all lives matter - and so does history

Growing up in a remote Welsh city in the 70s it would be fair to say that things weren't exactly "diverse". White skin dominated the population and it was a rare event to see someone from another ethnic background. 

Nowadays, Swansea is an ethnically diverse and cosmopolitan city.  It is a recognised "safe haven" for people from a huge number of "minorities", be that racial, ethnic or sexual.

But in 1982 when I left home to go to college things were very different.  I met people from all over the world for the first time.  Trading places from a large city to a small South Wales valley town though brought with it a nasty undercurrent.  The town was a melting pot but also a place where racism was rife.  The locals hated the students. And they hated foreign ones even more.

One of my best friends in my college days was Jayesh.  He was from Pakistan and lived near me in a house with three of his countrymen.  We were mates because we shared the same taste in music and sport and he was well, just a nice person to be around.

I heard the sniping comments behind my back.  "Why is he hanging around with them?" was something I heard whispered.  Until one day a student in my class who lived locally  and was much older than me asked me directly.  His tone was one of we should stick to our own and not mix.  They were different to us.  

Now, I'd heard the racist jokes in my youth.  Laughed at them even in my innocence and naive ignorance - I knew no different after all. If of a certain age, we are all guilty of that.  All of us are, no matter what you think or how you feel now.

But my classmate's comments weren't innocent.  They were nasty.  They were filled with hatred and fuelled by his ignorance.  They were not innocent in any way.  Sadly neither was my reaction.  I pushed the hot pasty I was eating into his face.  I was ready for violence but thankfully it never came.

It seems that however much we'd like to think things are now better they are not.  Racism has never gone away, but I and no doubt people like me in my comfortable, white bubble thought it wasn't as bad as it used to be. Years of multi culturalism  and racial integration had surely seen to that?

I was wrong.  I am wrong.

Robert E. Lee

But it's also wrong to try to bury our past. Tearing down statues and monuments will only have the effect of galvanising racists.   We can't change our history.  We can, however, try to shape our future, but we can't do this if we air-brush out the past.  We need to know slavery happened.  We need to know the holocaust happened.  We need to know about apartheid.  We need to know about race riots.

Ruby Bridges

The port cities of Liverpool and Bristol among many others worldwide earned their fortunes (partly) through the slave trade. Should they too be dismantled and held up as examples of racism?

Of course not.  Instead we should erect monuments in honour of those who fought for equality, who made a stand and who tried to change things; regardless of their ethnicity, race or colour.

I'll be branded either a racist or virtue signaller no doubt by some.  All I am though is someone who is trying to see life with a degree of common sense.  Our history made us what we are.  And learning from it can make us better people.  

Ignoring it does the exact opposite.


post script: seems Brian May agrees with me.  Brian f*****g May folks.  Or should I say "God". I can die happy now  :-)

(I wrote this before he posted his video)