[Misunderstood]

Being racist or homophobic? What do you think?

[weered]

[hypnoscot]

They tend to go together. People who are too insecure and fear-filled to cope with the complexities of life tend to look for arbitrary certainties to cling onto, which allow them to then stigmatise 'others' as being the source of the problems they perceive. They'll construct in their heads a notion of 'normality' which is always ludicrous as soon as you deconstruct it in detail. But they never tend to do so, instead dealing in broad-brush symbols that give them the illusion that their norms make some sort of sense. This is what enables the Daily Mail to sell its so-called newspapers. Its readership feels secure in the constant assurances that they themselves are (mostly) normal, and that it's all those other abnormal and alien people who are to blame. It's rare for such people only to have one hate-group to pick on. Mostly they'll stigmatise every other so-called minority of which they themselves are not a part...

[Mr Page]

Being racist is more generic. If you are homophobic you hide behind hate for sexuality. If you are racist you hide behind hate for every other race/culture on the planet and that is worse in my book.

Having said that homophobia is pretty disgusting too.

I know it all stems from insecurity and inability to work out their own preferences and tolerances themselves, probably quoting what their family/friends etc think because it's the only opinion the hater has heard, without thinking it through themselves.

Blah blah blah, I'd still go for racism to be more dangerous than homophobia, albeit not to far ahead.

[Koinneach]

Both are bad but they both allow some people to use words and sentences which reek of Pish Cmon They are both hate filled and it should not be tolerated end of story

[Mr Page]

[Ceejayo]

It's a bit of a crap question though, when it can only be answered by reference to emotions, and those self-same emotions are unquantifiable.

[Mr Page]

[rodneyT]

at the end of the day we are all the same, we're all made of the same stuff and have the same physical contents(ie lungs heart etc) its only our thinking that makes us different. lets not impose our beliefs or feelings upon each other for that is bullshite. what is criminal is a wasted mind!

[TamedTigress]

Yes, I, too, think they go togehter. It`s both about rejecting difference.

[shirt-n-tie-boy]

The only way you can accurately answer this question is with a logical approach. In which case if you look at it statistically then racism is worse as I am pretty sure there are more racially motivated crimes and complaints reported.

However I would also assume it depends on what area of the UK you are in. There will be areas where homophobia is the more problematic issue. Some towns and cities clearly have vastly different amounts of race, and as such much higher or lower levels of racism when you compare different areas.

I don't actually know what the stats are but perhaps you may want to do a little google research Misunderstood - seeing your the original poster and would be good if you could report back to us on your findings!

This kind of statistical data should be available in a basic form on government websites that record and monitor these figures.

[rodneyT]

racist crime in scotland is gradually rising, in 2003 there were just over 3300 reported incidents and in 2007 just over 4360. thats reported i would probably say unreported is approx double that figure or more.
are our police force racist?

[Thally]