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| Lynton Kwesi Johnson (Wikimedia0 |
I recently went to my local library to listen to Lynton Kwesi Johnson talk and read from his latest book. It was a spontaneous decision and the event was full but the library staff were nice enough to fit me in. There was a hagiographic element to the reading. Kwesi Johnson, who is black, is an elder statesman of the radical left and was being honoured.
There was a short period for questions and the one I wanted to ask – but was not able to – was what he thought about black people who supported the Conservative party and joined the establishment. There are quite a few of these and the current government seems to be more ethnically diverse than the Labour – or any other – opposition party.
My view has always been that true racial and any other kind of equality will only be achieved when people from minorities do establishment type things like listening to the BBC, drinking sherry and – yes – voting Conservative. If they remain in permanent opposition, then they are effectively being locked, or locking themselves, into the ghetto.
Now the ghetto can be a comforting place. People tend to agree with you and so you enjoy a feeling of solidarity being surrounded by like-minded folk. This was the sort of event that Brixton library set up with a lot of nodding heads when Kwesi Johnson attacked ‘Uncle Toms’ (although, to be fair, he did not use the term) from his race who had joined the establishment.
Now Kwesi Johnson is a veteran campaigner for left-wing causes and racial equality and it is probably asking too much to expect him to desert these causes. He indicated that he had already turned down honours which would have been offered to him by the government as he did not want to join the establishment and become one of these aforesaid Uncle Toms.
Yet recognising that racism still exists also helps to perpetrate it. A lot of black and other minority and discriminated against people (gays, women, the disabled) have little patience with this outlook and are eager to improve their lives in a way that would have been impossible in, for example, the days of immigration, as described in Andrea Levy’s book Small Island.
There is still some way to go, of course, and Britain’s racists are now campaigning to limit immigration to this country in a thinly disguised attack on outsiders who are alien to ‘our’ way of life. What was once overt has become covert and the children of immigrants are often amongst those keenest to raise the drawbridge to keep future immigrants out.
You may not approve of this outlook but, the last time I checked, we live in a free country and they are entitled to think them. Trying to close the doors that were left open enough to allow your parents in may be despicable but it is permissible. Insisting that all people of colour campaign against discrimination probably probably has the effect of perpetrating racist attitudes.
Something of this attitude was evident in the way that someone who is black insisted on charging black visitors to an event a fraction of the price that white guests paid for their food because they had been victims of discrimination in the past. That depends on whether you want to move to a fairer future or be stuck in past attitudes. A well-meaning gesture can easily perpetuate a stereotype and effectively lock people into outdated and racist attitudes.
Edwin Lerner
My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
