Is it coz I is Black?
I know some of you out there are regular Radio 4 listeners and I know some of you are familiar with the station’s forays into the world of situation comedy. I myself only find a couple of these genuinely funny: one is ‘In the Kitchen’ and the other is ‘Clare in The Community’. For those not in the know, the latter stars Sally Phillips as the über right-on title character, a social worker displaying every PC trait guaranteed to leave most Raccoon Arms patrons frothing at the mouth. A recent episode saw Clare venture into the attic of her parents’ home for the first time since adolescence, whereupon she rediscovered a mural dedicated to socialism she’d painted years earlier, one in which Nelson Mandela linked arms with Tony Benn in an idealistic portrait of an 80s lefty paradise. Clare was accompanied by her sister during this reunion, who queried the identity of the little black girl with dreadlocks in the mural, to which the whiter-than-white middle-class Clare replied, ‘Oh, that’s me.’
The white absorption of black street culture, in terms of dress and slang, has given birth to the Chav at one end of the scale, but there is at least some common ground between poor black Americans and poor white Brits to justify a degree of affinity. Not so with the desperate yearning by white folks emanating from materially comfortable backgrounds to attach themselves to something ‘cool’ with ‘street cred’ in a vain attempt to discard their true origins and conjure the illusion of residing on the cutting edge of society. This has a lengthy history and is there in everything from the lyrics of Pulp’s seminal 1995 hit, ‘Common People’, to the sad sight of so-called Trustafarians. It also shares a great deal with the growing contemporary desire for victimhood and a need to be perceived as a survivor of some unspeakable tragedy. After all, what section of society could be perceived as cool, cred and downtrodden by white folks of this ilk more than black folks?
I was reminded of Clare’s silly vision of herself as the antithesis of her reality when the storm broke in the US recently concerning the revelation that Rachel Dolezal, President of the NAACP in the Washington State city of Spokane, was not quite as black as first impressions suggested; in fact, the release to the media of childhood photos featuring a little girl bearing a closer resemblance to one of the Children of the Damned than one of The Jackson Five suggested frequent spells on the sun-bed along with an ongoing recourse to a home perm kit were closer to the truth. Her evident deception was not merely limited to her appearance, however. She had fabricated a past of characteristic black ‘suffering’, oppressed by whites and robbed of her roots by her white ‘stepfather’ (her actual biological father), posing for photos alongside an old black dude she claimed was her real father, and declaring herself a victim of racial abuse.
Dolezal continues to claim she is black, despite blatant evidence to the contrary of her Michael Jackson-in-reverse reinvention, but her bizarre metamorphosis not only highlights the ludicrous liberal guilt of some white Americans where the nation’s past treatment of its black population is concerned; it also taps into the persistent victimhood syndrome prevalent in some corners of that very population. A blonde-haired white girl could hardly expect to ascend the lofty heights of an organisation promoting the African-American community, but an Afro-haired black girl could, particularly one with a series of sob stories documenting her ‘struggle’ that serve as some form of authenticity insurance.
From the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat at the front of the bus to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X though to Black Power and the Black Panthers, the black American demand for equality was once about making previously silent voices heard with impassioned gusto, voices that didn’t aim for their objective by seeking to invoke pity and condescending sympathy. Playing the victim was viewed as no more progressive than playing Uncle Tom. As James Brown memorably cried in 1968 – ‘Say it loud! I’m black and I’m proud!’ And, as if we could forget, exactly forty years on from that rousing clarion call, a black man made it all the way to the White House.
Yet, ever since a former black sporting hero seemed odds-on to be found guilty of the murder of his white wife just over twenty years ago, the decision of his defence lawyer to turn his client into the victim of racial discrimination has dramatically changed the tactics of those still concerned with achieving black equality with the white majority. The not guilty verdict in the OJ Simpson trial seemed to mark a critical turning point. Rather than seeking to rise above injustice and refuse to be defined by it, the new mood appeared to be to wallow in it and use injustice as a crutch. Playing the race card has now become as ubiquitous in the US as compensation culture, political correctness and victimhood, in many respects enjoying an incestuous union with them. Those whose childhood memories are haunted by witnessing a lynching or hearing horror stories from a grandparent whose formative years were spent in southern slavery are now on the last lap of life; any black American under-50 citing such experiences as having a relevance on their own lives is like a white Brit blaming workhouses for the fact they’re currently signing-on.
The recent spate of black deaths at the hands of white policemen in several American cities isn’t necessarily turning back the clock to the pre-Civil Rights era. Far more has changed than is convenient to the contemporary persecution agenda. In the decades since the 1960s, black Americans have risen to the upper echelons of the nation’s institutions, something that would have been inconceivable half-a-century ago. In a city such as Baltimore, the scene of ‘race riots’ a few months ago, the mayor, state’s attorney and police commissioner are all black, and within the Baltimore Police Force the actual division between black and white officers is more or less fifty-fifty. Washington’s police department even has a greater number of black officers than white. For some black voices in the public eye to lay the blame of police aggression solely at the door of skin colour doesn’t entirely hold true. Even the veteran black activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson stated on British TV last week that more white youths have been killed by police officers than black ones over the past twelve months. Surely poverty plays far greater a part in the causes of recurrent civil unrest than race?
As African-Americans constitute the largest non-white section of the US, it is unsurprising that many surveys of poverty statistics based upon race generally place the black population on a higher poverty percentage than other minorities – but only just. Hispanics run a very close second and one survey even claims Native American Indians are ahead of Black Americans, recording the highest national poverty rate at 27.0%, with Blacks at 25.8%. Indeed, how many Native Americans hold positions of public office or high-ranking police posts in comparison to Black Americans? Black America may always point back to slavery as the source of its grievances, but what of those whose land it was before even white men set foot on it, let alone imported Africans? Slavery is indisputably horrible, but hardly worse than virtual genocide. If there is any racial problem in America today, it can be found at its most dire on the Indian Reservations, where the average life expectancy is barely fifty, the shortest life expectancy of any community within the western hemisphere outside of bloody Haiti.
Perhaps white folks seeking to ally themselves with a genuinely oppressed minority should start donning feathered headgear and war-paint. And black folks should count their blessings. There actually are some minorities worse off in America than them.
Petunia Winegum
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August 25, 2015 at 9:24 am -
A couple of points:
Chav “culture” (yes, I know, oxymoronic) has NOTHING to do with either black people or America. It originated in the white working class southern English in the late 70s/early 80s, long before hip-hop and rap made inroads over here. In the north it was equivalent in “scallies”.
Secondly, you point out that some black people have prospered by playing the victim in USA. It might be interesting for you to Google Black Misleadership Class and Black Agenda Report or Black Lives Matter to get another perspective on that.
As for comparing the ways in which Native Americans were treated against black slaves – you can’t be serious? You’re ranking inhumanities and genocides? Stay classy!
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August 25, 2015 at 11:08 am -
As I like to point out, the police homicide rate is broadly in line with the rates of criminality (slightly lower for said aggrieved parties), something that is rarely mentioned on the bbc
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August 25, 2015 at 12:17 pm -
The Scally/Casual/Dresser look (different names were used in different parts of the country) also had the fascination with sportswear and designer labels, but the ‘innit’-isms of the Chav, largely derived from Jamaican patois, as well as the embrace of hip-hop, to me says it owes more to black culture than white. I don’t really say any black American has prospered by playing the victim, but it has certainly become a more common option now than pre-OJ. And my point about past treatment of immigrant Africans and Native Americans is used to highlight the fact that, should any Native American use the extermination of so many Indian tribes in the same way that slavery is harked back to by Black America, he would have as good a grievance, if not more so. That’s all.
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August 25, 2015 at 9:30 am -
“From the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her seat at the front of the bus to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X …”
There’s an image that will make me smile all day.
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August 25, 2015 at 9:37 am -
Don’t forget the poor whites – still there, immortalised in Flannery O’Connors wry short stories on the South and nestling in the mountains of West Virginia (often villified as ‘inbreds’). But the twist and changes of the politics of race have veered into a hegemony of suffering – and in this the ‘black politics’ is supreme.
One emerging concept is ‘black pain’ – you are successful, well heeled but your life starts to feel ‘not quite right’ – cue the therapist who tells you you are suffering from ‘black pain’ – the internalisation of generations of racism. Makes you even more special.
This American concept has also migrated to South Africa where continued post-apartheid unrest, the legacy of the racial divisions ‘coloured’v’black’ v’white’ and mass corruption and a failing energy system wrecking the economy has started to explode in all directions.
‘Black pain’ has become the rallying cry among black university activists – they are not poor but feel the pain. Thus the new iconoclasm, the symbolic erasing of history re the Rhodes statue (has moved on to others now) and calls for an ‘Afrocentric ‘ curriculum wiping out the European inheritance. That will put the lights back on!
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August 25, 2015 at 2:05 pm -
‘..continued post apartheid unrest…’
I worked at a large industrial site in RSA in the mid ’80’s. Part of all management tasks was black advancement, which meant preferential recruitment & advancement of blacks at all levels in the organisation, & quickly. Remember this was the decade before Mandela was freed. Profit & service targets still had to be met despite the difficulties of recruitment and training, & this was a period of rapid union growth and industrial unrest. New employment legislation in the early ’80’s had led to increased empowerment of the worker.
(This is what winds me up about those so nice hand wringers doing their bit boycotting Outspan oranges in those days- the only effect was that our European neighbours snapped up every business opportunity)
What we might see as corruption is I think often no more than the natural outcome of providing massive opportunity to a culture where the extended family comes first, there is little ingrained commitment to the aims of the organisation, and a lack of skills/networks needed to succeed. Why wouldn’t you employ a nephew? You can do it & it’s expected.
A change carried out in a generation, I don’t think it’s ‘black pain’ that’s the problem though some unrealistic expectations ought by now to have been adjusted.-
August 25, 2015 at 2:25 pm -
But there is a legacy – for instance ‘Cape coloureds’ are having to choose to reclaim their apartheid identity because discriminated against by ANC gov . Jobs go to ‘blacks’ – coloureds squeezed out. Has own mixed heritage – and subdivisions Indians, Malays, Portugese etc – united only by apartheid classification.
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August 25, 2015 at 8:12 pm -
Fair point, Margaret.
I well remember the pecking order of whites, honorary whites (i.e. Japanese maybe connected with the manufacture of Honda cars by Mercedes), Asians, Blacks, coloureds, & the rest. But it was all disappearing in the ’80’s.
From my memories, mostly good, I recall the Portugese being the grocers- they certainly ran a store at Annlin close to my home, Gaby’s was the name, off Zambesi Drive. Fantastic fresh rolls on a Sunday morning; equal but different to the morning rolls in Glasgow.
The ANC has a lot to answer for but RSA hasn’t descended to Zimbabwe levels; too many people, too much wealth, too much industry, and plenty of infrastructure by any standards, especially poor Africa.
I still can’t forget seeing migrants trying to get into RSA back the mid 1980’s. I saw them risking the lions alongside Kruger to get in. Never heard of anyone struggling to get out.
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August 25, 2015 at 10:05 am -
Interesting to ponder whether the same could have happened in Britain.
Just like North America and Australia, Britain was invaded by the Romans but, rather than retreating into an alcoholic shell or voluble victimhood, the native Brits adopted many positive aspects of the Roman lifestyle, blended in with their ‘oppressors’ and got on with their daily lives – had the Romans not left so suddenly, one may speculate how that would have turned out now. When the Romans did leave, the place deteriorated quickly, reverting to a generally lawless and culture-free badland for many centuries until the next bunch of alien invaders arrived near Hastings. Modern Africa offers many examples of similar experiences after their various colonising powers departed.
One wonders just how well North America and Australia would turn out if their ‘oppressive white invaders’ were to depart suddenly and leave them to their own devices. Zimbabwe may look like heaven in comparison.-
August 25, 2015 at 10:36 am -
Zimbabwe is uncannily like England after the Romans left.
It is interesting that Obama is always said to be “black” while Ian Khama is seen as at least half white. Both have African fathers and white mothers.
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August 25, 2015 at 12:53 pm -
The president ain’t black – his wife is, but in Caribbean speak, he’s a fair skin man
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August 25, 2015 at 11:48 am -
Yes, and no. Britannia did indeed become in some ways more Roman than the Romans, or at least adopted Roman ways and enjoyed a long period of stable, prosperous civilisation. It also remained one of the last bastions of the Roman world as the west of Europe was convulsed by barbarian invasion and the mass migration of peoples from the east (sound familiar? I have opined on that recently. After the last legions were withdrawn to help protect the mainland and the vestiges of empire Britain was subject to various attacks from what we now call Scotland and Ireland, and doubtless raiders from Europe too. What the Britons did was to make a couple of cardinal mistake – they invited what we can call in shorthand Anglo-Saxons to act as their mercenaries and crush the barbarian raiders. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was apparently to rat on the deal and not pay them properly. This caused the Anglo Saxons to “go off on one” and rampage about.
In any event, having been invited to this green and pleasant land, with its Toni and Guys and Starbucks and generous welfare system, the “Saxons”, to use a generic catch all, decided that it was a good place to be, and invited their friends and families to join them. The result was of course war, death, violence – all the usual stuff as the Saxon settlers pushed west. Saxon, by the way, derives from Seax, the long close quarter fighting knife the Saxons commonly used.
There is a legitimate debate about how much of the subsequent cultural domination by the “English” over the Romano British was achieved by violence, and how much by some form of innate cultural fusion, but war and death there was. In one incident the Saxons effectively wiped out the Romano-British elite, treacherously slaughtering them at a banquet called to mark a peace treaty.
If you tried to explain the positives of multiculturalism to say, Gildas the Monk in say 530AD you would have got a swift punch up the bracket.
On a couple of slight point of detail, however, I disagree in part with the next bit. What we refer to as “the Dark Ages” in Britain were not necessarily so very dark. Anglo- Saxon England was extremely wealthy (wool, silver, etc), produced high art, and was envied by the rest of Europe. Indeed the next wave of invaders was not the Normans but of course their forbears the “Vikings” – again a shorthand, who did their bit for diversity and multiculturalism by, amongst other matters, laying waste great parts of the country and subjecting Anglo-Saxon kings to the dread rites of “the Blood Eagle” where they were pegged out and their heart and lungs cut out whilst still alive. In the end a sort of Anglo-Danish fusion state grew up, and once again England was prosperous. Until William showed up, himself of Norseman heritage, of course, and did things like lay waste the North, as to which some historians estimate that more than 100,000 died of starvation.
It’s a good job we have learned the lessons of history!
Right on, brothers!-
August 25, 2015 at 12:03 pm -
Diversity is strength allegedly, contrary to base logic and all historic empirical reality
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August 25, 2015 at 12:25 pm -
And there was I, covering merely the highlights in true tabloid fashion, only to be unceremoniously hoist on the petard yet again by the learned Gildas. As you point out, it is interesting to draw parallels with very modern times, parallels which I am sure will not be drawn, or if they are drawn will be promptly disregarded, by those in positions of power. Sadly, neither you nor I will live long enough to see the apparently rich cultural benefits which Britain will gain from the latest wave of multicultural input, some would say none will.
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August 25, 2015 at 1:18 pm -
I have the feeling, Mudplugger, that the fruits of multiculturalism will blossom forth in all too spectacular ways before I see my shuffle off into my next incarnation….
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August 25, 2015 at 1:54 pm -
Another ‘Person of (different shade of) Colour’ is “Black Lives Matter” activist Shaun King – ‘outed as white’ insists his father was ‘light-skinned black man’ in his first full comeback to allegations.
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August 26, 2015 at 7:22 am -
The late great icon of Black cool, Mr. Bob Marley, had a mixed race background. His father Norval Marley was a British-born European-Jamaican from Sussex England, whose family had Syrian Jewish origins (Ref Wikipaedia).
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