Look closely. We’re all going colour-blind

My 84-year-old Yorkshire father and I know better than to talk about race. Doors will be slammed, Christmas could be spoilt as it was once 20 years ago when I stormed out of the house after remarks by my uncle that I won’t repeat because such poisonous, hardcore bigotry no longer has any place in public discourse, and quite right too.

These days the racism of old people makes me sad more than angry. It is possible to understand — without in any way excusing — the views of someone who lived all his life in a homogeneous white, working-class community, didn’t go abroad until he retired, who saw maybe two black faces a year.

My father shakes his head over the Daily Mail and tells me the country is ruined: by which he really means, all certainty and familiarity is gone, the landscape now is alien, unsettling, frightening. He is more mystified than outraged why his grandsons’ primary school classes contain mostly black faces.

Then he’ll confound me by overtipping his African mini-cab driver because he was a “lovely fella” or I’ll find him chatting about cricket with our elderly Jamaican decorator and after he’s packed up, Dad carefully examines the kitchen paintwork and says reverently: “Now, he’s a proper craftsman.”

Meanwhile, my children understand that racism is the most heinous playground crime. They have grown up with Black History Month, assemblies on Nelson Mandela and our groovy new school building is named after the black Crimean nurse Mary Seacole (the children’s other suggestion was Rosa Parks). I feel with absolute conviction if they or any of their friends join the Army and find themselves training a bunch of recruits, they will not spur some laggard through the assault course by calling him a “black bastard”.

For all we love to label our young people toxic degenerates, in one regard they look down at us from the loftiest moral heights. In all surveys, the young’s tolerance of other races and intolerance of racism itself far outstrips the adult population: 82 per cent of under 18s, according to a National Research Centre poll, claimed they are not at all racially prejudiced, compared with 69 per cent of adults. While this reveals nothing about their actual behaviour, it reflects that racism is now taboo.

This week the writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, reflecting on the remarks by Patrick Mercer, the Tory homeland security spokesman, and the CCTV footage of a black woman, Toni Comer, being beaten by a white police officer, wrote: “The filth of racism has washed back, but now there’s no concern, no shame, no real opposition.” But who could possibly agree?

No act of perceived racism now goes without exhaustive analysis. Mr Mercer was summarily sacked by David Cameron just three hours after his remarks. Only a few months ago — in what seems now like some lurid dream — the nation’s media and political leaders ceased discussion of the Iraq war or loans for honours to debate the implications for race (and international) relations in Jade Goody calling the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty a poppadom on Celebrity Big Brother. The 30,000 people who complained to Channel 4, the tens of thousands more who voted to ensure Shilpa won the show, were not letting racism pass by unopposed.

My father’s old monocultural generation is dying; the blithely colour-blind young are ascending. Those in the middle, the generation now running the world, are left questioning our own attitudes, trawling for prejudices, trying to make judgment calls in an atmosphere where to err is to be history.

It is seldom acknowledged that we grew up in a deeply racist climate, where our country was affiliated with South Africa (try explaining apartheid to an eight-year-old: it is almost beyond their imagination), where blokes in pubs joked about Paki-bashing, the top sitcom Love Thy Neighbour spoke cheerily of “nig-nogs” and “darkies”. As a nation we have progressed a long, long way so very fast. And although we still have far to go, are these slippages really very surprising?

Patrick Mercer’s mistake was to be a 51-year-old man who assumed promoting and fairly treating black NCOs under him — as many of them have testified — exonerated him of all racism. In his day in the Army, his actions probably made him a cutting-edge progressive officer. But he was not schooled enough in modern antiracist nuances to appreciate that the insults “ginger” and “black” don’t come with equivalent volumes of oppression.

And his remark that some black soldiers “used racism as cover for their misdemeanours” was the most problematic. Is it possible ever to say this publicly now? Even on a day when Lord Levy’s supporters suggest the inquiry into his role in cash-for-honours is fuelled by an anti-Semitic desire to hang a rich, prominent, influential Jew up to dry?

Or when a drunken, aggressive woman, who has been ejected from a nightclub and then vandalised a car, claims the policeman who thumped her arm to stop her grabbing his genitals did so because she was black? The fact that this case — disturbing as it is to watch any woman being hit by a man — has not been whipped up into some South Yorkshire Rodney King moment does not demonstrate indifference to state, racial violence. Rather it shows, I’d bet, that black people themselves realise they don’t need such a lousy figurehead as Toni Comer.

And whether the Army let “black bastard” foul the barrack-room air seems as nothing compared with its huge unchallenged inequalities: that Gurkha soldiers have only now been granted the same pension rights as the British men they died beside. And this was not after a sudden lightning bolt of racial justice but because our Army is undermanned and needs to attract foreign nationals.

It is one thing for David Cameron to keep step with the latest antiracist language, another to pledge action against the huge, institutional injustices: that twice as many black British men are in prison as at university, that gun crime is little addressed by white politicians since its victims are almost all black, that a whole generation of black boys is tumbling, unchecked, through the education system into low-paid jobs, unemployment or crime. These are the sticks and stones that hurt more than any name.

Times Online

Leading British institutions gripped by racism rows

Three British institutions are engulfed by race rows - but the protagonists all deny any charges of bigotry

Britain's institutions stand accused of fostering a climate of casual racism after a series of race rows yesterday provoked clashes between MPs, academics and leaders of the black and Asian communities.

In the most high-profile case, David Cameron, the Tory party leader, was forced to sack his frontbench spokesman on homeland security, Patrick Mercer, because he suggested that being called a "black bastard" was part and parcel of life in the Army for ethnic minority soldiers.

Shortly afterwards the Independent Police Complaints Commission announced that it was to investigate the brutal assault of a black teenager by a white police officer outside a Sheffield nightclub.

In Manchester, a magistrate who was overheard talking to a colleague about "bloody foreigners" in private after a hearing was reprimanded by the Judicial Appointments Commission but allowed to return to work.

In Oxford, a university professor was forced to defend himself after students protested at his outspoken comments on immigration.

Last night MPs and leaders of Britain's ethnic minority communities said the incidents, although all unconnected, painted a picture of resurgent racism at the heart of British society which needed to be tackled.

Massoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said: "Racism is sneaking back in to mainstream respectability and this is very dangerous. It is not isolated incidents ... it's been happening for some time. In some aspects, it's coming through on the back of Islamophobia and in other ways, it is mainstream, old-fashioned racism."

Michelynn Lafleche, director of the Runnymede Trust, a think-tank on ethnicity and cultural diversity, said that while significant steps had been made in the fight against racism much of the legislation had failed to make a mark on British life. She added: "The fight against terrorism ... gives people the excuse to step back 40 years in time and say it is OK to say these things when it is not only morally reprehensible but often illegal. We may have the legislation in place, but it is of great concern because too often we are not seeing that permeate into our everyday lives."

Many institutions have tried to implement the recommendations of Sir William Macpherson of Cluny who published a landmark report into the death of Stephen Lawrence. But almost 14 years after the black teenager's murder and eight years after Sir William's report Britain is still trying to combat racism in society.

Critics seized on Mr Mercer's comments as evidence that the Tory party is one of many institutions still plagued by such problems.

The Labour MP Shahid Malik said they showed the Tories remained the "nasty party" and had not changed under Mr Cameron's leadership. "It doesn't matter what they tell you, they still are the nasty, racist, sexist, homophobic party they have been for many, many, many years," he said. "It is going to take a long time to weed out the inherent racism that actually exists in that particular party."

However, the Tories are not the only political party facing accusations of fuelling racial tensions. Earlier this week the Home Secretary John Reid faced criticism after promising to make life difficult for illegal immigrants in Britain. He came under fire after pledging a crackdown on foreigners who "steal our benefits".

Darcus Howe, the prominent journalist and broadcaster, believes there is a new-found confidence among the right when discussing racial issues in Britain. He described the latest race rows as "very disturbing" saying there was no one to speak up for black and working-class people.

"This is not the same country I came to 50 years ago. I have great sympathy for the whites because everything has been swept away by Mrs Thatcher and now Tony Blair but there is nothing to take its place."

Some commentators believe the 9/11 attacks led to a dramatic change in race relations in Britain. Ahmed Versi, editor of Muslim News, said: "Respectable figures in British society have begun to speak in a way they never would have spoken in before 11 September. I believe the rise in much of the right-wing discourse we hear from these prominent people, was triggered by the events of 11 September, and fuelled by fear and ignorance. It is becoming much more normal to use racist, Islamophobic discourse."

Lee Jasper, Secretary of the National Assembly Against Racism, said Mr Mercer's comments followed David Cameron's own reference to multiculturalism as a "barrier to cohesion" which he said was designed to make headlines. "It is this approach that results in a full-scale Tory attack on the principle of black self-organisation," said Mr Jasper.

He added: "While we welcome the resignation of Patrick Mercer, we remain deeply sceptical about the Tory party's commitment to root out racism within the party itself."

The politician

Patrick Mercer, the Conservative homeland security spokesman, was sacked by his party leader, David Cameron, yesterday after claiming it was acceptable to use the phrase "black bastard" in the Army. He later said: "I very much regret the interpretation that has been put on my comments."

The policeman

PC Anthony Mulhall has been removed from frontline duties after allegedly beating up a black woman outside a nightclub in Sheffield. A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "The force is outraged at... the possible suggestion that this may be linked to any kind of racist incident."

The professor

David Coleman of Oxford University has provoked student anger after it emerged that he was a co-founder of the anti-immigration pressure group Migrationwatch. He has said that immigrants contribute the equivalent of "a Mars bar a month" to Britain. Yesterday he defended his views.

The colour divide

* African Caribbean pupils are up to six times more likely to be excluded from school than white pupils, but no more likely to truant

* 70 per cent of all ethnic minorities live in the 88 most deprived areas, compared to 40 per cent of the general population

* Prisoners from ethnic minorities accounted for a fifth of the male prison population, 12 per cent of whom were Black British

* The number of arrests for black people is three times higher

* 87,000 members of ethnic minorities say they have been a victim of racially motivated crime, the latest figures show

* 49,000 of those say they have been a victim of violent crime

* The average wage for ethnic minorities is £7.50 per hour, compared to £8.00 for whites

* Just over a fifth of people in England and Wales live in poverty, compared to 40 per cent of African Caribbeans and 8 per cent of whites in 1997

(Figures from 2004)

Independent