18
ISSUES: Racial & Ethnic Discrimination
Chapter 1: Racism & discrimination
To not see race is the most privileged
thing of all
By Amit Singh
A
year-old video started circulating on my Facebook
page recently in which Nigel Farage declared that
Britain needed to scrap its anti-discrimination laws
because people are now “colour-blind” and thus cannot be
racially discriminative.
With this statement Farage is perpetuating the commonly
touted myth in our post-colonial society that nowadays, in
the aftermath of various race riots and discriminatory laws,
including Jim Crow in America, racism no longer exists –
people just see other people.
This view is very popular amongst certain sections of
society – just look at the #AllLivesMatter response to the
#BlackLivesMatter movement – who cannot fathom the
idea of racism and who do not want to confront their own
racial prejudices.
Do you remember the shock and horror of award winning
singer Sam Smith when he discovered earlier in the year
that racism still existed?
Despite centuries of racism in the UK, racism that was
exported elsewhere and racism that still thrives today,
Smith was outraged upon learning that we don’t live in a
colour blind society.
People of colour would not have been so speechless after
hearing about racial abuse taking place within London
(even if it is as multicultural as we’re often told).
But by ignoring race and claiming to be colour blind you
erase the experiences of those who have lived with – and
continue to struggle against – institutional, structural and
verbal racism.
If you claim to not see race you are suggesting that a
disproportionate number of BAME people are in prison
across Europe and America because they are naturally more
prone to violence, or that there are an overwhelming lack
of high profile people of colour in almost all positions of
power because of a serious lack of talent only (even if you
naively point to Barack Obama or Sadiq Khan as examples
– these are the exceptions not the rule and both men have
suffered serious racial abuse).
These arguments though, smack of privilege for people
of colour are not fortunate enough to pick and choose
whether they see race or not as it is their lived experience.
Your inability to see anything but fellow humans doesn’t
mean race hasn’t been constructed and doesn’t mean that
others don’t continuously remind people of colour of their
otherness.
When a teacher said to me at school “you look like you
know when Ramadam is” it wasn’t because of anything
other than my brown skin.
You may not see race but people of colour see it all the time
when they’re being locked up, racially abused, assaulted or
even as victims of microaggressions such as being stared
at on public transport.
People of colour are denied jobs, denied the right to their
own culture, all because of the colour of their skin; it’s not
as easy for them to just stop seeing it.
To say you don’t see colour ignores all of this and ignores
the privilege inherent with being born in what is very much
a white world (even though it is not a choice).
It is also a very convenient way to remove yourself of any
guilt or agency in the protection of white supremacy that
impacts many people of colour around the world.
How positive or negative would you feel about
the following characters being played by
Black Minorty Ethnic actors?
Sherlock Holmes
The Doctor
(Doctor Who)
James Bond
Positive
Negative
26%
44%
39%
33%
10%
19%
Source: YouGov, April 2016
“If you claim to not see race you are
suggesting that a disproportionate
number of BAME people are in
prison across Europe and America
because they are naturally more
prone to violence, or that there are
an overwhelming lack of high profile
people of colour in almost all positions
of power because of a serious lack of
talent”
