[Z]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

I honestly don't think racism/homophobia/sexism/etc are as rife as some people would like us to believe. I think quite a lot of people use it as an excuse to be a twat and blame it on something else, if that makes sense?

Eg. Gavin has a conviction for a homophobic attack. Whereas it was just a fight, and the person he hit (who hit Gavin's mother first, and thus earned himself the stitches!) happened to be gay. Yet played the homophobe card and the police went along with it.

I have yet to see a real issue of homophobia/racism. Thats not to say it doesn't happen..of course it does. But I don't think its as common as some would have you believe. I really don't.

I agree, I think that while both issues both obviously exist, people are now very quick to brand something homophobic or racist without really thinking about the accusation they are making. To be some kind of people -phobe or -ist you have to hate them and be afraid of them. Somebody using the N word or somebody referring to something as 'gay' is maybe a little bit ignorant but they're just words...

Mel Gibson is an anti-Semite. He hates Jewish people. This is well documented. There's a difference between the kind of unjustifiable hatred in that man's heart and somebody referring to somebody as a "******" or something.