The Kelis airport queue incident

Both Hugh Muir in the Guardian and Barbara Ellen in the Observer have used the Kelis airport queue incident to write long(ish) pontificating pieces about the racist nature of British society and how we are all guilty of everything bad you can possibly think of (and if you try to deny it you are of course racist yourself).

That people exchange verbal insults in airport queues is regrettable, but not uncommon.  That a provoked person should reach for the most wounding insults to hand is deplorable, but not surprising (had Kelis been overweight, or disabled no doubt different insults would have been thrown at her).  That public outbursts of anger should be condemned is, I hope, something we can all agree on.

Whether the Kelis airport queue incident reveals anything useful about British society is a more debatable point.

If the United Kingdom was a genuinely racist society why on earth would Black and Minority Ethnic people come here?  If racism was such a ubiquitous and debilitating everyday experience we would expect to see a mass exodus of BME people, with long airport queues waiting to get out.  Instead the BME population has grown from near zero in 1945 to over 5 million (and rising).

Everytime even the slightest racial tension appears on the news we see Darcus Howe telling us how racist British people are.  And yet Darcus Howe is a comparatively wealthy individual able to live anywhere he chooses.  That he chooses to live here is evidence that British society cannot be as racist as he likes to make out.

BME people complaining about racism has become so predictable and formulaic that they are losing all credibility.

Yes, I condemn name-calling bullies.  But I also condemn celebrity divas who think that the normal conventions of everyday life (like standing in a queue) don't apply to them.  And I certainly condemn the media claque that constantly encourages BME people to think of themselves as victims, with the unspoken subtext that only the Labour party can protect them.

Barbara Ellen http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/18/kelis-racism-brad-pitt

Hugh Muir http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/16/less-civil-society-britain-macpherson