The 2012 Olympics, with images of Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah happily draping the union jack around their brown shoulders, heralded the dawn of a post-racial Britain. Or so went the script. The image of Britain presented for global consumption was one of a rainbow nation in which hard work and determination could overcome racial prejudice. After the heat of that summer, Britons strode along boasting of how much had been achieved, likening racism to an endangered species soon to be fully extinct within a progressive society. A survey of British social attitudes by NatCen, reported in the Guardian, proves otherwise though: Racism is on the rise.
The survey shows that three in every 10 Britons describe themselves as being “very or a little racially prejudiced”. Though the number is lower than the figures from 30 years ago (36 per cent), it is higher than in 2000 and 2001 (25 per cent). The highest recorded levels were from 2010, when 37 per cent labelled themselves as racially prejudiced. From such data, it is evident that merely plastering images proclaiming Britain’s racial diversity as evidence of the eradication of racism rings hollow. Perhaps it is time for the government to reinvest in the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which in 2012 had its budget and staff halved. On the basis of the funding decision, the government must think racism is not that much of a problem any more; indeed, nor is discrimination based on disability, sexual orientation, age or religion.
Discussing racism as something still in existence has become hotly contested. Those who label acts as racist find themselves on the receiving end of accusations that they are overly sensitive and paranoid. We are the ones who are the real racists, we are told, breeding division where there should be cohesion with our desire to see racism everywhere. Yet, when only 4 per cent of British Pakistanis can say that they are not at all worried about being harassed because of their race or religion, and 65 per cent of black Africans are very or slightly worried about religious or racially-motivated attacks, then we need to remember that talking about racism as if it does not exist is in fact another instrument in the silencing of black and minority ethnic (BME) voices. It is yet another sign that Britain does not share in the myth of equality that is so readily served up to its people. In fact, experience tells that the reality is very different from that rendered on advertising billboards and magazines.
NatCen’s research makes for especially interesting reading on racism and class. Old assumptions are seemingly affirmed. It is older men in manual work who are most likely to admit to being racially prejudiced. For women, those who work part time are more ready to admit their prejudice. Why? Dr Grace Lordan from the London School of Economics suggests it is related to the poor working conditions such women are forced to endure. Again, this is a formula for racial discrimination that we are happy to accept — it is primarily the problem of the poor, too unenlightened to understand that the nonexistent R-word is pass, to say the least.
This is another lie, an act of hypocrisy that is breathtaking when fully considered. It was the middle class and very learned historian David Starkey who espoused unchallenged 19t-Century ideas about the inherently violent nature of “blacks” on national news. Most recently, the multimillionaire friend of David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson, continues to enjoy a contract funded by the public that permits him to “humorously” jabber racist rubbish at us. And of course, Ukip’s public school-educated leader, Nigel Farage, believes it mere common sense to worry about Romanians moving next door. On top of that, there is always the dehumanising language of hordes and swarms.
Farage, with his German wife, proves himself to be rather pathetically predictable — there is the right type of immigrants, who do not look and act too foreign, and the wrong type, who do. It is the latter that have always proved problematic for Britain. Britain’s largely middle class media and political class are happy to sing variations of this tune, but are reluctant to claim their share of responsibility when such talk inevitably comes home to roost. It is no surprise that there is a correlation between spikes when people admit their racial prejudice and when anti-immigration rhetoric and Islamophobia are dished out as reasoned stances against impending doom.
To see racism as singularly the problem of one social class is another refusal to view it as a pernicious issue that is supported by structures within society. Though this report gives voice to the resentments of powerless individuals, it should not blind people to the fact that racism is at its most damaging when institutions are at fault. Around 50 per cent of young black men are unemployed compared with 20 per cent of their white counterparts. In 2010, more than 50 per cent of black seven-year-olds and nearly three-quarters of their Pakistani and Bangladeshi counterparts were living in poverty. Gypsies and Travellers have a life expectancy that is 10 to 12 years lower than that of the general population. Black pupils are three times more likely than any other groups except, Gypsy and Traveller children, to be permanently excluded from school. And on and on the stats go. It is not individuals, but institutions that are perpetuating racial inequality. If NatCen’s survey does anything, it should be to make us stop lying to ourselves. There isn’t anything post about racism: It is here and now.
— Guardian News & Media Ltd
Lola Okolosie is an English teacher and writer.
