MixTogether & Friends

Race relations in the UK reached a new watershed this week as Labour’s John Denham, the Communities Secretary, stated that people from ethnic minorities are no longer automatically disadvantaged in modern Britain. He feels that inequality should be tackled on an economic basis without special regard to ethnicity, which is basically the centre-right position.

Denham’s contribution is the latest in a line of statements from high-ranking Labour ministers aimed at de-coupling the party from its former identity politics. Britain has moved on a long way since the 1970s heyday of racial agitation, and it is good to see politicians finally catching up.

The quality of Denham’s ideas can be measured by the angry snarls he has provoked from the usual 20th Century race warriors. Yasmin Alibhai Brown took to the picket lines of Southall once more in yesterday’s Standard. The Guardian’s Joseph Harker is still pushing the tired old Black Panther definition that racism=prejudice+power (hence only whites can be racists). Yvonne Roberts in the Guardian tries to paint Denham’s speech as a thinly disguised bit of BNP propaganda. Herman Ouseley refuses to accept that we are ‘comfortable with diversity’.

The one thing you notice about all of these commentators is that they are of a certain generation. They are older people who fought in the important race struggles of the late 20th Century, but who can’t let go of the outdated Marxist creed that used to bring people together back then. They can’t accept that times have changed, and they can’t let go of the idea that all white people are racist oppressors. Not one of them even mentions the racism within minority communities, because they can’t bring themselves to admit it exists.

With characters like this given pages in the national media to spout anti-white prejudices, it is no wonder that the majority population has finally lost patience.

Not all white people are racist, and plenty of non-whites are racist. The experience of couples on MixTogether.org proves this beyond doubt. The ‘racism=prejudice+power’ meme never stood up to much scrutiny, but today it is observably wrong. It has as much relevance to 21st Century British life as the idea that the earth is flat: they are both ideas to be looked back on with faint disbelief.

Younger commentators like Sunny Hundal have welcomed Denham’s speech. It is to people of our generation and younger that smart politicians now look for their cue on race matters. Alibhai-Brown is history.

As one MixTogether member reminds us in their signaure:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
- Charles Darwin