It\u2019s a sensible assumption that many who read this have shared the experience of occasionally being obliged to hang out with mid-level wankers, whether here in Manchester, or nearer to home, wherever that may be. Some of you will also be (like me) of mixed-race descent but without any blatant marker of that fact.<\/p>\n
The two in combination can sometimes land you in somewhat awkward situations; situations which might be avoided by those with more prominently non-white features. The most that can be said for such events is that they provide a little unwelcome insight into the racist mind (and not a very valuable one, as Mein Kampf<\/em> is readily available on the internet), and that they occasionally, if you\u2019re lucky, give you the opportunity to change someone\u2019s nasty views.<\/p>\n I was in the home of a friend of mine. Also present was the father of my friend\u2019s niece, we\u2019ll call him Mr. Bloggs. The (Indian) Commonwealth Games were on TV.<\/p>\n Mr Bloggs: “F**king P**is, I just don’t like them”.<\/p>\n Silence.<\/p>\n My friend: “Err, Paul’s, like, half Indian”.<\/p>\n This is not technically true. But for the purposes of somebody suggesting that I, or half of my family, or a good proportion of the world\u2019s population, are inferior to someone who gives the impression of a fuckwitted chimpanzee on the basis of race, I’ll let it slide \u2013 for the record, in my farraginous mix of genetic material, probably something like a quarter originates from the Indian subcontinent. Also, Pakistanis are not Indian, but I somehow doubt this guy knows or cares.<\/p>\n More silence. Mr Bloggs: “Well. What can you say?”<\/p>\n Indeed. At least he had the decency to look slightly embarrassed.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t got the time or energy for engaging every racist I encounter in earnest argument using things like facts and philosophy, mostly for the reason that those things\u00a0don\u2019t work\u00a0once somebody reaches the age of twelve and still holds racist views. Don\u2019t believe me? Find a racist and try to initiate a rational debate. Very rarely is it possible to get anywhere but back where you started. (Although the effort, though often doomed, is valuable, and I don\u2019t wish to devalue anyone\u2019s efforts in that direction.)<\/p>\n This, instead, is how I decided to respond:<\/p>\n “That’s all right –\u00a0F**king P**is; coming over here and fucking our mums”.<\/p>\n I think the irony was lost on him, but everybody else was laughing.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing: although I\u2019d rather not be, I’m used to racists; I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not alone in that.\u00a0\u00a0I find it hard to be incredibly angry at fundamentally (mostly) decent people, and don’t hurt anyone for this kind of low-level racism. This brand of racism is just the consequence of willful ignorance and an almost scary level of dumb stupidity \u2013 chuck in a little bit of \u2018what my dad told me once\u2019 and \u2018what all the boys in the pub say\u2019 and the desperate desire to have your thinking (such as it is) left unquestioned \u2013 and there you have it; the typical \u2018light\u2019 racist. Never mind this guy\u2019s twisted justification that he \u201cused to live next to an Indian restaurant and it was well dirty\u201d \u2013 maybe it was, but if we\u2019re going to judge a whole\u00a0race\u00a0on the basis of the actions of a few then I can regard white people as ignorant bigots without the ability to conduct basic reason or even keep their foolish prejudices to themselves.<\/p>\n Despite what I\u2019ve said about this guy I can\u2019t really bring myself to hate him. There\u2019s a bittersweet pleasure in righteous offense, but all I can genuinely muster is pity and a sense of resignation \u2013 maybe not the most moral reaction but still the most genuine one I can relate. Perhaps I’m not Indian enough, or haven’t been on the receiving end of enough serious racism, to be really offended. Nevertheless, silencing someone temporarily with argument doesn\u2019t achieve much if they just go back to the same kind of talk when you leave. It\u2019s my maybe foolishly optimistic hope that by using humour, and not getting overly offended, I made just a little impact on this guy\u2019s mind; if such a thing can be said to exist. And, in my opinion, that’s the best you can hope to achieve.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paul Haslam comments on the advance of racism in everyday situations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[444,445],"coauthors":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3314"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mancunion.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}