"Institutionally racist"

I'm afraid that my first proper post is a rant. I daresay it was always inevitable; it's something I feel strongly about, and I've had many rants about it over time, and so there's always bound to be another left in me.

A couple of weeks ago, our school held something called 'Multicultural Week.' In reality it was a rather sad affair that was considerably less impressive in its impact than it was made out to be, but I was hopping mad when it was first announced. Why? I was shoved into a House assembly, talked to by the most patronising person in the school, who paced her words as though speaking to a group of five-year-olds, and told that we would be celebrating 'diversity' and 'tolerance' by bringing in 'examples of cultural heritage.' Frankly the whole thing struck me as being more akin to the sixteenth century novelty of having a black page-boy than a true symptom of a tolerant society. There were Muslims in the audience, and I don't think they appreciated being patronised in this way. It's alarming how I did not even notice they were there until darling Foakes began talking about 'diversity.' For another thing, why was the school doing it? Was it out of a clumsy desire to be welcoming that only accidentally came off as demeaning to those very cultures it was supposed to be celebrating? Or was it to show Ofsted how all-embracing we are?

The last Multicultural anything our school had was Multicultural Day, which happened to coincide with a visit from the inspectors. Funny, that.

To the point: a truly tolerant society does not need to trumpet it out that it is tolerant.

Official photos now have to show what can only be termed the ‘token ethnic.’ Posters show white hands shaking black ones, or differently coloured children hugging. Ethnicity forms are dispatched in schools, demanding to know whether someone is Black Caribbean or White British or Mixed Race. What’s the fundamental message? Race matters. Race matters so much that people must be effectively pigeon-holed under these titles. Did, I wonder, the children who played side by side in the playground have any notion of racism before they were given a lecture against it?

In 1999, following the failed investigating into Stephen Lawrence’s murder, Sir William MacPherson published a report which described the Metropolitan police as “institutionally racist.” If anybody doubted this report before, then surely the decision to actively seek out recruits from ethnic minorities over those from white backgrounds does nothing but convince them? A black Met police officer will be left wondering if he was employed because of ability and potential, or because of his skin colour. This can only be described as racism - racism twisted into a form of condescension.

Quite apart from how distinctly irritated and uncomfortable ethnic minorities may be feeling as a result, this ‘new’ racism only seems to be encouraging of the ‘old.’ The growing strength of the BNP is alone a testament to how isolated and snubbed the white working and middle classes feel, and a simple perusal of the Daily Mail can be quite alarming. Articles such as the recent one declaring the Falklands War as ‘very British’ or one describing a family as ‘very English’ would not have looked out of place in the 1940s. The government’s continual ‘preference’ (I think the inverted commas and the paragraphs above already show what I think of it) of ethnic minorities has rightly been called by some as ‘reverse racism.’ People who feel they are being victimised are angry people, and angry people tend to gravitate towards extremes. Not healthy.

Methinks that "institutionally racist" is a phrase which can, unfortunately, be applied to most facets of the government and state, not just the police.
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On a more personal note, it’s odd how hard it is to have a sensible talk about this with anyone, without being dubbed a racist or a communist - a conclusion I have reached thanks to the 'discussion' I had with my parents last night. My parents see no distinction between me complaining about jingoism in the Daily Mail and me wanting the utter destruction of British culture. They rarely listen to what I say, but instead argue with what they think I say, and my dad decided to quash any sensible debate by telling me that my views were 'coloured by the era in which I was born.' Honestly, now there's an assertion that would kill all debating clubs stone-dead: there's no point in having an opinion on anything, because it's just been coloured by your age. I may as well throw up my hands and resign all right to have an opinion at all.