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.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.