Britain is institutionally racist and anybody who questions that is wrong. Apparently. It matters not who concludes that we are not doing too badly with regard to racism in the UK, they are wrong and if they are people of colour, they are traitors to the cause of identity politics. Of course, the only amount of racism that is acceptable is none, but I wonder which countries those who would label us a racist country use as comparators? I can certainly think of many that are much worse and in different ways.
Take the United States and its showpiece capital Washington DC. I have previously described what it is like crossing the city, like a chessboard as you alternate between predominantly black and white areas. There is an obvious and concomitant relationship with the quality of housing and the levels of social deprivation. Take a wander down from the Capitol and cross the Anacostia River into East Washington and you will run the gauntlet of people begging on the bridges. Take an evening stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue and you will, literally, be stepping over the bodies of rough sleepers. In both groups the people are almost exclusively Afro-American. Head over to Hong Kong and note how people from South Asian backgrounds are almost exclusively restricted to the back streets off Nathan Road and Middle Eastern and African people are almost exclusively restricted to Chungking Mansions on Nathan Road and not welcome in other areas. Cross over the border to China and find the people of non-Chinese origin who are citizens if you can; there are none. The same in India and in most of the Middle East. Also, join the queues of people waiting to emigrate to these countries—or almost any of the countries from which immigrants of first, second, third and beyond generations come to the UK and you will find them to be very short. In fact, there are none. Do our institutionally racists detractors never stop to ask these questions? I am no advocate of repatriation but, surely, if this were such a bad place, people would be queuing to get out.
Other than the relatively recent migration from Eastern Europe EU countries and the large influx of refugees, the bulk of our immigrant communities are from former colonial countries and, with some justification, colonisation comes in for considerable criticism. However, I am not sure what we can do about that now. Relabelling streets and toppling statues will change nothing and will also remove the possibility for future generations to ask who these people were who did such bad things. They deserve to know but they also deserve to hear about some of the benefits that colonialism brought, along with the exploitation and economic plunder that took place such as education, the rule of law and—eventually—democracy. Also, if you believe Paul Johnson in his History of the Modern World from the 1920s to the 1980s, while colonialism made some people rich—the usual suspects, those already rich—for Britain it was mainly a hugely expensive vanity project and the best decision we ever took was to decolonise. A process that is not quite completed to date; 14 former colonies remain under British Rule but, as far as I can ascertain, with their consent. I can also point to people from Hong Kong, Pakistan and India who refer with great fondness to the colonial days but, admittedly, that was not the result of a systematic study.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that Britain is a multiracial country precisely because of its colonial past and that people from former colonies have been welcomed here, indeed encouraged at times to immigrate, in significant numbers. Naturally, there are flashpoints, and we are not without our lunatic fringes of extreme nationalists and extremists of one sort or another within immigrant communities. Both communities tend to disown the extremists who are, thus, ‘extremists’ by definition and seek a way forward. Of course, we may have a way to go but we are, largely, not a ghettoised society, we are not monoracial or monocultural like plenty of other countries are. If we want to see what racism, religious intolerance and political extremism looks like then look no further than the Bosnian War in the mid-1990s. Currently, cast a glance at present day Burma and over the border at what is happening in the north west of China. Call me naïve, but I think we are not doing too badly.
Opinions from the Unity News Network (UNN) editorial team & various contributors. | UNN always clearly distinguishes between news and opinion pieces and as an open minded outlet we publish views from a variety of people and organisation that do not necessarily reflect the views of UNN or its writers. Articles published under UNN Opinions are always opinion pieces and if published on behalf of a contributor will contain that authors name at the start of the piece.
