.thingsyoudontneedtoknow.com/dnabananas.html

On my mother’s side, obviously.

Do you imagine that this Kieran, a committed racist & fascist, wants your “compassion” or would listen to your “advice?” Seriously, he isn’t a child. He has not been misled. He apparently doesn’t even have the excuse of having been brought up with these beliefs. I doubt he appologises for his views, so why are you making apologies for him?

“They were trying to see the world from his perspective in a non-judgemental way”
And that’s a valid perspective, is it? God forbid that anyone should be “judgemental” about the RACIST, FASCIST National Front or British National Party, who are so tolerant themselves!

“Nothing positive… about far right politics was said”
Except by Kieran himself & his friends, who spoke of “racial purity,” “racial mixing,” the supposed “genocide” of whites, & described non-whites as “filth flooding through our streets.” All of which went completely unchallenged. (Did you read the above article before commenting on it?)

The real question here is why Channel 4 decided to make a “non-judgemental” documentary specifically about an organiser for the NF.

Also, I really object to the title. “Young” + “angry” + “white” does not automatically = racist. Why does the corporate & state media insist on promoting the BNP et al as representatives of “white working class” “anger?” Is this a deliberate policy of divide & rule, or are they just stupid & opportunuist?

And with a remarkable show of ignorance and arrogance the contributors to LibCon queued up to reveal themselves as race essentialists..

“Many of us have Mongol blood. I read account about 25% of the so called white population”

Where do you people get this stuff from?..you realise you’re talking complete shite? As long as people can spout crap like “she had a whole lot of Asian and Indian in her”, race can’t ever disappear as an issue..did their genes have little turbans on and open corner shops..FFS either shut up or read up.

“As long as people can spout crap like “she had a whole lot of Asian and Indian in her”,…”

And there’s some thing wrong with that?

Science can now show how we all moved out of Africa and are related. This debunks the idea of racial purity. Why is that a bad thing? And can we please have a discussion instead of of a punch-up?

I’m about 96.4% chimpanzee. The genetic make-up varies more within ethnic groups than between them.
No 99%.
I joke
I think the point is that racial purity is a myth Ernie boy.
Interesting research tells us that mass Saxon migration was a over exagerrated. It was that the Celts turned to a Saxon way of life.
.

What I draw from this programme is the seductive nature of white supremacism, I’ve mentioned this on other threads. At the present time it is working class males between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four, who are likely to be unemployed. This is likely to be why white working class boys are doing the worst in education. particularly in the old heavy manufacturing areas.
When you’re consigned to the bottom of the pile in a society which is supposed to be meritocratic (lol), the ideology of the BNP is very attractive

Steve B
Your analysis is correct.
Maybe solutions
1. Invest in apprentice schemes, these start at year 10 at school.
2. Bring back a form of German social democratic “National service”. Here the 18 year old has two options. Join a community service project for a year or join the services and take part in non combat duties.