We all know how Facebook is teaming with groups such as ‘The Bloke that Looks like a Thumb Appreciation Society’ or ‘I Love Swad‘ – that’s part of the reason we love it, isn’t it? These are a combination of good humoured pranks, appreciation societies for people or places or petitions for one thing or another. I recently stumbled across a group called ‘Let’s all join the racist groups and poke fun at the numpties‘, which is pretty self-explanatory – people join up to find out which groups on Facebook are dens of racial hatred, and join to poke fun at the ignorance and illiteracy of many of the members. However, it seems to have turned into somthing more.

The group seems to be developing into a campaign by the tolerant to re-educate the ignorant. For the most part this is done by trying to point out the mistakes and inaccuracies in the racist arguments and backing this up with facts, figures and stories of tolerance. 

The group ‘NO TO MUSLIMS HAVING A CAPITAL IN THE UK‘ is one example of a group which seems to attract those of a racist persuasion. The title of the group is enough for some start a torrent of abuse. The group’s owner, who I have tried to converse with on many occasions seems to be a fairly intelligent guy who wants to discuss the issues of immigration and Islamic separatism , but has gone about it in completely the wrong way. He began by blocking those people who held a more liberal view and spoke out against the group. He has now started a thread called ‘RACISTS – NAME AND SHAME’ where members of the group can post the names and messages of those members who continue to use racist and offensive language. Theses members appear to have been removed but he refuses to acknowledge that they were indeed using racial slurs.

A small group of tolerant members is trying to insist that the group should be closed. If the creator of the group wants a frank and open discussion on the issues raised then he should re-open a group with a title and outline less likely to incite hate and ignorance. This so far has not happened.

I understand that most normal people would find it difficult to join a group which has racist overtones but I think that the more liberal of us out there should do so in order to try and spread understanding amongst those more inclined to jump into blame and use stereotypical or racist language. It might be worth it in the long while!