Note: WHITE British citizens killed by Drone attack in Waziristan

Strange how it seems acceptable to the media to so describe British citizens of European descent, and yet when it is Mr Ghulam Khan, a dual national with a British passport, who is blown up as an Al Qaeda operative, he is described simply as a British Citizen. God forbid Radio Four and the Media should refer to him as a Brown British Citizen, or as yet another Pakistani holding dual British citizenship – the P.C. Brigade must be tying themselves in knots over such fine distinctions…
It is long overdue that the Press grasped the nettle on this. Of course what they were about was conveying the message of, “Shock! Horror! WHITE men of “our” own descent are getting up to this Al Qaeda nonsense now, not just the imported Brits…”
No one in their right mind would describe my wife as British, least of all herself, although she holds a British passport – she is an American, and would tell you she is an American whose husband forced her to take a British passport to save himself and his company hassles with visas for her when working abroad for the last thirty years. So why all the sensitivity, for our TCN British citizens?
Rant over…

Unknown's avatar

Author: coldwaterjohn

CWJ travelled extensively with his family, having worked in eleven countries over thirty years. A keen photographer, holding a Private Pilot's Licence, he focuses mainly on landscape and aerial imagery. Having worked in the Middle East extensively he follows developments in that region with particular interest, and views with growing concern, the radicalisation flowing from Islamic fundamentalism, and the intolerance for opposing views, stemming from it.

12 thoughts on “Note: WHITE British citizens killed by Drone attack in Waziristan”

  1. The media have also been commenting on Oxford University’s selection of new undergraduates by pointing out that there are no new ‘black’ students. Far more newsworthy than trying to assess the relative merits of the students selected, eh? Let’s use only physical characteristics to judge people’s worth.

  2. I don’t know when and if you last completed a census form in the UK, but it is rather better than a Dulux chart at describing by colour your ethnic origin.
    Nothing the media enjoys more than poking the embers of the racial flames by chucking in these vague statistics, in the hopes of stirring a debate on the relative intelligence quotient of “Blacks” vs. the rest of their student intake. The fact of the matter is that no “Blacks” applied who could pass the entrance qualifications. Is there some hidden agenda or suggestion that the interviewing professors are racially biased? Which media outlet are you referring to, incidentally?

  4. I had a visit from the local Business Link last month and they insisted on knowing the nationality of the company and the sex.
    Looking down the form it has every type of Asian going, Asian Indian, Asian Pakistani, Asian Bangladeshi, Asian Sri Lanka and so on . Then it has Black African, Black Caribbean, black other.

    Yet when it comes to White it is just that WHITE. Sorry there is no way can you classify a Southern European (Med) in the same classification as a Northern European. Greeks are Balkan and tend to be sort of Olive coloured, Swedes (not vegetables) are pale and blonde and a different race altogether. So me being awkward insisted on him putting down Other for us, as I am half Greek, okay I am blond and blue eyed, but my father is English. My mother is typical Cretan Reddish hair and her family are also red or blonde (True Greeks are rarely dark. My wife is English yet she is dark skinned and dark eyed, when we go to Greece they take her for a Greek and not me.

    Then it came to sex of the company, he put down predominantly Male, er no the company is owned 50% me and 50% the wife.

    What is the point of all this crap?

  5. With this invaluable data they can spin about women and non-whites and their perceived glass ceilings. Fascinating if you’re a burEaUcrat.

  6. CWJ,

    What they are getting at is slightly different.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12006061

    Apparently a Mr Stephen and a Mr Dearsmith, both British born and bred and both white, were training the tellytubbies in Pakistan when the drone attack immolated them.

    Fantastic news I say. Now we need to round up any of their family back here in the UK and find out exactly why none of them saw fit to inform the authorities that their relatives were actively engaged in the business of killing British troops.

  7. Howzit Ferret, just read your link, in it is this-

    “In September, a British terror suspect was killed in a drone attack in north-west Pakistan.

    The BBC was told Abdul Jabbar was being groomed to head an al-Qaeda splinter group in the UK.”

    I think that CWJ’s point is that we are not told the colour Mr JabbarJabbar was, we know he’s black as burnt toast now but what colour was he before the drone got him?

    Agree about rounding up their family and friends.

  8. Oops Soutie,

    I did not see it that way, and it makes sense when you put it like that.

    I read into this that CWJ was bothered about ‘victims’ of bombings, attacks whatever, being described as ‘British’ when it is their 2nd or 3rd nationality when the primary one is directly linked with areas of terrorist activity.

  9. Soutie, you have surmised my point correctly, whereas Ferret, I don’t actually care how many terrorists of whatever colour, are burnt to a crisp by Drone attacks, provided they are terrorists…

  11. Rick’s remarks remind me of a form I saw in the nineties, issued by the Lib-Dems. It asked recipients to categorise themselves by race. Black African, black this, Asian that, but only ‘white’ for the rest of us. I wrote to the party pointing out that Slavs were a different race from Celts, etc. I still await the reply. Incidentally, anyone who knows anything about Africa is aware that Black African covers various races.

Add your Comment