Ex-Free Speech Union Director Inaya Folarin Iman has written a great piece for the Sunday Telegraph pointing out that the Jubilee celebrations give the lie to the claim that Britain is a deeply racist society in which non-white citizens are condemned to second class status. Here’s how it begins:
It has become fashionable, particularly amongst the cultural elite, to describe today’s Britain as a racist society. Indeed, only this week, comedian Stephen Fry claimed Britain was deluding itself about being a tolerant nation and that we shouldn’t think we’re better than America when it comes to racial prejudice.
But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Few things better exemplify this than the exuberant, multicultural melting pot embodied by the Jubilee celebrations. Far from being riddled with racism, the Platinum Jubilee has demonstrated that Britain is a country where race is no longer a central feature of British national identity, and civic pride and participation are what truly count.
It is not true that Britain is an exclusive project, in which some racial groups are inherently squeezed out. Glance briefly through the gathering crowds at the celebrations and you will find British people from all colours, cultures, and creeds, sharing in these joyous events, often adding their own cultural embellishments to it, too.
And not just British people, people flock from all over the world to partake in the unique and rich traditions that Britain offers. This is what fosters a sense of belonging and home, that which reminds us of the importance of our British citizenship, a status that transcends racial, cultural and gender divides.
The elite says that, despite the progress we’ve been on, racism is embedded into society. This claim fosters a sense of alienation and resentment and prevents us from being able to appreciate how good we genuinely have it and how much we support one another through the challenging times.
But it is difficult to cultivate this sense of gratitude and perspective with the level of historical denigration that has become all too familiar nowadays. Increasingly, a one-sided view of the past is promoted, one that sees British history as fundamentally racist, colonial, and sexist, and that the only adequate response to this is to untether us from the past by creating a Year Zero.
But this can never truly be done, as our past is who we are, and so, attempts to do so only end up depriving us of our cultural inheritance and disorienting us in the world.
Worth reading in full.
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Whether they are neo-nazis or not, they seem to be very keen on nazi symbology.
“But why skulls though? Why skulls?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK-kWRAVmRU
To paraphrase various statesmen:
“They are Nazis, but they are our Nazis.”
Is the Azov regiment part of Ukraine’s official military, or a separate neo-mercenary organisation? If the latter, is it considered at an international level that Ukraine is responsible for the activities of the Azov battalion?
“…the far-right leadership has left…”
I see what you did there, Noah!
I suppose it was a little more than four years, but the Taliban went from anti-Soviet freedom fighters to the worst people on the planet pretty quickly.
The USSR went from ally in 1945, to enemy by 1948. That was 3 years.
We’re not just discovering now that alliances are determined by interests and that ideology is just for getting the plebs to play along, are we?
You forgot to mention that the USSR were precisely allies of Germany from 1939 to 1941.
And that the useful idiot supporters of communism did their very best to undermine the UK, Australia etc by struggling against this “Imperialist War”.
Not sure what the opinion of the French ‘playboy’ philosopher Levy is meant to prove….as he is a well known apologist for American Imerialism, and a pro-Ukrainian Russophobe…! You might have got a different quote from someone living in the Donbass? And it would possibly have been more relevant….
Of course whether the Azov Battalion are neo-gnatzis or a far-right militia….(and pre the Great Whitewash of 2022 there were plenty of people implying that they were both)…..they should not be feted by the US Government….
I think that in the not too distant future many of the people who have taken part will be ashamed of these incidents and will look back on it, quite rightly, with disgust.
The pretence of legitimising things, which aren’t vaguely legitimate, always fails in the end…it takes too much dissembling…people see through it eventually…and all that lying just makes you make stupid decisions….
In 2019, Facebook released its “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” policy which prevents “organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on Facebook.”
Under the policy, praising the Azov Movement was banned, classifying Azov alongside others such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Islamic State.
Last week, Facebook reviewed its policy in relation to Russia’s war on Ukraine and changed it.
“For the time being, we are making a narrow exception for praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine National Guard,” a spokesperson from Facebook’s parent company, Meta.
If only they had been around in 1940, Hitler would have been well served…
I look forward to the day they do the same for the other ‘terrorist organisations’ on the list……
Propaganda is clearly alive and well…….
No French person, and notably not Levy, is ann apologist for anything American.
A meeting is not being feted.
Why would anyone rely on the judgements of Facebook to determine who is “Dangerous”?
Outsourcing any decision to Nick Clegg and the children at Facebook seems a pretty silly thing to do or to cite as a reference as you, yourself seem to recognise to some degree.
I will beg to differ…..if the West posits a position, Levy backs it…he is constantly called an apologist for the Israeli state by his detractors, of which there are many…..
I said feted and I meant it….they brought them over to praise and parade them like trophies…it’s repugnant to any right thinking person.
Similarly the fact that the West/NATO are paying mercenaries from Isis and al qaeda to fight in Ukraine……it’s all utterly repellent….but as I say, when you dissemble to twist lies into truth, that’s where you end up…..
Unfortunately hypocrisy is now the method and not the exception…
Of course, you don’t need to go to Ukraine to ponder whether one group or another are “far right”.
What about our very own “Antifa”. The “anti-fascists” who act precisely like fascists?
“Whatever the truth about Azov’s ideology, it’s certainly unusual to go from ‘banned from receiving U.S. arms’ to ‘welcomed into the halls of Congress’ in only four years.”
No, actually, its not unusual and if Mr. Carl thought about this for a moment, he might come to understand this. There is a difference between being “welcomed” and having a meeting. They went and said their piece, why doesn’t Carl actually give any reactions from the politicians that they met with?
None of the politicians they met with are in the Administration or the military. Did they meet with Government officials as well and if they did, what was the response?
The underlying implication of this rather juvenille article is that politicians and officials only meet with friends or those they are aligned with. Leaving aside that this is untrue, why would anyone want decision makers to only meet with people they agreed with? Isn’t that precisely how we got into the lockdown and net zero messes, by people shutting out dissenting viewpoints?
‘Whatever the truth’…try reading anything prior to this year..when people weren’t lying and trying to change and obliterate their history….a bit like you are trying to do now….
Apparently they met with over fifty different members of Congress…although for the life of me I can’t imagine why anyone would invite them…what would be the point? They aren’t part of the Ukrainian Government…unless the stories are true and they actually do dictate policy to Elenskyy…if so this meeting would seem to corroborate that wouldn’t it?
If you truly believe people should meet those they don’t agree with, then they should meet with Putin instead and talk about de-escalation and finding some common ground towards a resolution….