Will anyone ever be convicted of racism?

In an area well known for its support of Far Right groups -Staffordshire, Christopher Jones joins a growing list of individuals who have used abusive racist language but have subsequently been cleared by the courts of racism.

The latest ‘justification’ for using racist language was that Jones claimed that he likes hip-hop music and regularly uses that language on the streets. He claimed he used the word as a term of ‘endearment’.

This case is deeply troubling on so many levels, not least the fact that Jones shouted this to a complete stranger, and the courts argued that is okay. The fear now of course with this precedent being set is that anyone caught using this language could claim the same justification; ‘I’m a hip hop fan, it’s the language we use’.

Over the last few months courts have accepted every ‘tom dick, and harry’ excuse to justify racist comments: First, Chelsea’s John Terry, who inconceivably argued he was asking the question to QPR footballer Anton Ferdinand, do you think I called you a ‘Black fu…c…, You knob-head?’ . Then there was PC Macfarlane who was recorded telling a young Black man, ‘ You’ll always be a n…’, incredulously claiming, given that he’d just strangled him, that he wanted the young man to be proud of his race. And then just last week, another police officer who likened Black people to monkeys, argued that his conversation was around a discussion about anthropology rather than a racial insult.

All were believed, all were cleared in court.

The question Black Britain would like to know is that with so many cases of racist language being cleared of being abusive, can British justice work for Black people? Are we sleepwalking back into the 1950’s and 60’s when there was no recourse to hold bigotry and racism to account?

The trend is deeply worrying, particularly as no senior politician Black or white is demanding action that would ensure people are protected under the law.

Simon Woolley