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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Some people are not white; let's get over it | Some people are not white; let's get over it |
| (12 days later) | |
| As we say goodbye to 2012 and prepare to welcome the New Year, the UK feels like a different country to the one that many of us believed we were living in. The Census has shifted our perceptions of who we are as a people and what we mean when we ascribe a colour to nationhood. | As we say goodbye to 2012 and prepare to welcome the New Year, the UK feels like a different country to the one that many of us believed we were living in. The Census has shifted our perceptions of who we are as a people and what we mean when we ascribe a colour to nationhood. |
| For black and minority ethnic people, the news that the country increasingly looks more like them than mos of our politicians would have us believe, has definitely provided a fillip. It provides proof positive that the old political modalities premised on a White Us and a Non-White Them are no longer helpful in modern day Britain. However much fear-mongers might like to paint a vision of a country that is being 'swamped' and overwhelmed, the Little Englanders within the political establishment need only look out from their Westminster bubble to recognize the vitality, energy and wealth that has made London a world capital. The same story is told across the regional capitals of Birmingham and Manchester where the population patterns are set to mirror London's within the next decade. If ever the PM's much-derided dictum – "We are in this together" - has had any saliency, it is in the light of the Census figures which highlight that the white minority residents of London and its BME majority have indeed worked together to make the capital the powerhouse that it is today. Of course there will always be commentators like Peter Hitchens who will lament the latest figures and interpret them as testimony that Britain is becoming an "alien nation." "Alien" to whom? Certainly not to minority communities who define their identity in terms of being an integral part of the UK's rich diversity, while remaining at ease with their global identity. A simplistic definition which creates a false dichotomy between their British and 'immigrant' identities leads to the pursuit of policies that not only leave a toxic legacy of community division but also come at huge cost to the public purse. | For black and minority ethnic people, the news that the country increasingly looks more like them than mos of our politicians would have us believe, has definitely provided a fillip. It provides proof positive that the old political modalities premised on a White Us and a Non-White Them are no longer helpful in modern day Britain. However much fear-mongers might like to paint a vision of a country that is being 'swamped' and overwhelmed, the Little Englanders within the political establishment need only look out from their Westminster bubble to recognize the vitality, energy and wealth that has made London a world capital. The same story is told across the regional capitals of Birmingham and Manchester where the population patterns are set to mirror London's within the next decade. If ever the PM's much-derided dictum – "We are in this together" - has had any saliency, it is in the light of the Census figures which highlight that the white minority residents of London and its BME majority have indeed worked together to make the capital the powerhouse that it is today. Of course there will always be commentators like Peter Hitchens who will lament the latest figures and interpret them as testimony that Britain is becoming an "alien nation." "Alien" to whom? Certainly not to minority communities who define their identity in terms of being an integral part of the UK's rich diversity, while remaining at ease with their global identity. A simplistic definition which creates a false dichotomy between their British and 'immigrant' identities leads to the pursuit of policies that not only leave a toxic legacy of community division but also come at huge cost to the public purse. |
| Labour, Conservative and Coalition governments have been guilty of treating BME citizens in exclusive rather than inclusive terms. The billions of pounds invested in an intelligence and terrorism infrastructure chasing the Muslim bogeyperson within Muslim neighbourhoods, mosques and educational institutions in the government's shadowy 'war on terror'; the precious waste of police time and resources in the disproportionate stop and searches that label young African Caribbean men as criminals; the heavy price of incarcerating large numbers of Black and Asians in prisons – are in the end all counter-productive because they are built on a deficit rather than an asset model of communities. Attempts by the previous Labour government and the present Coalition one to develop state policies which mark minority communities out as the 'Other' are no longer tenable. The incendiary Munich security speech delivered early on in David Cameron's premiership should have no place in a diverse Britain. This speech was deliberately framed to put Britain's Muslim communities on notice that they would be dealt as a suspect community and an adjunct to the state's anti-terror laws. | Labour, Conservative and Coalition governments have been guilty of treating BME citizens in exclusive rather than inclusive terms. The billions of pounds invested in an intelligence and terrorism infrastructure chasing the Muslim bogeyperson within Muslim neighbourhoods, mosques and educational institutions in the government's shadowy 'war on terror'; the precious waste of police time and resources in the disproportionate stop and searches that label young African Caribbean men as criminals; the heavy price of incarcerating large numbers of Black and Asians in prisons – are in the end all counter-productive because they are built on a deficit rather than an asset model of communities. Attempts by the previous Labour government and the present Coalition one to develop state policies which mark minority communities out as the 'Other' are no longer tenable. The incendiary Munich security speech delivered early on in David Cameron's premiership should have no place in a diverse Britain. This speech was deliberately framed to put Britain's Muslim communities on notice that they would be dealt as a suspect community and an adjunct to the state's anti-terror laws. |
| The speech also attacked state multi-culturalism and in so doing dismantled the twin pillars of equal opportunity and cultural diversity on which the foundation of Britain's race relations policy had been carefully constructed over the decades. The resulting emasculation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission; the attrition of the rights enshrined under the Equalities legislation; the labelling of protections afforded to minority communities as red tape and bureaucracy; and the differential treatment of Gary Mckinnon and Talha Ahasan, highlight the racism at the heart of public policy. There is an urgent need for a new political narrative that breaks out of the tired clichés, myths and stereotypes that politicians resort to in an attempt to garner populist support. They fail to recognize that in many of the urban centres around the country, minority communities will hold the balance of political power. Critics would of course allude to the fact that Britain is demographically morphing into a mixed-race nation and the political map cannot be defined in exclusively ethnic terms. It is easy to believe the seductive proposition promoted by the independent think tank British Future, who hold up the Olympian, Jessica Ennis, as the poster girl of this melting pot generation. It is easy to bask in the warm glow of acceptance too when this vision of 'hybrid' Briton not only looks like Jessica Ennis but encapsulates the virtues of hard work and diligence in pursuit of national glory. But what if the mixed-race person is a Muslim or Gypsy criminal, a pedophile or a murderer? Would our politicians, the press and media and general public opinion be colour-blind or would they foreground his/her religion and non-White ethnicity? There is a real danger that this melting pot version of Britishness plays to a vision of integration predicated on the dilution of the 'foreign' gene pool as a marker of British identity. If Britain is truly comfortable in its multi-cultural identity, might not the term dual-heritage be a better description, because it would be indicative of a cultural equivalence of Ennis's rich Jamaican and English heritage. Ultimately Britain's ethnic minority communities are here to stay and if any political party is tempted to model Britain's future on the UKIP and BNP vision of politics they need only look at the fate of the Republican Party to see where that road leads. Both Mitt Romeny and John McCain before him, might have won the rich and powerful conservative white vote – but their exclusion of atheists, single parents, immigrants, young people, gays and minorities – proved to be their nemesis. Given the UK's rapidly changing demographics, politicians ignore this fact at their peril. Ratna Lachman is director of JUST West Yorkshire which promotes racial justice, civil liberties and human rights in the north of England | The speech also attacked state multi-culturalism and in so doing dismantled the twin pillars of equal opportunity and cultural diversity on which the foundation of Britain's race relations policy had been carefully constructed over the decades. The resulting emasculation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission; the attrition of the rights enshrined under the Equalities legislation; the labelling of protections afforded to minority communities as red tape and bureaucracy; and the differential treatment of Gary Mckinnon and Talha Ahasan, highlight the racism at the heart of public policy. There is an urgent need for a new political narrative that breaks out of the tired clichés, myths and stereotypes that politicians resort to in an attempt to garner populist support. They fail to recognize that in many of the urban centres around the country, minority communities will hold the balance of political power. Critics would of course allude to the fact that Britain is demographically morphing into a mixed-race nation and the political map cannot be defined in exclusively ethnic terms. It is easy to believe the seductive proposition promoted by the independent think tank British Future, who hold up the Olympian, Jessica Ennis, as the poster girl of this melting pot generation. It is easy to bask in the warm glow of acceptance too when this vision of 'hybrid' Briton not only looks like Jessica Ennis but encapsulates the virtues of hard work and diligence in pursuit of national glory. But what if the mixed-race person is a Muslim or Gypsy criminal, a pedophile or a murderer? Would our politicians, the press and media and general public opinion be colour-blind or would they foreground his/her religion and non-White ethnicity? There is a real danger that this melting pot version of Britishness plays to a vision of integration predicated on the dilution of the 'foreign' gene pool as a marker of British identity. If Britain is truly comfortable in its multi-cultural identity, might not the term dual-heritage be a better description, because it would be indicative of a cultural equivalence of Ennis's rich Jamaican and English heritage. Ultimately Britain's ethnic minority communities are here to stay and if any political party is tempted to model Britain's future on the UKIP and BNP vision of politics they need only look at the fate of the Republican Party to see where that road leads. Both Mitt Romeny and John McCain before him, might have won the rich and powerful conservative white vote – but their exclusion of atheists, single parents, immigrants, young people, gays and minorities – proved to be their nemesis. Given the UK's rapidly changing demographics, politicians ignore this fact at their peril. Ratna Lachman is director of JUST West Yorkshire which promotes racial justice, civil liberties and human rights in the north of England |
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