Was going to make a post on this thread but I think you have eloquently stated just about everything that I would have written.
Absolutely correct imo, in that the bashing of convenient minority groups seems to satisfy the majority of our culture. If the blame can be passed to such groups that are perceived not to fit in with our culture then we can all ignore the real culprits and that is what many would like to do because the real culprits (certain fundamentalist religious groups, multi-nationals and some individuals in government)are not exactly easy or convenient targets.
And I respectfully disagree with the Mods on the original post (and other posts in this thread). Racism can often be subtle and extremely well disguised. The dog whistle that was used so well by Howard in 2001 seems to be working again through articles like this...
