Tesco's Racist Sign

"WE'RE WATCHING YOU. 

This store is working with police/other retailers to identify thieves."  

In Polish.  How classy.  This lovely sign has pride of place in my local Tesco store at Diss in Norfolk.  I consider it to be completely racist*

Let's talk this through.  It's not unusual to have information signs up in different languages where there's a large foreign speaking minority who will see them.  When you catch the ferry to Calais there are safety signs up in English, French, German, Dutch and Polish.  It's the whole reason the international system of road signs was designed: so that essential information doesn't have to be translated into multiple languages.  If you can't use a symbol though, I've absolutely no problem with this: it's unquestionably sensible.

Let's see whether Tesco thinks it's a good idea to provide essential information for the convenience of its Polish customers.  There are signs up for "Parent Parking", "Reycling", "Customer Service" and "Toilets" in and around the Diss store.  All of them are in English.  Not one of them is translated into anything.  There are all the special offers, the "Every Little Counts" advertising slogan - all of it in English.  There are even signs setting out rules, such as saying you can only park for 2 hours there - but they're only in English too.  Nope, the only sign they've bothered to put into Polish is the "WE'RE WATCHING YOU" one. 

Tesco Diss.  You're welcome, if you're not Polish

Tesco Twitter Intervenes

Is there a corresponding DO NOT STEAL sign in English? Yes, there is.  It's to one side and I had to look for it.  It was the Polish one that caught my eye.  It's right in your face where you walk in.  I tweeted Tesco about the issue on 19 July.  They said they understood why I thought it was wrong and said they'd speak to the branch manager.  Just to be clear, I've no problem with a sign in English.  Every other sign in the store is in English and it is the language of this country.  I doesn't single any particular national group out as being potential thieves.

The net result of this intervention is that a Latvian sign has now appeared too.  If you're in any doubt which nationalities are being singled out as being potential criminals, they've neatly written the language on the back so we're all aware.  How thoughtful.  Lovely handwriting too.

What's more - it gets better - since my complaint they've added a SECOND "We're watching you" sign in Polish and it's double size.  It has absolute pride of place in the store: it's impossible to enter without seeing it.  Look here on the central door that closes and opens.  The single English one is to its right on the fixed panel on the side.

Why is this so offensive? Well clearly two nationalities are being singled out as being suspected of potential criminal activity.  They are being greeted in a sign in their own language (a rarity in this country) that tells them they're being watched.  Polish families with children entering might be delighted to see their own language, only to realise they're being told that Tesco regards them as potential thieves.  Welcome to Britain.  Welcome to Tesco.

What's next - "DO NOT STEAL" signs in Romani to fulfill another nasty, negative racial stereotype?

Local Poles

Perhaps Tesco has a major problem with this demographic locally.  I seriously doubted it, even before I had a delve into the official statistics.

The last census revealed just 1.1% of the population of the whole of the East of England region was born in Poland.   Lithuania registers at 0.3% of the population and Latvia is so small as to not even make the top 15 table.   Together there are more people born in Germany and the US in the region than there are Poles.  In addition, the bigger Polish speaking communities are not in this part of Suffolk/Norfolk, but up in places closer to the Lincolnshire border.  The only Poles I've personally ever come across in this area are the phenomenally hard-working local hand car wash guys, who have put up a large England flag to try to fit in.

What we do have locally is another fellow EU community: the Portuguese of Thetford.  Wikipedia comments : "During the late 1990s, a slow trickle of Portuguese immigrants started to arrive in the town of Thetford, East Anglia.  By 2004, the media were suggesting that there may be as many as 6,000 Portuguese-speakers in the Thetford area, where there are many Portuguese cafés, restaurants, delicatessens, etc.  This figure would represent around 30% of the local population." 

I note there is no "WE ARE WATCHING YOU" sign in Portuguese in the store, if this is all simply about providing information signs for second-language speakers.

Might there be justification?

However, what if the miniscule Polish and Latvian communities are however single-handed and disproportionately responsible for a outbreak of shoplifting in this area?

Well, let's look at the national crime statistics for the area.  It seems that the East of England has one of the lowest regional crime rates in the entire country.   Life expectancy is among the highest in the UK and regional unemployment is one of the lowest.  My local village newsletter recorded a total of four crimes dealt with by the police in the whole of the last month.  FOUR.  It's not exactly the Bronx round here.

Okay, I don't live in the metropolis of Diss (5000 inhabitants!) so let's see their exact local crime figures based on Tesco's postcode.  Here we have it - a total of 82 crimes reported in May 2014.   One third were anti-social crimes (31.7%) and one fifth (20.7%) were domestic burglaries.  Shoplifting made up 3.6% of the total for last month: a grand total of 3 reported instances of it.  Bear in mind there are three supermarkets close to one another that total is split between: Tesco, Coop/Somerfield and Morrisons.

So we have 3 reports of shoplifting a month, typically, split across three Diss supermarkets (offenders' nationalities unknown), and Tesco responds with these in your face signs that give the impression there is a petty crime spree caused by two specific nationalities: the Poles and the Latvians.  It is utterly disproportionate, misleading, offensive, unclassy and I'm afraid, just plain nasty.

Moreover, even if there were a major problem with shoplifting that was borne out by figures, and these criminals were proven to belong to one or two national groups, it still absolutely wouldn't be appropriate to single them out in this way.  Hire more security staff, but do not label all the other members of the group as potential criminals to the world at large in this way.   It's the equivalent of saying that because you've had a problem with certain individuals, you're okay labelling every one of them by shoving up the "no Irish, no Blacks, no Dogs" signs of yesteryear.  Several, or even many members of a particular societal group might objectively give you problems, but in 2014 it is just not acceptable to go on to label all members of that group with a highly negative label because of this.  There's a simple name for it: racism.

And here we all are wondering how UKIP manages to persuade people the country is sinking under the weight of criminal East European immigrants.  I'm a lawyer who bothered to check up on what the actual local statistics are.  I wonder how many other people will just see the sign and just assume there must be a Polish crime wave locally because the sign is there.  It's inflammatory and perpetuates a slur against a national group (actually, two national groups in this case).  It's racial stereotyping, it breeds prejudice, and it's inherently wrong.

Shame on Tesco

Shame on you Tesco Diss.  Shame on you Tesco nationally for not stopping this.

Aside from the moral position, you've also not thought for a moment how this will offend and piss of not just law abiding Polish and Latvian customers but everyone else too.  This is idiotically avoidable bad PR that your business should be seeking to avoid.  Instead, after a complaint, you've decided to make the situation worse.






* A couple of people have questioned whether it's possible to be "racist" towards Poles.  Simple answer, yes.  At the highest level, national origins are expressly covered in the 1966 United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.  In terms of UK legislation, the definition of a racial group is "A group of persons defined by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins." If you want an example of the legislation applying in an anti-Polish case of May 2014, please see here.





 

Horsemeat Horror

The story's been running a while now.  First traces of horse DNA were found in burgers at a number of stores.  Why Tesco was so singled out in all the reports I'm not sure, given they were also stocked in Iceland, Lidl and Aldi.  It was almost as if they were the only ones who sold them.  Perhaps everyone just hates Tesco for a number of reasons including workfare and killing the British high street.  The latter is of course true, but only because everyone shops there.

In any case, yesterday we discovered that Swedish ready meal company Findus "beef" lasagne products were found to contain up to 100% horse meat.  Cue loads of fabulously awful horse jokes on Twitter, but also real concern and upset about the whole issue.

A Trakehner: magnificent East Prussian warm-blood

Trust and Labelling

Mainly, the upset is expressed as anger at having been misled.  We cannot trust food labelling and there are questions about whether processed food manufacturers even know themselves what is in their products.  This is, of course, absolutely valid.

It has shone a spotlight on the fact that when you're buying a beefburger, it doesn't contain the meat from an individual animal, slaughtered, and made into a nice patty.  Instead it is full of bits and pieces of different animals (and clearly different types of animals), processed beyond recognition.  Look at this passage from the Guardian.  That's what's legally going in your beefburgers and sausages, ladies and gentlemen, labelled as "seasoning".

If the outcome of all of this is an increased understanding that if you want the meat from a single animal in your beefburger, you need to buy mince from your local butcher and make it yourself, great.   I'm a little surprised that people are surprised, though.

Corned Beef - or Corned Dog - British Army staple

Apparently Bismarck, well over 100 years ago, said "Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made."  We always used to call the German Bratwurst sausages "Schlechteaugenwürste" (roughly: "rotten eye sausages") 25 years ago.   My Dad referred to corned beef as "corned dog" from his Army days.  These are obviously jokes, but we knew that the notion came from somewhere.  People surely don't think that supermarket sausages are 100% meat?  They're packed full of all kinds of stuff, and the actual meat (as low as 47% of the content in so-called value burgers) which is in there... well.

Here's Giles Coren, who is absolutely correct in my opinion:

Health Concerns

Let's also be clear, the Food Standards Agency has said there is no health risk involved with the horse meat.  How they know that so quickly is anyone's guess, but they're scientists and I'm not.  However, they have said this so far.   I can understand people being outraged if something is labelled "nut free" when it's not, or "vegetarian" when it's not, or "kosher" when it's not.  There are actual health, ethical and religious concerns involved.  Here this huge issue is apparently because a different animal has found its way into an animal product.

The trail seems to lead to Polish suppliers.  They may or may not have slaughtered horses in accordance with EU standards (horse meat, is of course, eaten across the continent).  Equally beef supplies from Poland may or may not have been subject to the same level of health standards, but people aren't horribly alarmed by the chance they're not.  Tesco Value Chicken is imported from Thailand: aren't people worried by the potential of poor standards there?  I've no more reason to trust them than to trust that an EU abattoir in Poland did not slaughter these horses in the correct manner.

The Horse in the Room

No, my impression is that it's specifically the horse element that seems to have upset most people, whether they express it or not.  If these were (non-halal/kosher) beef burgers that were found to have contained 60% or even 100% pork, would everyone really be so agitated?  You can of course claim that you want to know what's in your food, and you'd be correct.  I'm just questioning whether every newspaper would be full of this right now.

"Fine Horse Meat: to barbecue" (Switzerland)

Remarkably few people I've seen have mentioned "the horse in the room" and that they're actually disgusted at the idea of eating them.  A few have, and it's very honest.  It also still strikes me as odd, though.  Of course you're entitled to eat whatever you wish, but why the distinction?  Pigs are more intelligent than dogs.  I'd say a lamb, or a calf, is far cuter personally.  Of course horses have been domesticated to a large extent, so humanity has a kind of bond with them.  I do wonder how many of us (outside Surrey) have close relationships to a particular one that we know though.  I can get the idea of eating a dog or a cat because so many of us have them as pets... but horses?

I've been told that it's not in our culture to eat horses: it's an animal that we once worshipped.  Well we certainly don't worship them now and does anyone really believe that as an argument?  Ancient people worshipped all sorts of random things, including circles of stones, but things move on.  It's also the case that the ancient Gauls worshipped horses, but are happy enough to eat them in France today.

Horse Steak

In Dutch the horse is considered a "noble creature".  I remember from my Dutch classes that it even has a special linguistic status. A horse for example has a "hoofd", which is a word for head usually reserved for humans.  Cows, dogs, cats, hamsters and pigs make do with a "kop".  Still, the Dutch eat them, hoofd an' all.

Lots of People Eat Horses

In fact, LOTS of people eat horses.  According to Wikipedia, 4.7 million horses are eaten a year in the world.  They are a delicacy in France, Germany and Scandinavia and are often sold in upmarket "boutique" horse butchers.  According to my Oslo Twitter friend @Lise_79, in Norway, when food is labeled 'dyrekjøtt' (cattle, or 'large farm animal'), it can mean beef and/or horse.

I found a whole range of horse recipes this morning on German websites.  My favourite was "Pferdefleischwurstsalat" (Horse Meat Sausage Salad) - but mainly because I love the length and construction of German words.  Here's a link to a lovely old Horse Butcher's shop in wealthy, civilised Dortmund.  Note the picture: yes it's BLACK BEAUTY.  The site is actually labelled "Thoroughbred Horse Slaughter Place" if you translate it literally.  My impression is that the Germans are much less squeamish and a lot more honest than Brits, at least nowadays, in this regard.

Perhaps the biggest surprise?  Horses were eaten in the UK until the 1930s, apparently particularly in Yorkshire.  This wasn't a War shortage thing, and it somewhat undermines the "we worshipped them 2000 years ago" explanation for why eating them is so abhorrent to the British. 

Picture c/o @MrStevenMoore

Disassociation

I've my own theory on all of this, and I'm sure it's not one that's going to win me too many friends.  It's one I think plenty of vegetarians will however identity with.  It simply comes down to this: many people really don't like associating any real life animal with what they're eating on the plate.  There is a deep seated ability to make absolutely no link between the cute little lambs you'll see this month bouncing round fields, with the meat you eat on Sunday.  Your sausages aren't the ones that were in any way associated with the brutal sow stalls and stomach turning cruelty of the factory farming industry... etc, etc.  We've got that sorted in our heads with regards to cows, pigs and sheep.  We don't have it sorted when it comes to horses.  This is new, and it's challenging.

What this scandal has done is throw up perfectly valid concerns about labelling, provenance, the way in which the ready-food industry operates.  However, beyond that, it has made a very concrete link in lots of people's minds back to actual animals that they eat.  Many people just don't, as a rule, like to think eating what was once a living, breathing being, about where they've come from, or about supporting an industry that many would find sickening beyond belief, if they ever dared to explore it.

Put bluntly, many people are in denial about eating meat in general, and this is reflected in their reactions to this horse meat story.  My friend @TheMrsFong puts it perfectly here, and in her typically gentle and thoughtful way.  Read from the bottom tweet up:

Shergar Steaks, Anyone? 

There we go.  You may be one of the meat-eaters who is not put off by horse meat, and I have a lot of respect for your position.  It has an intellectual honesty about it.  If you eat cow or pig, why not?  By all accounts it tastes extremely good.

For my part, I can't really see any other explanation, for the reasons set out above, why it is such a massive story that horse meat has been found in processed food.  We know processed food is dodgy, we know there's no confirmed health risk, and we know that we don't actually worship horses.  We also know that the newspapers wouldn't be full of these stories, if it had been pork, rather than horse, that was found in a product labelled "beef lasagne".

This story has unsettled many people and filled them with revulsion.  I genuinely think many won't consciously realise why.  If they eat meat anyway, I just cannot see why they are so upset, other than it has made them think for a moment about the meat industry in general.  I'm just guessing plenty have found they don't actually like thinking about that much at all.