RACE & THE LAW IN BRITAIN: Brendan O'Neill of the British Web journal "Spiked" casts a critical eye on anti-racist initiatives in the troubled English city of Oldham. O'Neill nails the problem, and it should sound familiar to Americans:

When every social, political and cultural issue is seen through the prism of race, it is not surprising that people become suspicious of their neighbours and start to see their everyday problems in racial terms.

O'Neill also blames the media for painting a relentlessly negative image of Oldham:

During the riots, and in the year since then, the press have consistently described Oldham in the most depressing terms: the 'race-hate capital', a 'town called hate'. Since May 2001, Oldham is usually just referred to as the 'race riot town'. Not only do media organisations tend to report Oldham's racist incident figures and 'racial problems' without asking probing questions, they then proceed to make things sound even worse than they are. When Oldham is painted as a hotbed of racism, where whites hate Asians and Asians hate whites, it can't do much for community relations.