To: @guardian.co.uk
Re: Why black boys fail
Date: Tuesday 7 September 04

Dear Hugh (Mr Muir),

 

In response to your comment in today's Guardian: "No more lost boys" and "Black boys betrayed by racist school system, says report".

 

 

Tell me honestly, hand on heart, do you not tend to favour black children over white children? Of course you do. Because, being black yourself, you identify with them more. Apart from which, they could be your own children, carrying your genes along with those of your family and ancestors. 

 

Racial characteristics, including skin colour, are genetic markers, indicating what part of the world their owner originates, or does not originate, from, and how closely (or distantly) related we are. What is race if not our super-extended family? 

 

We share more than 99.9 percent of our genes and belong to the same species, but we are of different race: your ancestors are from Africa, mine from Europe. Our common ancestry diverged 10's of thousands of years ago. We have different ancestors, different histories. 

 

And black people aren't the only ones who need the "support of positive racial identity". White people need it too. The fact that it is available to them in overabundance conceals, but does not change the fact. Ethnic Europeans (especially European Americans, for reasons of national unity) have greatly played down the racial identity of their achievements, attributing them to mankind as a whole.

 

As an ethnic European I am a natural (not an adoptive) child of Western Civilisation. I "be-long" in and to Europe because my ancestors have lived here for thousands of years, slowly developing one of the world's greatest cultures, along with the science and technology on which our modern world is based. I'm not suggesting that black people (or any other non-Europeans) do not belong here, but compared with Europeans they certainly have not been here long, and have contributed relatively little to Western civilisation. They have come here on boats and planes (developed and built by Europeans) to take advantage of it. And who can blame them? Although I'd prefer it if they would simply learn from us (including our mistakes) and create their own prosperous societies, as the Japanese have done, rather than moving in with us in such large numbers and accusing us of being "racist" when we complain about it.

 

I draw a lot of support from my own racial identity with the creators of Western civilisation, notwithstanding all the horrors that have accompanied it.

 

British and European history (more than 2500 years of it) IS "hideously white", as Greg Dyke might put it, but surely non-Europeans must realise that before they move here. If I were to move to China I would expect (and want!) their society to be and to remain completely Chinese.

 

The difficulty for young black people is that there is no black nation for them to look to, critically, of course, but with pride and admiration. All successful black individuals, like yourself, are successful within and dependent on white society (I'm sorry, but even Nelson Mandela).

 

What you need to do is to create your own prosperous society, like the Jews, or Japanese and other Asian peoples have done, or are doing. You could even win the eternal admiration and gratefulness of all future generations by showing us how to create not just a prosperous society, but one that is also just, humane and above all sustainable.