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I gave this speech at the launch of Britian after Blair, to which I contributed a chapter.
Blair will leave this country far more racially divided than when he came
to office. That is the Blair legacy.
I could spend the whole fringe meeting, all day, even all week talking
about the problems of racism in this country. But as I'm no William
Gladstone and I think you'll start waning about the third hour of a speech
(and our chair tonight is quite fierce), I'll restrict myself to one small
but highly illustrative example.
A couple of years ago, Manchester United's manager Alex Ferguson was being
asked about a transfer shenanigan involving his club and a Spanish club. He
was asked about public comments made by the Spanish club. His response, as
reported in the Guardian? "You can't trust these people. You are expecting
me to trust a Spaniard."
The response to this? Well, nothing. The Guardian buried it in the middle
of another story on page 5 - of their sports section - and that was about
as high profile as it got. But just ponder his words (as reported by the
Guardian, libel lawyers please note) again. Dismissing millions of people
as being untrustworthy because of their race. What would your response be
if I got up and said "All Asians were untrustworthy?" or "All blacks?"
Yet no-one thought this was a story - and indeed if Alex Ferguson's words
were twisted, nor did he think it necessary to correct them.
What does this incident tells us? Well it tells me there is no room for
complacency in the fight against racism. With an increasingly diverse
population, we can no longer think of racism as only being about whites and
blacks - or whites and blacks and Asians. In a multi-cultural society there
is a multiplicity of different racisms possible - not all involving
white-skinned people and with white-skinned people sometimes being on the
receiving end too.
And second, it tells me that far too often we are far too casual about
racism. That quote should have been a major scandal - or a major egg on
face for the media depending on whether the quote was true or not. We see
it too in the shrug of the shoulders and general indifference to the
shocking figures of discrimination in the police's national DNA database.
One third - that's right, one third, of the black population of England and
Wales is already on the database - a number far out of proportion to their
share of the overall population. Of course, the racists of the BNP just
mutter, "oh well, blacks cause lots of crime so it's no wonder there are so
many of them in the database".
This does not stand up to examination; what the figures show clearly are
that the police are disproportionately arresting black and ethnic
minorities. They also show that disproportionately more innocent DNA is
from black and ethnic minorities than from other communities - i.e. they
are arresting not only disproportionately but wrongly. For example, in
London, 57% of all innocent DNA is from black people.
With only 3,000 words to play with for my chapter (although Teather I note
you got away with more!) I could barely begin to scratch at the issues of
racial harmony, multiculturalism and bridging the gaps between our
communities.
And it is the unquestionable result of Blair's American-inspired foreign
policy, played against the backdrop of a rising tide of religious
fundamentalism in the world, that matters have worsened. Add to this the
pressures on public services - which make it oh so easy to blame people
from a different background for your health waiting list, or your lack of
school places - and the natural tendency of new communities to stick
together - with the divisiveness that can bring - and I think we have to
face up to some serious problems.
Labour's remedy - legislation, the Union Jack and the Britishness test
ain't going to do it. We have to bridge the divisions that Blair has
created.
The first bridge must address the divide between those already living here
and newcomers as they clash over the pot of scarce public resources. It
presents itself in my surgeries as 'not fair' because 'asylum seekers get
all the houses'. But it goes to a very deep and unresolved schism-that of
'need' versus 'entitlement'.
I argue that we have to address these issues around the Holy Grail of
'need' head on - in order to balance it more fairly with the 'entitlements'
of the already heres.
This is most acute when it comes to housing. We need not only to introduce
a system of allocation that is fair and addresses that clash of need versus
entitlement - but to have one that is seen to be fair - published and
audited - rather than the often obscure and unpublicised housing allocation
rules which can feed rumours and hatreds. And that in order for people to
agree that it is fair - you need public participation in decisions over the
process and systems in the first place.
The second bridge we need addresses the issue of segregation where it
becomes extreme or hostile to other communities. We saw in France and
Holland where burying heads in the sand leads: to race riots sparked by the
incendiary neglect of inequality and segregation.
Under Blair we have become more segregated - both residentially and
socially. I believe we need to rebalance our historical financial support
for separate communities with financial incentives for joint working - but
obviously without destroying diversity and its benefits.
For example, we need to address issues around schooling - where the current
common parental preference for a school where the majority of the pupils
match the ethnicity or race of their own child will almost certainly
exacerbate segregation unless counter mechanisms are introduced.
Of course the best way forward has to be through 'soft' measures. Sport is
perhaps the most obvious soft way of bringing communities together - but we
need to think much wider - from twinning towns with Middle-East towns,
having schools of different faiths sharing common facilities through to
looking at what we teach in history - perhaps it is time for more Sulieman
the Great and less Napoleon?
And the third of the great divides that we can thank TB for and must bridge
- is the growing discrimination against, and fear of, Muslims - which is
greater than for any other group.
There has been so much damage done to the image of Muslims with the
reporting of news from overseas, where so-called Islamic terrorists often
feature - but when those fighting the terrorists, or the victims of
terrorism, are also Muslim this often goes unmentioned. The drip-drip
effect of linking the word 'Muslim' and the word 'terrorism' - but not
linking "victim" and "Muslim" in the same way - is pernicious.
Part of the solution is to be firm in our values. We live in a democracy.
No group-be that Muslims, Jews, Christians, or anyone else has a right to
express its disagreement with the democratically elected government by any
means other than peaceful protest or political campaigning. That is a
non-negotiable first principle.
But we need to also welcome debate and change within the Muslim community.
We need a greater cultural exchange and we need much more than my time
allows.
Bridging communities in Britain after Blair is going to take improved
communication; funding initiatives and schemes that encourage communities
together; locally negotiated compromises and fairness and transparency in
the allocation of scarce public resources; the use of politics as a uniting
rather than a dividing force; a more realistic understanding of the
negative impact of our foreign policy; and a greater degree of mutual
understanding and cultural awareness.
While these ideas won't create the melting pot ideal of my youth, they
should go some way to ensuring that all the different peoples and
communities in our land can live more harmoniously.
(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2006
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With an increasingly diverse population, we can no longer think of racism as only being about whites and blacks - or whites and blacks and Asians. In a multi-cultural society there is a multiplicity of different racisms possible.
