To:
Laurie Taylor
at Thinking
Allowed, BBC
Radio 4 |
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Dear
Laurie,
Your
conversation
with Elisabeth
Lasch-Quinn
was a very
interesting
contribution
to an
extremely
important
subject: race
(relations)
and identity.
We
are in a
state, at
least of
semi-denial as
to just how
important race
is for most
people's sense
of identity.
Americans are
in official
denial, of
course, for
reasons of
national
unity, and we
in Britain are
being forced,
by a
well-intentioned
but misguided
leftwing
ideology and
naive
liberalism
and humanism,
allied with
free-market
capitalism's
powerful
desire for
cheap, foreign
labour, to
follow their
example.
Race
matters!
Pretending
that it
doesn't (or
shouldn't) -
which at the
BBC has, it
seems, the
status of
unquestionable
church dogma -
while
silencing
those who feel
that it does
with
accusations of
"racism", is a
recipe for
disaster.
We
could do with
a whole series
of Thinking
Allowed
broadcasts
dedicated to
this subject
alone.
We
are dominated
by an
intellectual
naiveté
(tending
towards
arrogance)
which assumes
that the
importance of
race is rooted
in ignorance,
i.e. that the
more
knowledgeable
we become the
less race
matters.
However, I
have found the
very opposite
to be true:
the more I
have learned
about my
ancestors and
the history of
Western
Civilisation
the more aware
I have become
of just how
"hideously
white" -
as the former
BBC Chairman,
Greg Dyke,
might put it -
(i.e.
European) they
are, and how
central this
is to my own
sense of
identity. It
is not about
one race being
superior or
inferior to
another, but
about who my
ancestors are,
what my
history is,
and where I
belong.
I am
convinced that
much so-called
"racism" is
really about
"identity".
When Spanish
football fans
chanted
"racist"
insults at
black British
players some
weeks ago, it
was, I
suggest,
because they
expected
Englishmen to
be white (just
as we expect
the Japanese
to look
Japanese,
rather than
Scandinavian
or African),
not, as the
entire media
insisted,
because they
were racist.
They should
have been
criticised for
rudeness, not
racism.
"Recipe for a
get along
scene" was a
very good
choice of
song, by the
way, because
it celebrates
the ideology
of race not
mattering (the
sooner we are
all of mixed
race the
better), which
dominates
modern western
society by
branding those
who disagree
as "racists".
Apart from
being
understandable
in people of
mixed race, it
is, I believe,
fear of and a
gross
overreaction
to genuine
racism, as
expressed in
the insane and
criminal
ideology of
the Nazis,
and the less
extreme but
still inhumane
and abnoxious
Apartheid and
Segregation
laws of South
Africa and the
southern
states of
America.
Most
of us are not
of mixed race
(at least, not
noticeably
so), and, if
we are honest,
don't want to
be - or
rather, don't
want our
grandchildren
and
descendents to
be, because,
vainly - and
as an
important, if
not essential,
aspect of our
identity - we
want them to
look like
ourselves, our
parents,
grandparents,
etc, going
back to the
forebears we
learn about in
history, or
whose bones
are dug up at
archaeological
sites all over
the country.
Some will
accuses me of
"racism" for
saying this, I
know, but it
has to be
said, because
it's the way
that I and
very many
other people
(probably
most, if they
come out of
denial and are
honest about
it) feel. It
is difficult,
because no one
wants to be
offensive (or
be called a
racist), but,
of course,
some people
are going to
feel offended.
I was offended
when a Jewish
girl once
rejected me
because I
wasn't a Jew.
But that is
the price we
have to pay if
we wish to
cultivate and
maintain
racial, ethnic
and cultural
diversity. Far
from promoting
diversity
(except in the
short-term)
the ideology
of multiracial
and
multicultural
society is
reducing (and
will
ultimately
destroy) it.
All human
diversity
(certainly
racial,
linguistic and
cultural
diversity)
only came
about because
in the past
human
populations
were isolated
(for thousands
- in the case
of race, for
10's of
thousands - of
years). Now,
if we don't
maintain some
essential
aspects of
that isolation
artificially,
such diversity
will
disappear.
That is what
the singers of
"Recipe for a
get along
scene" are
hoping for (Oh
what a
beautiful
dream), but as
much as I like
the sentiment
of love and
good will, it
is a dream I
do not share;
on the
contrary, to
me it would be
a
mono-mixed-race,
mono-cultural
nightmare.
How
often have I
heard even BBC
broadcasters
refer to "our
ancestors" -
who are
virtually all
white. How can
black and
Asian Britons
not feel
somewhat
alienated when
"we" talk
about "our
history", "our
ancestors",
and their ,
i.e. "our
achievements"?
We assume that
they can (and
want to) adopt
"our history"
(and national
identity) in
the same way
that they have
adopted our
language and
many aspects
of "our
(western)
culture". I
cannot speak
for them, of
course, but I
certainly
would not want
to adopt
someone else's
history or
identity -
even if it
were possible,
which I some
how doubt.
There
is so much
more to say on
this subject.
For example,
that forcing
multiracial
and
multicultural
society on
people who
don't want
them (and
there are very
many who
don't)
generates
aggression,
which is then
mistakenly and
dangerously
dismissed and
suppressed
(politically,
socially and
psychologically)
as racism; or
that in
America the
vast majority
of people are
immigrants
rather than
natives, while
in Europe and
many other
parts of the
world the very
opposite is
true. But for
now this will
have to do.
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