‘Lazy complacency harms multiculturalism’

At a packed community centre in Bristol recently, Bristol’s Afro-Caribbean community met to show solidarity and pay heartfelt tributes to community leader Ras Judah Adunbi, who was tasered by police near his home in early January. Only because the incident was filmed by a neighbour did the world reacte with shock and disgust; without such filming, Ras Judah was clear that he felt his life would have been at risk. It was devastating to think that such a dignified elder should have been treated with so little respect.

Brits have come to be proud of our multicultural society, and Bristol often seems particularly proud of its own vibrant diversity. But we should not be complacent. Trump’s actions demonstrate that those who can be labelled as ‘not being indigenous’ are always at risk of being targeted. Dividing people along racial, religious or cultural lines not only makes people vulnerable. It deeply affects their socio-economic prospects. The report from the Runnymede Trust, published recently, found that of ten core cities studied, Bristol’s BME communities have the worst opportunities in terms of employment, health and education.

In the same week, we see another of our communities threatened: members of Bristol’s Somali community have been left unclear as to whether they are now banned from entering the USA. The purpose of Trump’s Muslim ban is precisely to divide one community from another. Our own government has shamefully played into this tactic by making a special appeal for British citizens, rather than defending the rights of all.

The most powerful British citizen caught up in Trump’s ban is Nadhim Zahawi, the Tory MP for Stratford on Avon, who was born in Iraq. Having established his position as a wealthy and powerful member of British society, he was shocked to find himself potentially excluded from the USA. As a prominent campaigner for the UK to leave the EU, Zahawi had tweeted, ‘Freedom of movement makes it harder to monitor those who might represent a danger to the UK’. His powerful friends have now intervened and he will be able to travel freely. This is precisely what Churchill meant when he identified appeasement as feeding the crocodile in the hope that it would eat you last, a comment re-tweeted by Zahawi once he realised he was rather higher up the crocodile’s menu than he had expected.

But appeals to a pariah regime, whether on behalf of individuals or nations, are in fact only encouraging the tyranny that feeds on division and differentiation. This stands in sharp contrast to the intervention by Bristol Mayor, Marvin Rees, during the Justice for Judah meeting.

He told those at the packed community centre that you cannot talk about solidarity while ‘robbing it of race’. He spoke of the racial hierarchy that exists in the UK and urged people not to deny the race element in shocking events like tasering Black community workers.

Human rights are universal, or they are nothing: we can have no special exemptions for British people because of the fawning attitude of our Prime Minister, nor special treatment for national treasures like Mo Farah. Solidarity based on pretending that all is well, and that multiculturalism has removed the fundamental injustices faced by people of colour throughout the world, is not solidarity at all.

We must recognise that if one minority community is threatened, eventually we all are. Solidarity can challenge and resist a divide-and-rule strategy but it must be more than symbolic. Within a day of its launch, nearly 5% of people in Bristol West had signed the petition to prevent President Trump enjoying the honour of a state visit. The petition is rapidly heading towards two million signatures. But signing petitions is not enough, and nor is lazy complacency around multiculturalism. We need far more focus on the fundamental injustices that prevent people of colour from having a fair share and equal economic opportunities.

It isn’t enough for notions of multiculturism to be an easy pick-and-mix, enjoying the benefits of the global village while ignoring its gross inequalities. Whether we consider the exploitation of countries on the other side of the world, upon whom our lifestyles depend, or the recent revelations about the diminished life chances faced by non-white citizens of the City of Bristol, we need to renew the fight for economic justice.

Molly Scott Cato is Green MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar

Read more: Bristol’s racial inequality branded ‘shameful’