Race and racism: A white Briton writes
When I fill in those diversity forms for job applications, I always put 'White British' or 'White English', or whatever variant I'm meant to use. That's what I am, although it seems so clumsy: what is 'white British' anyway and who gets to be that rather than, say, mixed race British? How mixed does your race have to be before you're mixed race?
And how white is white? I have no idea. Does my gypsy grandmother count as 'white', or should that lineage be viewed as 'mixed race'? I don't know. I am usually pink, and I was born in Britain, so there you have it: white British. Should I be proud of that, scared of it, worried about the fact that people like me are being apparently overwhelmed, or just ambivalent about the whole thing? I don't know. I think you're much less aware of your ethnicity and your heritage if you're in the majority; you grow up knowing that most people are like you, no matter how you mix at school, or work, or whatever.
Being 'white British', if I must call myself that, though, gives me an insight into the kind of articles that we've seen splashed over the newspapers today - and may see more of tomorrow - about how 'white Britons', people like me, might - that's might, not will - no longer be in the majority by the time I'm 91 years old.
I don't know if I'll really care, if I make it to 91, whether there are more slightly darker faces than mine walking around; or whether I'll care very much if there are more pink faces belonging to people who didn't grow up in Britain, either. Maybe that's just me, but I don't see what the big fuss is about. I really don't, and I can say this as a 'white Briton': I don't care.
People say it's a taboo to talk about immigration, but of course that's not the case. I say it's a taboo to talk positively of immigration, as if it's something that isn't a great deluge to be feared. And 'white' does not equal 'British'; 'British' does not equal 'white'. If white Britons do get 'outnumbered', that might not be a tremendously bad thing. These islands do not belong to whites, the same way that they don't belong to anyone. White people happen to have lived here since the Ice Age, but a lot of things have changed since then.
Human beings are migratory animals in a lot of ways, and now we have aircraft and all sorts of technological advances to speed up that process; you can't see a nation state as being composed of a particular ethnic group. Increasingly, it doesn't work that way. Britain is more of a cultural than a racial identity, I think, and that identity is more multicultural the more immigration we have - and do you know what, I don't think that's a bad thing at all.
These articles do, as ever, come with the same old agenda - the agenda that there are 'Brits' and there are others - it's the them and us thing all over again. I don't see it that way; I see it as us and us. So there are other races than white coming over to this country and living here? Good for them. So it might mean that white people - the 'indigenous population' so beloved of dog-whistle racists everywhere - are not in the absolute overall majority in fifty or so years' time? Well, so what. This is where I struggle to find a problem, where I struggle to find the fear.
One of the reasons why I do love living in this country - and I do, by the way - is the way in which it is such a cosmopolitan place. 'Our' history and heritage is not under threat. 'Our' country is not being taken over. There'll still be a place for the cricket on village greens and warm pints of beer of John Major's wistful vision; but maybe the country is changing in more ways than just the shades of the faces of the people who live here, and maybe there are more things to be concerned about than that.
What makes me angry is when it's assumed that 'white Britons' like me are automatically opposed to all kinds of change; that somehow I should go along with this panic porn about immigration because somehow it's me who is under threat. Well that's simply not true. I'm not under threat. I'm intensely relaxed about it all. If I do make it to 91, and if I am no longer as a pink-skinned person in the majority, I won't be shedding too many tears. I dare say if I ever have children they may have children with 'non-white' partners, or maybe they won't; but if they do, I'll be happy. I'm not scared by the scaremongering. My race isn't under threat. So I refuse to go along with any of this. Those who worry about the apparent decline of the 'white Briton' don't speak for this white Briton. You don't speak for me.
No related posts.
Buy my book, it’s great
Switch site
Donate
Recent Posts
Most Commented On
Recent Comments
- Eddie on A day with the Daily Mail
- Eddie on A day with the Daily Mail
- Eddie on Peter Hitchens depresses me. But I won’t kill him.
- Emily on Update
- Angela Webb on This isn’t a flounce
About Me
Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
If you're struggling to read the site please use the drop down box below to increase the text size.
November 18th, 2010 - 19:44
Another ‘white Briton’ here who just doesn’t get it either. I simply don’t care what colour skin people have. It is of no importance whatsoever. In fact the only people who I can see having a logical reason to worry about the decline of pink skinned people are those with shares in sun creams! Everyone else has no reason to care.
November 18th, 2010 - 19:46
And they don’t speak for me. An absolutely excellent post that hits so many nails on the head. If only those nails were lined up on the lid of bigotry’s coffin.
November 18th, 2010 - 20:14
It’s funny how this ‘ZOMG white people are gonna be extinct’ trope keeps cropping up in the right-wing media, but I’ve yet to see any mention of this in The Voice. You’re right; white Britons have nothing to be afraid of, really. You make up 90-odd percent of the UK’s population. It’s us blacks who have cause to be worried: we account for 2 percent. If Britain’s going to be mostly mixed in less than 100 years, we’re done for!
In all seriousness, the decline of the ‘white Briton’ is greatly exaggerated. But hey, when did the mainstream political parties, BNP and right-wing recruiting rags ever let something as piffling as, say, the ONS’s numbers (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=455) get in the way of creating fear, loathing and a divided society for their own ends? ‘AAAAGH! The Big Brown Other is coming to get youuuuuu!’
There’s something else you’ve touched on here: “I think you’re much less aware of your ethnicity and your heritage if you’re in the majority; you grow up knowing that most people are like you, no matter how you mix at school, or work, or whatever.” < THIS.
As a minority, even growing up in a very ethnically mixed part of London, I can say from experience that we are made painfully aware that we are different. In social groups and at various places I've worked, I'm sometimes one of the few, if not only, black people around. Not many people in the majority are willing to admit that not even having that awareness on your radar is a privilege.
Good post. Thank God (or whatever) for common sense.
November 18th, 2010 - 21:11
I’m a white Briton. At school, in Halifax – I was in the minority every day. I bloody loved it. My cricket team, who incidentally finished 2nd in the u15′s Chathas Off License West Yorkshire Cricket League, also had less white Britons than brown, slightly less brown or even, in Mustaqs case, very brown indeed Britons. I bloody loved that too. At home, I was thrown back into the white Briton estate. I worked in the above off license, owned by a very succesful Indian family. The Chathas. I was in a minority there too. Apart from the free alcohol, around the age of 16, that did a lot for my social standing but not my education, at that age, I can say, again, that I bloody loved it.
I could go on about bloody loving my experience as a white English Briton, in the deep, dark, majority Welsh-speaking areas of North Wales, and bringing up a white Welsh Briton son, but I’ll not bother…
I’ve seen and experienced the future, and it’s a bloody lovely place.
November 18th, 2010 - 22:33
The unparalelled excitement felt in a leafy part of southern England when a new boy from >>GASP!<< India joined my class suggests that there is still a long, long way to go as regards integration / domination* of the 'other' in some parts of the country.
It seems odd to me, really, that the kids really care that much, but then I got used to working in London where the first question the class would ask you was "what country are you from?" followed by amazement that I was from England.
What is worth pointing out here is that neither set of children cared remotely that a classmate might have different coloured skin – it just didn't occur to them that this might be something worth noting. I don't think they were particularly special in this regard, yet we get this constant drip feed through the press reinforcing the notion that we should be scared of the other.
Meh, I'm probably rambling now, suffice to say I find myself in total and utter agreement at the sentiment contained in this here post and the replies above. If kids from polar opposite backgrounds don't care, why the hell should anyone else?
November 18th, 2010 - 22:45
I’m finding some irony in that the people who may have benefited the most from the Empire, white toffs and middle class, are the most against taking on those we robbed.
Maybe that’s just me.
The Chinese will be our overlords soon enough.
November 18th, 2010 - 22:59
As a white person, I also say “who gives a stuff?” I mean, when I’m eighty-six, as I will be in 2066, I shall probably have more important things to concern me. Bladder control, arthritis, stuff like that. Besides, as Ruby A notes, white people get a lot of privilege with being in a majority, and it’s probably quite healthy for people to be aware of what privileges they have and to work around that somehow.
Also, I seem to recall that Roma/gypsy/traveller gets its own ticky-box under “White” on the CAB case sheets I see (Exeter branch). This may differ with forms from other people, though.
November 19th, 2010 - 10:11
I’ve not noticed a Roma box in London, alas. Not that I’d tick it. You get the most frightful abuse down my way if you admit to Roma blood, sadly.
November 18th, 2010 - 23:05
Thaks to your great blog i’m only just taking it all in – the sh*t newspaper articles, the dreadful comments, the racist overtone of the whole thing, so just thought i’d ramble a few thoughts here.
Firsty this isn’t the usual drip-drip slightly implied racism, this is the “Stop them, they’re taking over our country” bollocks shouted at 100dB from the rooftops. So disheartening that journalists can regurgitate this divisive shit with no comeback. Yet again it’s bloggers who carry out proper journalistic tasks by investigating the claims and put them in the context of who is making such claims (well done Minority Thought). The only outcome from convincing certain sectors of our population (EDL/BNP) these are the facts can only lead to violence and a divided society. And i’m still confused why the right wing media are so keen to reach this end. To do this by knowingly publishing wrong information should be a criminal offence.
Now i’m calming down, i’m also confused how the “more brown people by 2066″ can even be true. If most of our immigration has been, and will be in the future, from within the EU, and assuming they decide to stay forever (and not go elsewhere as the recession shrinks the job market) won’t any children they have then be white and british? Although as you pointed out so well, as i look down at my fingers typing this i really couldn’t give two hoots whether they’re pink, white, brown or mauve. The only advantage i can think of being white is it stops the right-wing downmarket press making me feel unwelcome and an outsider in my own country.
Final point, what is the conclusion of the report. “Ban” air travel, ferry travel, close all borders? Because that’s the only way you’ll stop the entire human population being similar shades of brown in 500 or so yrs time.
November 19th, 2010 - 07:15
Hear, hear!
I’m a white Briton – with a lovely dark brown Indian wife and two lovely golden brown children of whom we are both very proud. All very British.
If there is anything to be proud of about British culture, it is its multiculturalism – which is as old as the very idea of Britain itself, an integral part of British culture. It’s that dreadful racism that’s the anomaly, the cancer.
November 19th, 2010 - 08:22
Great post. I hate the fact that as a White Briton it’s ok to say racist stuff to me because I’m white and therefore must hold the same bigotted views as the speaker. Their face when you challenge them this is priceless though, genuine shock.
November 19th, 2010 - 08:42
my girlfriend is black. my grandad is Indian. I am white. this story fucking infuriated me.
November 19th, 2010 - 09:37
I think it’s important NOT to see racism as a person failing. I’m fortunate in that I’ve got Asperger Syndrome, so like most uber-geeks in the 70s, I found myself hanging out with the BMEs at school and my best mate was a East African Asian. If you want to understand why people are racist, you have to step beyond personal blame, and see racism as part of a historical process. Modern racism is largely a direct result of colonialism, as contemporary Islamophobia is a consequence of US Imperialism, but has its roots in changes to society that took place in Europe in the Middle Ages. On the latter point, see especially R. I. Moore’s brilliant and very readable, “The Formation of a Persecuting Society”.
Here’s by own personal racism studies bibliography:
http://www.steampunkshariah.info/racismbiblio.htm
Europe is fucked up, long-term. To defeat racism, we need to radically unfuck it.
November 19th, 2010 - 10:09
Also white Briton, although I don’t know if I count, technically, being approximately three-quarters Roma. That’s the funny thing with being white, though: we are assumed to ‘fit in’ with the ‘white British’ crowd even if our ethnic background is quite different. Certainly, nobody has ever singled me out for abuse despite not being ‘indigenous British’. The dubious benefit of having pale pink skin.
My husband is something altogether different. He’s Sicilian, but looks a bit brown, so I do notice he gets funny looks, particularly on public transport. And yet his English grandfather anchors him closer to Britain than my own family! Funny old world.
November 19th, 2010 - 12:12
I spend a lot of my time worrying about pieces like the one in the DM and the bollocks turned out by the truly terrible, awful people at MigrationWatch and being utterly terrified that that’s how the majority of the world is, and how that majority think. You lot on here (whilst I realise this is a left-leaning blog, it’s still valid) bring a fucking tear to my eye. I may still be feeling the affects of some excellent e, but frankly you’ve all restored some of my faith in humanity.
P.S. “panic porn” is a superb phrase.
November 19th, 2010 - 13:18
It is indeed a funny old world, MM. I remember reading how the singer with Soul to Soul (Jazzie B is it?) went ‘home’ (as he considered it) to Jamaica, only to be talked about as ‘that Englishman’.
Has anyone ever done a study into just how many children non-white Britons will have to have in order for there to be a non-white majority in the UK as a whole (as opposed to parts of the UK)? I can’t believe it’s actually possible without large numbers of non-whites settling here (something which this government isn’t going to allow) and large numbers of white Britons leaving (tempting perhaps given the coalition cuts, but where would we go – and anyway didn’t our NHS come top of the world league recently?).
November 22nd, 2010 - 11:17
That happened to me! – Me and my cousin from Delhi were talking about the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and he referred to British troops as “you guys.”
November 19th, 2010 - 13:43
The whole concept of “whiteness” is incredibly silly. In academic discussion, I’ve often been accused of being part of the “white imperialist culture.” But my father has much darker skin than what a lot of people consider white, and my grandmother was from Pontos, by the Black Sea. I grew up in a country that suffered hundreds of years of imperialist rule, and yet apparently I am a white imperialist. It’s the best of both worlds, really: to the racists I’m a filthy foreigner, to the postmodernists/postcolonialists/feminists/postlogicblatherists I’m a patriarchal dominant racist imperialist white male.
In other words: it’s all bullshit, and the only purpose of such identity politics (whether openly racist or not) is to distract us from the real problems we face. Even if it were true that we’ll all be brown by 2066 – which it isn’t – then so what? At least people will obsess less about tanning.
(Since I don’t live in Britain, I’d just like to point out that we’re having the exact same discourse in Germany. By 20XX, everyone’s going to a Dark Brown Islamic Turkish Foreigner-Gypsy, and Real Germans with their Christian Values will be extinct. Merkel recently announced that “multiculturalism has failed.”)
Bah. This whole discussion makes me want to vomit.
November 22nd, 2010 - 13:34
Shot by both sides, huh? I sympathise.
I was once told by someone that some of my ancestors ‘owned’ her ancestors. When taken up on it (I wasn’t sure that coal miners, farm labourers and factory workers could afford many slaves), she admitted she didn’t mean my ancestors literally but metaphorically, ‘people like your ancestors’. I also pointed out, that as a mixed-race person, it’s quite likely that some of her ancestors owned some of her other ancestors!
November 19th, 2010 - 14:34
Much of the fear is stoked up around a static mythical view of what “white Britishness” means. And frankly, it’s a pile of crap.
St George? Lebanese
Britannia? Latin
3 lions? Shivering in a zoo
The Royal Family? German, Russian & Greek (and indistinguishable from the rest of the European Royalty)
Placenames? Gaelic, French, German, Norse, Latin
Morris Dancing? Spanish
Tea? Indian/Chinese
Beer? Brewed everywhere and always has been
And you name me a few English words that don’t have roots across the sea…
This country (and England in particular) has been swept over by immigration time and time again over the centuries; it’s what has made us what we are – a culture that evolves and takes the useful stuff from all that new blood.
If you want to defend Britishness, then supporting immigration makes a lot more sense.
November 22nd, 2010 - 16:48
Beer, Sumerian, therefore Iraqi, actually.
November 19th, 2010 - 14:59
Where I live (Toronto) the proportion of visible minorities is expected to exceed 50% in 2012, so we are a little ahead of the UK. Of course, that’s one city, and Canada is yet there as a whole, although generally it is very multicultural.
The street where I live has a significant Portuguese population, the Caribbean community is strong a few blocks away, there are many Italian, Asian, and Filopino shops and restaurants nearby, even a Russian store. There are joint events between communities. Many couples walking down the street are from different backgrounds.
Here, “where are you from?” is a genuine expression of interest. We love the fact that in this one country, in addition to the First Nations, people from virtually every country on Earth are welcome to become part of Canada. We are interested in other people’s cultures, and like to share them in street festivals.
The problem is the perceived threat. There is no threat to UK culture. It has spread to many other countries worldwide, and is very strong here in Canada, as well as Australia, the US, New Zealand, and in other communities worldwide. How can that be under threat?? Have pride in the good bits of UK culture, and let others have pride in theirs. Find the best in other cultures, and show the best in yours. Multiculturalism does work – it just can’t work if you believe that your own culture is more important than other people’s.
November 19th, 2010 - 15:05
When I first arrived here from South Africa the forms only had White and a whole lot of ethnic options which always made me wonder. At the time London had about 200,000 South Africans living in it so I used to think how many other variations would there be.
However I agree whole-heartedly with this post, mainly it’s a load of rubbish, here’s my response to a Daily Express article a while ago – http://isemann.posterous.com/one-in-5-britons-will-be-ethnics-a-response
@isemann
November 19th, 2010 - 15:50
If there’s an “Other” box, tick it and add either “Mongrel” or “None of your fucking business” as desired.
ISTR an Arthur C. Clarke short story in which the human race had space travel millennia ago. A bunch of them went off to colonise the universe while those who stayed behind degenerated into the lovable well-balanced populace that brought you Paki-bashing and Richard Littlejohnson. Then a message is received from the travellers – they’re sending a mission back to earth. It ends with the words “And if any of you are still white, we can cure you”.
November 19th, 2010 - 16:14
I for one welcome our Chinese overlords as I absolutely bloody love Oriental women. They’re great!
November 19th, 2010 - 22:31
It strikes me that all these surveys just don’t make much sense in terms of what they measure, people do define themselves culturally and are very welcome to do so, but simply looking at skin colour makes no sense. Each year I have to fill in a census form of my scouts, like all these things it includes a section on race, white British, Afro Carribean, etc etc. And yet what does this achieve?
Purely annecdotally I have one lad who falls under “Black”. He was born in Zimbabwae but moved to Britain when he was 6 months old. He thinks of himself as British, speaks only English, he is as English as I am, and yet he falls into this almost seperate category. On the other side I have a girl who has an Irish Dad, Italian Mum and was born here. She is white and under all these surveys falls under “white British”. Yet she speaks fluent Italian, spends most of her school holidays in Italy, loves all things Italian and defines herself as Italian.
If, for what ever reason, you are trying to measure culturally diversity (and there are good reasons for doing so) what good is it doing putting someone that thinks of themselves as English in a category that suggests they are somehow something else and someone who does define themselves as non English as English?
November 22nd, 2010 - 13:46
Tackled this last week on my blog, though not as eloquently as you did.
http://p0pvulture.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-white-on-night.html
Would have pasted the text but it’s a bit long.