Racism: an abdication of responsibility
JVL Introduction
A stunning piece by Nesrine Malik in the Guardian tells us a lot about the extent of institutional racism in Britain.
We now know that Tony Blair initially opposed an inquiry into racism in the police following the Stephen Lawrence murder but was forced to concede as pressure rose.
Bad enough, but worse is the revelation that when Jack Straw proposed a follow-up after the MacPherson Report – for a strategy that would prioritise race equality considerations in government policymaking – it was quickly killed off: “We don’t want to go OTT on this,” said Blair.
The article shows clearly a continuity of both cowardice and lack of commitment in Government over a long period of time: “[What] Labour and Tory leaderships have both exhibited is deference to a status quo that preserves racial hierarchies and refuses by default to acknowledge any criticism that might challenge Britain’s moral sense of self”.
As the fiasco over Windrush compensation shows, nothing much has changed…
Let’s see if the Forde Inquiry (at least in part into racism in the Labour Party) ever sees the light of day.
This article was originally published by the Guardian on Sun 2 Jan 2022. Read the original here.
For Labour and the Conservatives, racism is really all about reputation management
New details about the Stephen Lawrence inquiry show No10 has long feared direct change will upset the rightwing press
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Reputation management is the excuse. Blair didn’t (and doesn’t) share thoroughgoing anti-racist values and refused to go out on a limb to advocate for them. In much the same way, Starmer won’t openly support the Palestinian cause not because he fears reputational damage in the form of accusations of antisemitism but because he doesn’t want to see a Palestine in which Jews and Palestinians live together as equals. Faux socialism vs the genuine article. Starmer vs Corbyn.
How can the UK be a democracy when central issues of government policy and practice are almost dictated by the right-wing media? It is not just about lack of action against racism; this seems to be the case across the board, stymying anything that could be seen by the editors of The Sun/Mail/Times/Telegraph etc as socialist or ‘woke’.
Also, contrary to the claims of some such as (in the USA) the New York Times’s 1619 Project, racism is not embedded in the fabric of the British populace. That is a convenient lie which we must not fall prey to. Most racism is of the top-down kind such as that perpetrated by the media, politicians and police. Let’s act on that basis.
I don’t know what James means by “racism is not embedded in the fabric of the British populace”. It’s far more complicated than that. British racism is not the same as US racism, the histories of the two countries is different but that does not make it less embedded. Trying to insist that the working class, in Britain or anywhere, are simply dupes of the ruling class is simplistic. Of course elites will use anything that comes to hand to protect their privilege and ruthlessly exploit racism but there is more to it than that.
Fear of the other exists, it is the job of anti-racists and socialists to combat it; this can only be done effectively by understanding it fully and not wrapping it in our own comfortable fantasies. WE have to confront real fears and provide a better narrative for those who act in a racist way to embrace. A narrative which digs into their instinctive beliefs in justice and fairness and encourages them to see that those they see as ‘other’ need to be included in those who should be included in those who have the same claims to justice and fairness.
This approach, of course, applies to all areas of discrimination and harassment.
Nesrine Malik has succinctly hit the nail bang on the head. The last two paragraphs well summarise the depth of moral degradation that has been allowed to happen in the political sphere, and is so apparant now in the general political landscape. The similarities between Blair and Starmer are hard to miss.
Interestingly I see that the Express reports some encouraging DeltaPoll data for Jeremy Corbyn over Keir Starmer in ‘Red Wall’ seats (I do wonder at the motive) https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1544222/jeremy-corbyn-news-labour-party-leader-sir-keir-starmer-red-wall
“Reputation” is not a force of nature, anymore than the ‘Overton window’ is’. It is, they are, the products of decades and centuries of propaganda. Starmer’s bleating about the need for better Toryism than the Tories can provide contributes to this. No wonder KS refused to answer as to whether he was a socialist – he has no political idea apart from grovelling electoralism, Mail/Telegraph worship a la Blair, and of course ‘no holds barred’ Zionism. 44% of Labour voters did not describe themselves as patriotic, according to Sebastian Payne in the FT (88% of Tory voters did). Do working class people have to boast about patriotism?