Society
Solidarity based on race is on the retreat, Trev
Published 28 August 2000
Dr Tony Sewell has concluded that "black culture", whatever that is, prevents young black men from succeeding in education. The good doctor is employed as a commentator by Choice FM. The radio station's owners are my friends Neil and Patrick - two black men who are not dripping in gold chains or choking with 200 degrees. They are immensely successful, and would never commit the faux pas of publishing such tosh; nor would they make the kind of flawed judgements that Trevor Phillips has been guilty of in his struggle for political recognition.
Some weeks ago, I made clear that I have not a clue about Trevor's politics. In a recent article he wrote for the Observer, entitled "The myth of gold chains and no brains", I searched in vain for one serious political statement amid the jumble of cliches and incomprehensible anecdotes.
The piece, he wrote, was a reply to reporters who constantly ask him "how I could hope to identify with the youths on the streets, given that I was educated and middle class". I, too, take issue with that question. All this talk about street cred, black community and grass roots is nonsense. I live in the heart of black Brixton, in a street with middle-class whites and blacks, broadcasters, architects, punks, barflies and gunslingers. The inner city is neither exclusively black, nor exclusively working class.
Ken Livingstone lives amid working-class blacks in Cricklewood, takes the Tube to work, mixes and meddles, has deep instincts about them. His fingers, all ten of them, are on the pulse. The communities change every day, and he follows these changes assiduously. This helps him make often impeccable judgements on political interventions, programmes and policies.
The opposite is hit-and-miss politics of the kind that makes for huge misjudgements. Take Trevor, Frank Dobson's running-mate in Labour's failed bid to win the mayoral seat in London. Trevor has a right to choose where he lives, but that he resides miles from the nearest black person, and still puts himself forward as a representative of the people in a populist mould, is bound to be challenged. For instance, Trevor should know that he-guys don't sport gold chains no more. It is slightly naff nowadays. They wouldn't say, as he seems to think they might, "You don't know nuffink - you don't come from the street, Trev". That is the language of the dinosaur. That the black community has modernised seems to have passed Trevor by.
Half the difficulty of current politics is the alienation of our leaders from those they represent. And nine-tenths of Trevor's political failure is his alienation from what he sees as his core support - his "roots", so to speak.
This alienation leads him to a political bottom line that is, permit me to say, rather embarrassing. He seems to be saying that, wherever one lives, whatever one's philosophical orientation, black people are joined at the hip because we are all discriminated against - the black millionaire and the black boy who works at McDonald's.
Trevor must be in a state of deep cultural shock that the black community, including myself, preferred Livingstone to him.
The boy has lost his way. He will find it impossible to make sense of the brewing conflict between Asians and blacks in Bradford. How would he react to some of the ignorant and racist comments that I have heard about the violence there ?
The solidarity based on race that Trevor longs for - because it would ensure his political success - is on the retreat. The black middle classes and their natural allies in the white community are unable to establish a hold over the sons and daughters of former Caribbean people. These people have, in art and culture and sport, made a huge impact in this society - very little to do with what their black middle-class brothers and sisters have done. In fact, much of their success has been in spite of the Trevors and Sewells of this world. And long may it continue.
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