Multiculturalism's defining juncture
by James Cameron
19/06/09
Racist attacks on Belfast’s Roma minority. The BNP handed an opportunity to capitalise on the failures of mainstream politics. The cracks are growing.
In times of economic hardship, skewed self-interest often comes to the fore. The oft-misconceived threat posed by the perceived ‘other’ brings about an increase in xenophobic reactions. And immigration becomes a hotly-contested issue. Meanwhile, in a post-9/11 world, legislation has found it tricky to draw a balance between making ‘them’ do things ‘our’ way and ‘politically correct, relativist tip-toeing’.
Multiculturalism is at a critical and defining juncture.
Indeed, multiculturalist discourse (in its many-voiced and varied forms) has long been the target of wide-ranging criticisms (some more valid than others). But, as argued by Francis Mulhern, in his retrospect of Raymond Williams’ Culture and Society, given the unprecedented endeavours of multiculturalism as a normative prescription to acknowledge, embrace and protect multi-race society , ‘some kind of multiculturalism is the horizon of all progressive thought and practice in its sphere’.
At this point, what we need is a concerted effort from government at all levels, community leaders (self-appointed or otherwise) and anyone else who can, to ensure that there is genuine public understanding of the benefits of living in a diverse, dynamic society; that there is real understanding of the benefits of progressive immigration policy; that there is tolerance for the difference in our society; and that this difference is celebrated, not because of difference per se but because it is grounded in a sense of community and shared norms, embodied by the state.
It comes as a disappointment then that a year after Boris Johnson removed the anti-racism message from London’s Rise festival, he has now cancelled this year’s event, purportedly for lack of funding. His real motivation, however, more probably lies in his distaste for multiculturalism as national/regional policy – being an agenda previously endorsed by progressive forces. As such, while he has expressed a desire to depoliticise such events, his motives are distinctly political and thus reinforce the very political divisions he criticises.
Rise is a festival that has repeatedly brought together different communities in the name of a shared value: condemnation of racism. It goes way beyond the politics of multiculturalism. Its reinstatement would not alone prevent further success for the BNP, but it should form part of a bigger plan to shout out loudly that the fight against racism is far from over.
Jeni Williams
The rise of the BNP is clearly linked to racism. They may have toned down the overt message but they have been arguing for white British identity in Wales for some time on the streets they have been capitalising on a recession that has allowed the redtops and the Daily Mail to promote racism as a mainstream and therefore legitimate concern. UKIP splashed their campaign posters with the suggestion that we should 'end unlimited immigration' - which of course we don't have. They too have benefited from this covert racism. When the Daily Mail places the -intentionally incendiary - headline that 20,000 migrants have been given British passports on its front page, the clear implication is that these 'migrants' are black or brown. I don't see anyone complaining about by blond Australian dentist.
The recession demands that competing newspapers give more and more shocking headlines in order to grab potential readers. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise. The impact on the ground is very bad. Refugee Council workers have filters but vicious hate mail still gets through; those in Wrexham have been photographed by right wing activists; in the run down council estates in Swansea where I live racist attacks are very much on the increase. A Tamil family fleeing the well-publicised horrors of conflict in Sri Lanka spoke of their shock when their children were subjected to abuse the first time they left the house which they had been sent; a Bangladeshi woman fleeing domestic abuse had burning rags pushed through her front door and regularly cleaned excrement and eggs from her windows; an Algerian family granted political asylum regularly had their car windows broken and tires slashed, on one occasion a small Koran was taken from the car and torn into pieces scattered over the road; a Kosovan woman and her two young children were followed home by teenage girls who tried to set their dogs on her and who assaulted her by her garden gate when she threatened to call the police. This kind of behaviour is fairly new and is not generated by local norms (re above) or, particularly, by the state, but by a virulent third estate: the media. And the BNP is legitimated by such activity. The longer for 'spontaneous flourishing of culture and community in the micro-level' can of course be suffocated by the dead hand of an authoritarian state but remove that and we still face the deadening effect of mass promoted poison.
Michael
It's an over-simplification to link so closely the rise of BNP and racism; whilst the BNP quite clearly hold racist policies, there has yet to be any definitive study to suggest that this is the principal reason why people have voted for them. Indeed, arguably the BNP have gained more votes since they have tried to hide the overtly racist sentiments of their ideology, thereby attempting to place themselves as a party of the working class, rather than a party of white indigenous natives, or whatever the vocab is that they use.
As for shared communities and norms as 'embodied by the state', I think this is only half-correct (I'm thinking here of Gordon Brown's daft 'British Day/Week/Month' celebrations). Truth is, shared norms and values are not always constructed on the national level, and more often are constructed and maintained on the local level in the quirks of tradition and culture, almost infinitely diverse, that help bestow identity, membership and participation. Whilst the state can certainly embody universal values we might seek to proclaim, it is never exhaustive; it also needs to take a back seat in order to allow the spontaneous flourishing of culture and community in the micro-level, too.