As noted on the Open Thread, the identity politics-obsessed BBC intends to broadcast a two-part TV series - a "social experiment" - called Whiteness.
It will be presented by a divisive identity politics-obsessed left-wing commentator, Afua Hirsch.
It will be presented by a divisive identity politics-obsessed left-wing commentator, Afua Hirsch.
BBC Two is presently promoting an advert / invitation for it:
As Anonymous observed, "It's like one of those adverts for people to take part in experimental research into some condition or disease."
It would probably be for the best if no one whatsoever answered it.
A perfect example of how identity politics deliberately creates division. Rather than seeking to end racism it perpetuates it.
ReplyDeleteI'm hearing Dame Edna Everage updating her old song to "It's My Whiteness".
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUUL2K3krSc
Joking aside, this is horrific, divisive, retrograde stuff. They shouldn't be promoting Hirsch who clearly has personal issues - of no interest to the rest of us - which lead her to promote divisiveness in our society.
"Do you identify as being white?" Good grief. Did it not occur to anyone at the BBC how utterly ludicrous this question is? Why not just, "are you white?"? Is this so as not to offend the few strange white people who don't "identify" as white, or the few strange black people who "identify" as white?
ReplyDeleteWhat's next? "Do you identify as being in your 40s?", for example? This whole "identify" thing has got totally bonkers.
I do think we should have a choice about whether the apply the 'white' label to ourselves - language should always be up for debate, and no-one is literally white, so we should be free to reject that term. Good reasons for doing this are the increase in 'anti-white' rhethoric we've seen recently and the creation of the false dichotomy 'white/person of colour'. Personally, although I would use the word 'white' in conversation (if necessary; if we have to talk about race), I prefer the terms 'European', 'North European', or 'European ancestry'.
DeleteFrom the comments under the Spiked article :
ReplyDeleteWarren Alexander
20th February 2020 at 9:10 pm
The terrible tragedy of all this is that I remember when the goal of anti-racists, anti-fascists, anti-nazis was that we could all simply identify as British. We very nearly achieved it until the establishment of a hierarchy of victimhood and definition of identity by religious, racial and national origin forged the atmosphere of hate and distrust that we have today.
I think Warren is being a bit naive there.
DeleteI doubt it was ever the goal of anti-racists, anti-fascists, anti-nazis simply to coalesce around an idea of Britishness. The left Marxists are only interested in creating a world socialist order and that goes back a long way, back to the 19th century. For them "Britishness" invokes privilege and imperialism. They are more concerned to destroy Britishness and will use all means necessary including devolution, separatism, anti-colonialism, Black Power, anti-racism, anti-fascism, Islam and so on to achieve the ultimate aim.
Warren's comment reflects more popular sentiment I think.
But that sentiment itself is misguided. You can't expect to import millions of people (with, already, different home languages, different customs, and different religions) whose forebears suffered under slavery, indentured labour, racial discrimination, colonialism and imperalism (all of them under the aegis of Britain) and expect them to sign up to "being British" in an uncomplicated way.
You're far more likely to get grievance, suspicion, separation and antagonism.
While our official ideology precludes the possibility, that is much closer to the reality we live with I would suggest.
To try and turn this around will be a huge undertaking. We need a new public ideology that takes on the grievane mongers, the race baiters and the hate preachers: it would be an ideology based on individualism, free speech, self-improvement, optimism, looking to the future, and well defined common core cultural values (on which there is absolutely no compromise, whatever the identity group that goes against them).
A bit of a 20/20 hindsight reading of Warren's post, I feel.
DeleteIn the early 80's, my thought process was close to Warren's. The National Front was populated by morons. It's only in the last 20 years that the narrative of the left has revealed a far more destructive and pernicious side. And it's only in the last 20 years that discussions about ethno-nationalism have re-surfaced outside purely racist circles.
Being anti-racist isn't what it used to be, and neither is what would broadly be described now as racism.