The identitarian Left’s obsession with promoting grievance and victimhood overshadows the patriotism and positive feelings ethnic minorities have towards Britain, argues Rakib Ehsan in Spiked. While challenges persist, many ethnic minorities appreciate the opportunities and shared values of living in the U.K. It is time to foster unity and celebrate our multicultural democracy, says Ehsan.
In the U.K., the worldview of the woke Left now holds sway in the spheres of politics, education, media and entertainment. Countless politicians, academics and pundits are gripped by a warped, pessimistic view about the state of race relations. On a near daily basis, they promote caricatured portrayals of the supposedly miserable lives of ethnic minorities living in Britain today.
Deploying largely American concepts such as ‘white privilege’ and ‘white supremacy’, identitarian Leftists present Britain as a racist dystopia. They claim that our economic and social systems are deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities – that British institutions are ‘institutionally racist’. And they have embraced the American Black Lives Matter movement – even though BLM has very little to tell us about British society and history, and its aims are rejected by most Brits. Labour leader Keir Starmer may be haunted for some time by that image of him, alongside deputy leader Angela Rayner, ‘taking the knee’ during the BLM protests of 2020.
The Britain these activists envisage is a thoroughly hateful place. In the words of one U.K.-based academic, “Systemic racism permeates British [society].” In this regard, Labour’s response to Tony Sewell’s 2021 Government-commissioned report into race and ethnic disparities was all too telling. Sewell, while recognising that racism still exists in Britain, highlighted the relative success of ethnic minorities educationally and professionally. Labour politicians were outraged. They accused Sewell of ‘denying’ institutional racism. In other words, his vision of Britain was simply not miserable enough.
The identitarian Left’s nightmarish image of Britain is utterly divorced from reality. It also flies in the face of ethnic minorities’ own view of the U.K., wilfully misrepresenting their experiences. Many groups are very content with life in Britain and are optimistic about the future. Yes, they believe that more needs to be done to strengthen equality of opportunity. They no doubt still experience challenges. But ethnic minorities generally view Britain as a place in which people have a chance to thrive.
The identitarian Left’s vision of Britain denies this reality. It promotes pessimism instead of optimism, division instead of cohesion and grievance instead of opportunity.
By constantly bashing Britain, the identitarian Left overlooks something very important. Namely, that many in Britain’s ethnic-minority communities love this country. Many have strong patriotic feelings. Indeed, study after study has shown that ethnic minorities tend to have a stronger sense of their British identity than the white-British mainstream.
This comes as no surprise to me. One of the greatest patriots I know is my mother. Born and raised in Bangladesh and resident in the U.K. since her early twenties, she views herself principally as a British citizen. She is deeply involved in the life and community of our hometown, Luton. Through her dedication and expertise, she has helped to establish grassroots community organisations. Many are now thriving civic associations which provide social assistance as well as sources of cultural belonging.
Of course, ethnic minorities’ strong affection for Britain as a nation doesn’t mean that there aren’t any problems. Everyone knows there is still some prejudice and discrimination. Work needs to be done, for example, to overcome discrimination in the privately rented housing sector. And our healthcare system needs to become more efficient and responsive to the needs of an increasingly diverse population.
But the identitarian Left doesn’t simply challenge actual discrimination, it treats individual instances of prejudice as emblematic of a racist society. It peddles a doom-mongering narrative about life in Britain.
This constant attempt to denigrate Britain comes at a cost. It risks undermining the patriotic feelings towards Britain held by supposedly ‘oppressed’ and ‘marginalised’ groups. Most black Brits attach great importance to their British national identity and three in four British Muslims believe that Britain is a good place to live. But, if the Left continues to promote division and grievance, for how much longer will this be the case?
Worth reading in full.
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Mahyer Tousi is a perfect example, a proud British man who’s family arrived here legally from Iran and obviously thinks the world of Britain! Good on him
“By constantly bashing Britain, the identitarian Left overlooks something very important. Namely, that many in Britain’s ethnic-minority communities love this country.”
Many is one of those weasel words that can mean anything you like – 10% or 90%.
And what is it that they love about Britain? Do they love living in a multi-cultural society? Do they love living in a country with all of Britain’s culture and follow that cutlure and rules? Or do they love living in a country with a Western benefits system and freedom of culture and expression while forming an island of fellow migrants where they can live, follow and enforce the culture of their own origin country?
“Of course, ethnic minorities’ strong affection for Britain as a nation doesn’t mean that there aren’t any problems.”
Talk about understatement. I suggest you read the Brimingham Mail for a week to enlighten yourself, not all the problems are for the migrant.
Islamists are only loyal to the concept of global caliphate, not their country of residence
Probably some or all of this is true but surely the sensible course of action would have been to proceed very slowly with immigration. Countries and civilisations are delicate mechanisms arrived at by luck, hard work and terrible pain. Unless you subscribe to magic dirt theory, civilisations are what they are because of their people. Yes everyone is an individual but in sum cultures and races differ and caution is advised. Immigration should certainly now be halted almost completely all over Europe.
Ah hello we have some lazy cowardly downvoters who don’t understand how things are done on DS which is the home of intelligent debate
This article is hopium. 80% of BAME voted against Brexit. I work with a lot of Hindhus in IT not a single one support Brexit. I marched and did not see much of what this article describes on our marches.
The Great replacement is reality. Muslims, BAME, Hindhus don’t care about this country. Simple as that.
I think it’s partly hopium, yes. Undoubtedly there are immigrants who love this country as intensely as any native – for a start I am the child of one such person and married to another. But perhaps they are the exception. A lot of native born people seem to despise this country too.
What difference does it make if they love Britain? There were plenty of Brits who absolutely loved India and their lives there, did it make Indians happier? Did they respect the Indian culture and way of life and integrate?
Probably not.
Well it’s certainly preferable to them hating it or feeling indifferent to it
I’m not sure the comparison with Brits in India is like for like- they were colonial rulers
Most legal migrants came here in large part because of the liberty, tolerance and prosperity the UK could offer them, and continue to appreciate that. It is no accident that they and their families are now figuring much more prominently in debates about the nature of British society. Native brits have been taught to despise our country and what it stands for.
“Native brits have been taught to despise our country and what it stands for.”
Maybe – but the working classes never signed up for that nonsense.
Everything the Left says about ethnic minorities is summed up Corbyn’s beyond patronising statement
““Only Labour can be trusted to unlock the talent of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people” “
i.e – they can’t do it on their own.
My father came to the UK from India in 1937. Like many others, once he had decided to settle here he became more British than many British. He impressed upon me that integration not segregation was the key to societal success and stability, so I do not speak Gujerati, write Sanskrit or even follow his religion.
As for racism or religious intolerance let’s look at Muslim vs Jew (Middle East), Shia vs Sunni Muslim, Buddhist vs Muslim (Myanmar), Hindu vs Muslim (India), tribal warfare in Africa (widespread and largely suppressed in colonial times)… need I go on?
The apoplectic reaction of Labour to Tony Sewell’s report was a sight to behold. They fully expected a mostly non-white team to skewer The Evil Tories And The Evil Whities whereas the report actually told an honest story of the lives people actually live.
There is no endemic or institutional racism anywhere. There are a few cases of individual racism, the majority of which are actually white lefties on someone elses behalf or the “Its cos I is black” brigade. The most racist people are actually white lefties who hate white people unless they are a leftie nutter. The basic fact is nobody else, no matter what race, gives a flying toss, they just get on with their lives.
The Left would do better concentrating on those they are supposed to stand for but actually hate: the Tony Sewell’s of this world i.e. most of us.
Excellent article!
The left are strangely silent on the fact that ethnic minorities suffer if they are poor and without stable supporting families and communities. Strangely this is exactly the same for white people living in similar circumstances!
Focusing on race and colour merely shifts the focus away from the very real problems caused by social disadvantage and lack of opportunity and social mobility.
Could it possibly be that tackling the class barrier is far too much of a threat to the privilege of the rich woke warriors pushing a left wing agenda based on racial division alone?
It occurs to me we need to re-define the terms racism and racist. Racism, when you really think about it in the context of our society today is “seeing colour”. So a racist is the person who sees the colour of a person first rather than the person. Racism becomes seeing a person as different due to their colour. To quantify what I mean: colour, for most of us, is as defining as a bald head, a scar, glasses, pink hair. A racist, in the new definition, sees the colour as an issue.
The racists are thereby clearly defined: the Left are no longer fighting for the rights of non-white people, they are perpetuating racism. They see the colour. They do not see the person.
Contrast that with the majority of us who, like Tony Sewell, live in the real world. We describe people in various ways “That guy with the Brummie accent”, “that geezer with long hair”, “No, not that Tony, black Tony”, “The blonde woman, glasses, fancy shoes”. For us colour is no more a factor than myself being bald with a white beard.
We have a pretty decent society overall. There are issues because some people come here and have no interest in being part of any society but their own. That has always been the case, some parts of Bradford and Birmingham have long been enclaves. That is okay.
We need a proper grown up conversation in this country and it should have happened when Tony Sewell released his excellent report. The problem is, the real racists, the Labour party, have a vested interest in promoting racism.