Sunday - May 29, 2011
On Being Black In The UK
No, I am not having fun at this fellow’s expense. Not at all. Theater professional and television personality Ben Douglas encountered a mouthy drunken racist at a rather posh soiree. But the Black Experience over there is quite different than the one over here, and sometimes the reactions set off by the same old garbage - mindless racism from the liberal elite - are quite different. Actually, I rather applaud his reaction, and his admission that such things happen perhaps once in a decade. In America it is almost a guarantee that there would have been violence of some type, and a vast explosion of anger. And with just cause. But this fellow is all “My goodness me. Whatever am I to make of this? In the main, I find it most vexing, and my latent reaction seems to have a violent tinge.” And that to me, is quite hysterical, because it’s ever so British. And that in itself is proof positive that the insults thrown his way are utterly unfounded. Chin up Mr. Douglas! Illegitimis non carborundum and all that.
Every now and again something happens that is so shocking, you walk away wondering if it was just a bad dream. These events are mercifully rare – they come along perhaps once or twice a decade, and are all the more remarkable for it. I experienced one of them last Sunday night, and I am only now coming to terms with the fact that it actually happened. It took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, where I had been invited to attend the Bafta awards.
This was the Baftas, a supposedly elegant soiree of educated, liberal individuals, not a BNP fundraiser at an inner-city boozer.
But here’s the rub: this fool thought he was bonding with me as a black man. By using the N-word (and for the record I would rather he had used the C-word – it’s that bad), he thought he was being fashionable. I believe they call it ‘street’.
Well here is the reality: I am not from the mean streets of Detroit, Harlem or LA. I am from Teddington in Surrey, and while my genetic roots are Bajan, the parents who raised me are as white as the buffoon who stood there insulting me. But this is irrelevant. It shouldn’t matter where I come from. Who in their right mind would launch into language like this with somebody he barely knows, within earshot of half a dozen perfect strangers? I am the least politically correct person you could care to meet.
...
What is it about fashionistas? First we had John Galliano’s drunken anti-Semitism, and now this. As far as I could tell, this man had no idea how much offence he had caused.But think of the context. The N-word originated as an insult, a throwback to the days of slavery, inherently placing one race above another.
In hindsight, I should probably have punched him on the nose. Since the event, I have gone over it in my mind a thousand times, dearly wishing I’d had a witty retort ready to puncture his obscene self-regard.
Posted by Drew458
on 05/29/2011 at 11:57 AM
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations • UK •
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