Racism

Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity. Racism can be present in social actions, practices, or political systems (e.g. apartheid) that support the expression of prejudice or aversion in discriminatory practices. The ideology underlying racist practices often assumes that humans can be subdivided into distinct groups that are different in their social behavior and innate capacities and that can be ranked as inferior or superior. Racist ideology can become manifest in many aspects of social life. Associated social actions may include nativism, xenophobia, otherness, segregation, hierarchical ranking, supremacism, and related social phenomena.
==Links to Peel==
Peel was an active supporter of Rock Against Racism, an organisation between 1976 and 1982 that encouraged musicians to join its campaign against racism. Many musicians that supported Rock Against Racism were played by the DJ on his shows, especially from some punk and reggae acts. Peel himself also suffered threatening letters from racist organisations, who deplored him playing black music on the radio.
===1960's===
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In the John Peel's Record Box documentary, broadcast on Channel 4 in 2005, Peel's son, Tom Ravenscroft mentioned that after Peel played the reggae track, 'Pop-A-Top' by Andy Capp in the 60's, he got a letter from what he thought was from the National Front (a Neo nazi organisation), threatening him, which made the DJ play it more. 
In the Cable Street Beat magazine, published in 1989, where he was interviewed, Peel mentioned the incident, but said it was from the British Movement (BM), another Neo-nazi organisation who threatened him:
"Yes, I used to get some unpleasant letters. I got one from the BM in Walsall. Being a bit thick they put their return address on it! But it was a very nasty letter indeed. You never know quite what to do with those kind of letters, it seems a bit hysterical to go to the police , and anyway there may also be an element of the police which say, “what a jolly good idea, lets give him a good thumping”
===1970's===
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In the late 70's, punk music was at its peak in popularity, but it also attracted far right racists, especially from Neo nazi skinheads. Skrewdriver, a punk band that did a session for Peel's show in 1977 later became a white power racist band, promoting their music in the Neo nazi scene. 
===1980's===
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In the 80's another band, the 4 Skins, also attracted Neo nazi skinheads to their gigs, which caused problems when in 1981, the group decided to do a gig in Southall, which ended up with the Southall Riots, after local South Asians complained about police not taking action against the racist skinheads, who were attending the gig and targeting their community in the area. This likely led to their session which the band recorded for Peel's programme, being not broadcast.
Peel also played Heaven 17's, '(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang' on his shows in 1981, despite the BBC allegedly banning it. In the lyrics fascism and racism are described in an ironic fashion, using the lexicon of funk music. The lyrics of the song also reference the recent election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States; the song was apparently banned by the BBC due to concerns by Radio 1's legal department that it libelled Reagan by describing him as a "fascist god in motion". The song was one of Peel's favourite songs released in 1981 and made it into the Peelenium 1981.
There were also artists who used racist words in their stage names like N***** Kojak and N.W.A. (an abbreviation for (N)(i)(g)(g)(a)(z) Wit Attitudes), who were played by the DJ on his shows during the 80's, with Peel even mentioning the racist black word live on air. This did not cause much controversy as these artists who used the word in their stage names were generally black. 
===1990's===
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The 90's led to the rise of some racist parties in Europe, with even Sonic Youth singing a song titled, 'Youth Against Fascism', which peaked at number 7 in the 1992 Festive Fifty. Also Peel commentated on the rise of fascism on his John Peel In Scandinavia programme:
"One thing we have discovered as we drift through Scandinavia is the people here by and large fear the rise of fascism, it hasn't really got very far so far, but it is started and moving and here's a record which cannot be played enough"
He proceeded by playing the anti racist track, 'Enough Is Enough' by Chumbawamba with Credit To The Nation. The song peaked at number one in the 1993 Festive Fifty. Also in the 1993 Festive Fifty, was Cornershop's 'England's Dreaming' and Credit To The Nation's 'Call It What You Want', both songs about fighting racism.
Also in the 90's, Julie Burchill controversially wrote an article, published in 1999 called Rake's Progress, accusing John Peel of being a racist because he played punk music in the late 70's, which was predominantly followed by white people. Of course this was false, as Peel regularly played reggae during that time as well, whose music was made and supported by black people. Peel fought back against the allegation and sarcastically mentioned on his show on 06 October 1999:
"(The QEH concert was) an event which got a good review in the Guardian, and I was quite pleased about that. They failed to point out on this occasion the racist policies that determine the music that goes into these programmes, because they had a perfect opportunity to do so, because Lonnie Donegan is white, and so are the members of Half Man Half Biscuit: well, more a kind of liverish pink, to be perfectly honest, but certainly that is the case, and an opportunity missed there."
===2000's===
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By the time of the 00's, racism was at its decline in the UK, with very little or non existent commentary from Peel about it or musicians writing about it. However, Cornershop, an anti-racist indie rock group with mainly South Asians, did have song titles called 'Wog' and 'Wogs Will Walk', which the DJ played in 2002, but it didn't raise much of an eyebrow and there was no significant complaints about it, despite the word being a racist connotation against black people. 
== See Also ==
* Nationwide
== External Links ==
* Wikipedia
Category:Subjects