To: Everyone |
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In respect to
Britain's ethnic and religious minorities, it seems to me
that there are particular problems with some (not all)
blacks and Muslims because of their own - rarely admitted,
but not entirely unjustified - sense of inferiority. Both
groups are here to take advantage of an advanced level of
civilisation that has not been attained (and doesn't look
much like being attained in the foreseeable future) in
their countries of origin, or anywhere else by people of
their own race, culture or religion.
Unfortunately, one
cannot express such an opinion in public without being
accused of "racism", which effectively prevents all
discussion and even private consideration, of this
problem. I could be mistaken, of course, although I don't
think so, but until we are permitted to discuss it, we
will never know.
I'm not suggesting
that individual blacks and Muslims are inferior (that
would be racism) - far from it (there are
many, I know, who are a lot brighter than I am), but am
referring to them as ethnic and religious groups. I've
tried putting myself in their position and imagining how
"I" would feel. I would FEEL inferior, I'm pretty sure of
it. I wouldn't BE inferior, of course, any more than they
are, but I would FEEL it. And this, I believe, goes a long
way to explaining many of the undeniable problems there
are for and with blacks and Muslims in western societies.
It is a very sensitive
topic, I appreciate, and has to be dealt with sensitively,
but continuing to suppress all discussion of it as
"racist" is not going to help the situation, but allow it
fester and become even worse.
One solution, which
some people seem to have in mind (especially amongst
leftwing liberal intellectuals), is the complete
assimilation of immigrants and natives in the "melting
pot" of racial and cultural homogeneity to create a "New
Britishness". To them it is just a matter of keeping a lid
on all the objections (from natives by decrying them as
"racist" and from immigrants by insisting on their
"integration", i.e. assimilation into (New) British
society) until sufficient homogenization has taken place.
But I think - and hope (not least, because of my love of
diversity as opposed to homogeneity) - that the lid will
come flying off long before they are successful. It is
loosening already and this short essay, I hope, will help
to loosen it a little more.
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