Dream with me

The Acceptable face of Racism

The night before last I had a conversation with my parents about the terrorism raid fiasco in Forest Gate. My parents seemed to think that the Muslim community had brought the raid down on themselves simply by being Muslim.

They spouted the trite clich�s about their communities not wanting to integrate. Not wanting to be a part of our country. They said that the immigrants wanted all the perks but none of the responsibility and to form an 'Islamic state within Britain'.

I must admit I was shocked and appalled by what I heard. These are my Lib Dem voting parents for heavens sake, hardly BNP voting wingnuts.

Now I think there is no denying that there are certain minority elements within our country that would like the Islamic state. Just as there are those who would like to see a Christian theocracy. But I think it is crass and dangerous to generalise an entire community and accuse all involved of being extremists.

I know that these are received opinions on my parents part. Dangerous and infectious thoughts spewed out from right-wing rags like the Daily Mail (I wouldn't trust the Mail to tell me what day it was, let alone anything of importance).

But it is something more insidious than that. Here. In Britain. This has become the acceptable face of Racism.

There is an inherent belief that immigrants come here for a better life from some back water hell hole. Like they have never seen a car before and they 'ohh' and 'ahh' every time someone turns on a light. There is this belief that we are superior because we lucked out in geography and that immigrants should be down on their knees thanking us for letting them in to taste the high life.

Then we build up resentment because they don't. Because they just get jobs and build families and get on with the job of living. They don't fawn and tell us how lucky they are to be here and in some weird way we resent that.

They insist on speaking their native language. Like there aren't whole areas of countries like Spain that are full of English people who don't speak a word of Spanish. Who refuse to integrate with Spanish society.

The British are, at their very core, a snobbish and elitist people. We still believe that Britain is the best country in the world, that we have got it right and everyone else is playing catch-up. We fail utterly to get our heads around the possibility that other nationalities may feel that way about their own countries of origin.

It is Racism, pure and simple. Immigrants from white Christian countries don't get alienated to such an extent and have the police breathing down their necks 24/7.

We don't say the words. We don't call them 'darkies' or 'rag heads'. We scoff at those that do and call them scum and vermin. But somewhere, in the back of our collective mind there is this little voice of admiration, cheering on the scum and vermin for saying what we dare not.

We like to think we are different. Morally superior. Politically correct. In the dark and dangerous parts of our minds we lord it over others to make ourselves feel better.

These are thoughts which are rarely given voice and so are left to fester. Complaints about 'refusing to integrate' and 'wanting to destroy our way of life' become acceptable. Ill will builds up and the boiling point can't be far off.

It came as a shock to me, to hear these thoughts vocalised by my parents. Moderate liberals by anyone�s standards, although like many becoming more conservative as they get older. They've gone from reading the Independent and the Guardian to the Mail and the Telegraph.

I do wonder how it is I became a progressive liberal, although before I found the DailyKos I didn't have a name for it. But more than that I wonder how it is my parents, intelligent people, became suckered in by all of this.

I've spent three years of my degree examining how the media can alter and impact our way of thinking. In short, how it is Propaganda works so well. My dissertation focused on the work of Propaganda by the Bush Administration. Yet still I didn't see it happening. It snuck up on me while I wasn't looking.

I'm young, just about to take my first steps into the 'real world' but I am learning. I will be wary of it and try to keep that nagging, inherited voice from colouring me.

I am a progressive liberal. I believe in equality for all in word and deed. I believe in my duty to help the least among us and in the accountability of the elite. I believe in the separation of church and state and a woman�s right to choose but more importantly I believe in the future and in the equality of nations.

I will fight for what I believe. Not with guns or tanks, but with words and actions. I will fight simply by refusing to be scared off or vilified.

I am proud to be progressive and I live content in the certain knowledge that �History will Judge� and it will rule in our favour.