Which New Normal Do You Want?

After lockdown we really are going to have to face an issue which has been boiling over for years but is never fully addressed for fear of charges of racism. As America burns and sympathy protests are sparked in London, as France is suffering another wave of race-motivated violence from ‘the new Parisiennes’ we can’t just keep on tolerating it. However much you cling on to the hippy-era notion of the melting pot, or the more recent and more plausible salad bowl analogy, race will always spark anger and violence.

I can’t see how it can be any other way. After years of pursuing, with laudable intent I hasten to add, an equalities agenda and trying to become colour-blind (as we almost were before recent mass immigration stirred the pot) we are in worse shape than ever before. When non-whites really were a disadvantaged minority I think we were far more indifferent to cultural differences. But after decades of pushing a moral equivalence agenda the chasm is as wide as ever.

White natives do not see the supposed privilege they possess, especially when they have been elbowed out of the areas where they grew up, especially when they see apparently preferential treatment given to new arrivals while native Brits are sent to the back of the queue. They are hurt when the festivals and celebrations of alien cultures are widely applauded and encouraged by not just air-headed celebrities but by their supposed representatives in Parliament. They are offended when flying their own national flag is seen as just one step away from committing a hate crime.

Being described as white scum by Piers Morgan is not a healthy contribution to the debate, either. Then early this morning, Tommy Corbyn, scion of Magic Grandpa and failed drug baron tweeted “It's a fucking disgrace that this government is choosing not to release the report on Corona and BAME deaths because of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.” punctuating his message with clenched-fist power salutes of various hues. How would it help soothe his rage if the report concludes that those ethnicities are more susceptible to Covid-19 because of their genetic makeup, or – as is more likely – cultural practices?

Why is black culture described as ‘vibrant’ and monocultural islamic communities described with the oxymoronic ‘diverse’? Black lives matter more than white lives when their gatherings are generally monitored by police but white gatherings – unless for one of the new-age totems such as climate change – are more often than not derided as ‘far right’ or ‘white supremacist’. But now we are seeing an unholy alliance between the worst elements of all the clans, black and white as protests quickly become disorderly.

For weeks commentators have been flogging to death the phrase ‘the new normal’ referring to social distancing and the viral threat. But maybe what we are seeing on the streets, as it seems to happen more frequently and on ever flimsier pretexts, is a more accurate model? In which case what are we going to do about it? Are we going to be allowed to discuss this openly and honestly and with whatever language we believe describes our sentiments, however offended some will be? Because if we don’t this new normal is looking pretty uninviting.

If we don’t discuss it openly, if we don’t properly and evenly police our rules, the whole of the UK will do what the muslims here have already done. Welcome to segregation, the Britain of the future. Black towns, brown towns, white towns, and freak towns. While extremists of all skin colours might welcome that development it is not something that the civilised – of all skin colours – should allow to happen. But we can’t even have the debate if the language is restricted, as it is at the moment.

Until we can joke we haven't fixed this

People glibly say, in company they can trust, ‘Enoch was right’ but unless we grab this shitty stick decisively he will have been, because more and more people believe they are living through the end of white western civilisation. If we are all equal then let’s practise that maxim. If we are not then let us launch that investigation and work out how to deal with it. Until we can celebrate diversity without that being an implicitly anti-white endeavour we are lost.

Whitewash!

One of the funniest things I’ve enjoyed chuckling at in recent years is the ‘insert perceived profession’ of colour jollity pouring forth from the poor, unappreciated ranks of the dusky also-rans. From vigorously demanding reparation – ‘white men’s tax dollars’ – for slavery which they insist colours (pun intended) their life experiences to this day, to being unhappy that there were no black Oscars, they are certainly intent on squeezing the maximum juice from the bitter, bitter lemons of their birth-right.

Because, despite the ludicrous ham-stringing of public employers and now private companies by the imposition of quotas and positive discrimination (or ‘affirmative action’ in the USA) we have barely moved on from the ‘token black’ to the risible attempts of today to make our decision-making bodies look like the Dulux colour charts of the 1980s – every shade of white except for actual white. We even had to lie about the efficacy of diversity – diversity itself now being just a way of saying “Look how many blacks I keep... I mean employ!”

And through it all we take care not to offend. How do I call thee? Let me count the ways: We refer to ‘street’ and ‘urban’ as ways of avoiding the issue, as we are still not sure about using the ‘B’ word and we are confused as to why the more accurately descriptive ‘coloured’ is unacceptable; even the lefty luvvie Dominatrix Cumberbitch got into hot water over that one. To try and persuade you from aversion we refer to post codes as being ‘vibrant’, or if it’s a really rough area, ‘challenging’. It’s a jungle out there...

So the latest ‘Persons of Hue’ outrage is over yet another area in which their talents have gone unrewarded because action has not been affirmative enough. Enter @WritersofColour and the mean-spirited lash-out at whitey in what they call their ‘Turbo Trash’ Award. Turbo is a clear euphemism for ‘white’ here as they invite their ‘diverse’ audience to vote for the writer who has caused them the greatest butt-hurt in post-tragedy reporting. That Maajid Nawaz makes the list alongside Katie Hopkins and Rod Liddle is merely their way of saying that in their opinion Maajid may as well be white - only white people are capable of discriminating by colour.

Bloody white bombers!

Because, of course, it’s all about the colour, isn’t it? The solid belief that when people state their fear of being blown up while going about their daily business it is simply due to racism. That racism informs the backlash against the free importation, without question, of millions of people from a religious ideology which has world subjugation at its heart. To defend yourself from attack – perceived or otherwise – is a hate crime against the attackers because of the colour of their skin. No, darlings, it’s not their skin colour that we have a problem with – it’s all the other stuff.

Look around you. A nice, friendly shopkeeper was just murdered by a supposed ‘fellow’ muslim for being a nice, friendly shopkeeper. Young girls are forced into marriage with old men and ‘legally’ raped. White girls are targeted and trafficked as fuck-toys for ‘persons of colour’ who just happen, exclusively, to be muslims. Gay men are murdered by gravity. Their pigmentation is the very least of our concerns.

Did it ever occur to you that white liberal society bends over so far backwards to ingratiate itself with blacks ... coloured people ... persons of colour that the only reason they don’t win more stuff is that they write or act out their grievances purely for an audience of colour. Maybe – and here’s a thought – they could just write or act better? Or write about non-black concerns? Take a leaf from black track athletes and actually out-compete your white rivals on a - literally - level playing field. (But whatever you do, Whitey, don’t you dare to refer to the natural advantages black athletes bring to many sports!)

Why am I not on the list?

I, for one, am not going to get my knickers in a twist about it all. To me the existence of all these exclusive little black clubs is like the wannabes on Britain’s (not) Got Talent all got together and started their own television channel, where the mediocre can hold ceremonies to award prizes for mundanity to the most talented of the not quite talented enough. Now, if you don’t mind I’m off to enjoy my Easter Egg – white chocolate, of course.