I think it’s true to say that many of the less than enjoyable things in life take on a different complexion when they touch your personal experience, death being the prime example. Cancer, plane crashes, someone pointing a gun at you, and lots of other nasties are hopefully the things that happen to other people, preferably a long way away.
Perhaps one of the most common examples of ‘issues’ and ‘statistics’ taking on a whole new meaning is when you get burgled, and I’m sure that this will strike a chord with many readers.
So when my wife, Rose, who comes from the Philippines, was racially abused by a drunken cretin in a Burnley pub on the evening after the Wolves game, it gives you a completely different perspective of this whole issue, largely because you have seen at first hand the expression of such bigotry from a real flesh and blood individual, rather than a baying mob on the telly or a ‘Pakis out’ slogan daubed on a wall. What’s more, this hatred is vented at another individual, even though the perpetrator can have no grievance whatsoever with that individual, giving graphic proof that the prejudice demonstrated is just that: it’s a blind, bigoted pre-judgement that anything or anyone that belongs to a target generic group is automatically ‘guilty’. You know the sort of thing: all Muslims are Al Qaeda terrorists; all women are bad drivers; all male hairdressers are homosexuals.
I shall not relate the specific details of this sordid and depressing incident, which was based on this person’s belief that any woman with oriental looks must be a Bangkok street prostitute. If any of you wonder why I didn’t kick several types of shit out of the miscreant, believe me, had there been an opportunity in the ensuing argy-bargy, I would have been sorely tempted. I also wanted this properly recorded, and being on an affray or assault charge would hardly be a good start. So I called the police (it took Lancashire’s Finest an hour and a half to turn up, rendering impossible any chance of apprehending the offender), but at least this is now recorded as a ‘racist’ incident, and the police have full descriptions of the two people involved. Big deal.
So where do we start to try and analyse the process which turns people in their twenties into bigots of which Hitler would be proud?
To begin with, I suppose you have to look at the ‘Burnley Factor’. (To anyone who says ‘that’s not fair, this was one incident in a pub, and could have happened anywhere’ I would say ‘bollocks’. OK, I’ve had the ‘nudge, nudge, he must have bought her from one of those agencies’ stuff, but that’s directed at me.) There is well-documented evidence that the BNP has managed to find a perfect mix of ingredients in this area: small town; strong ‘local’ identity mainly due to geography prior to modern transport (in the Deep South of the USA this would be a classic ‘redneck’ town); largely unskilled labour force; depressed economy. These factors all existed prior to the arrival of immigrants in the 50s and 60s, but in those days people had dignity, pride and self-reliance. Now, we live in an ‘instant gratification’ society, and if you can’t afford the things you see on TV, there must be someone to blame. The Pakis of course.
Those of us with a modicum of enlightenment will know that, if it wasn’t for ‘the Pakis’, this country’s manufacturing, service and healthcare industries would be in an even more parlous state, but it’s a disservice to suggest that this is some sort of ‘wetback’ economy. Those of you who have had regular need to call the Time Computers helpdesk (as I have) will know the ethnic origin of most of their call centre staff, who give technical advice to callers from all over the UK. Did they ‘nick a local lad’s job’, or did they just happen to be better educated and qualified than other applicants? And aren’t they local lads?
But if you’re an extremist who craves some sort of popular recognition, the easiest way to rouse the rabble is to find a common enemy. To see how powerful this can be in hypnotising a mass of disillusioned, aimless people into overlooking anyone else’s shortcomings, including the government’s and their own, and venting their hatred of their own pathetic lives at a convenient target, you have to look no further than the ashes of Belsen and Auschwitz.
And this, I believe, is the supreme irony. The problems in Burnley and elsewhere, which occasionally erupt into violence, are not ‘racist’ at all. They are the product of social deprivation, fuelled by a minority of manipulators who are overtly racist, but still inherently motivated by the same sense of ‘have not’ outrage, coupled with the educational inadequacy to express themselves in any other way than violence. I don’t even believe it’s colour prejudice: of course, it’s a human instinct to be wary of anything which looks or acts ‘different’, and this served one well in Neanderthal times when a stranger lurched over the hill carrying a club. But education and enlightenment have helped, over the centuries, to at least create a veneer of civilised tolerance. Sure, if someone attacks you or threatens your livelihood, you want to do something about it, but the ‘nicking our jobs’ mentality is not racist – it’s motivated by the same fear which gripped the Luddites. And those who develop a general hatred of anything or anyone ‘different’ because they see it as a threat, are dupes of those who are the real cause of the problem: the politicians, the industrialists, the planners. What the ‘Pakis out’ morons don’t see is that they and the ‘Pakis’ are on the same side against a common enemy: call it ‘the system’ or whatever, but it’s classic ‘divide and rule’ and they’re too thick to see it.
Some years ago a colleague of mine visited Dundee, and was canvassing local businesses to promote the new branch of our emergency glazing service which had just opened in the town. On walking into a ‘working man’s’ pub to hand out some stickers, a drunkard staggered to his feet, threw his jacket to the floor, and put up his fists. Not a word had been spoken, so my white friend had not even revealed his English accent. Puzzled rather than frightened, he beat a hasty retreat, and was followed outside by one of the locals. ‘You’ll have to excuse him’, the local said, ‘he just can’t stand anyone who wears a collar and tie’. This, I genuinely believe, is the ‘racism’ we see elsewhere: a feeling of frustration, inadequacy, rage and hatred for a life you’re not happy with, and the need to find someone to blame. In this bloke’s case it was presumably ‘management’ – all the people who’d sacked him over the years, maybe – or just ‘authority’ in general, or whatever.
Of course, such acts of desperation are fuelled by a rather strong lack of intelligence, or at least even a basic grounding in general knowledge. A few years ago, again in Burnley I’m afraid, I got into casual conversation with a bloke in a pub about sport. Prince Naseem had just won another fight, and I was commenting on what a good fighter he was etc., when this bloke said ‘Yeah, it’s a shame he’s a Paki’. I pointed out that, to the best of my knowledge, Naseem comes from Sheffield, and his family origins are actually in the Yemen Republic. My companion furrowed his brow at this, and then said ‘Yeah, but he’s still a Paki’. Undeterred by this, and spurred on I suppose by a Pygmalionesque (?) desire, I pointed out to this bloke (who was a Claret) the various black players who were, and had been, in the Burnley side. He just didn’t get my drift. ‘They’re Burnley players’ he said. If this is not a classic case of non-racism and non colour prejudice I don’t know what is. This man identified with black Clarets because they were Clarets, and didn’t identify with Prince Naseem because he looked enough like a ‘Paki’ for him to perceive him as ‘the enemy’ who have ‘nicked our jobs’. A fellow London Claret mentioned to me that he’d recently seen a young black lad wearing a Burnley shirt, and wasn’t this encouraging. I don’t think so. Arthur Gnohere, Ian Cox, David Johnson etc., are cool: they’re Burnley players, and they’re not ‘Pakis’. Same goes for Ian Wright. The social and economic deprivation which has caused this alienation and ‘racism’ does not extend to blacks, because there aren’t enough of them in Burnley to be able to blame. But if white Irish workers had ‘nicked all the jobs’ when they dug the canal 200 years ago or whenever, we’d all hate ‘Paddies’. Or Mancunians. Or whoever ‘nicked our jobs’. This is not racism. The true test of this theory will come, of course, if Burnley FC ever sign a ‘Paki’. What then, my friends? Remember when Mark Walters signed for Glasgow Rangers? Would Burnley folk stoop this low?
So where does this take us? Why did that no-brain abuse my wife? She’s not a ‘Paki’ after all, so that’s your theory blown, Newton. Not really. This poor soul feels so alienated from his own life that he’s still in the Luddite ‘fear anyone or anything different’ phase, and maybe the older mate with him was his BNP mentor he was trying to impress. He just hasn’t found the ‘true enemy’ yet. It may end up being people who wear shirts and ties. It doesn’t really matter in a town fuelled by beer and hatred – any prejudice will do if you want to get in with the locals.
There is, however, no ‘Burnley Factor’. This xenophobia, racism, call it what you will, is the product of fear and ignorance, not race or colour hatred, and it’s as old as the hills. What disappoints me most is that the once-proud folk of towns like Burnley, once famous for their ‘open door’ Northern hospitality, are as spineless as the Germans of the 1930s in that they’ve been duped by a violent few into believing that the cause of their ills is ‘the Pakis’, when smug politicians lie comfortably in their beds, knowing that, as in 1914-18, the working classes would slaughter each other under orders from their masters, in the misguided belief that there was some sort of noble cause behind it. And now, even the alleged party of the people has, against all its election promises, started to increase taxes. In towns like Burnley, this is meat and drink to the social inadequates who belong to Nazi organisations like the BNP, and their share of the vote will inevitably increase yet again at the next election.
In case anyone still thinks this is in any way ‘anti-Burnley’, let me end with another little tale. I decided after the Wolves game that I wouldn’t stay overnight in Burnley again, whether Rose was with me or not, because the incident upset us both and did a lot of damage to my ‘proud Lancashire roots’ feelings. Quick look at Tourist Info. Where better than the quaint little Pennine town of Hebden Bridge? Wonderful scenery, genteel middle aged folk on rambling holidays, real ale, old coaching inns. I used to go camping there with the Cubs when I lived in Accrington. Ah – England, my England!
On a pre-pub stroll in the town after the Gillingham game, I was waiting at a pelican crossing, when a family started to cross the road against the red light, causing a local taxi to brake sharply. This just looked like a 30-something, 2.4 kids family. The mother stopped abruptly in the middle of the road and said ‘Oh look, we shouldn’t have crossed’. Father took one look at the taxi driver and, in the full hearing of his children, as God is my witness, announced ‘It’s OK, it’s only an Asian’. You see, you get a much better class of racist in Hebden Bridge. ‘Pakis’ indeed.
