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Racist, or Just Animal Crackers?

2004; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0956474804043840

1741-2668

Alec Charles,

Zoonotic diseases and public health

University lecturer Charles reports how the media is full of stories about invading squirrels. One such report told how a local councillor proposed increased security measures at the usual ports of entry - overhanging trees should be pruned, commenting: "When I was a lad you didn't see squirrels coming into town - now we're inundated with them.... One woman told me she got surrounded by six squirrels.... One's OK, but five or six is a bit of a problem." Was the man is merely parroting racist phrases? asks Charles, contrasting his comments with those of the BNP's David Guynan: "This town is turning completely into a foreign land.... It's like the grey squirrels taking over. I'm a red squirrel, that's what I am." Writes Charles: Is this analogy of immigrants and asylum-seekers as grey squirrels merely a modern retelling of the Nazi metaphor of Jews as rats? There's an old joke: "What are the two differences between a squirrel and a rat? A bushy tail and a good PR guy." And these days the greys aren't getting great PR.