Hugh Muir writes in the Guardian about the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King speech saying that it has implications for the United Kingdom http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/sep/01/meaning-martin-luther-king-speech-then-now
Black people in the United Kingdom would dearly love to be American-style black people - with historic grievances, centuries of fighting oppression, a widely admired blues and jazz culture etc.
Gary Younge so desperately wants the validation of being an American-style black person that he has physically relocated himself to America.
However the reality of black people in the United Kingdom is more prosaic. There is an inscription from the Roman period which might (or might not) indicate one of the Roman garrison was black; there are a few exotic dandies as extras in 18th century paintings; throughout history black sailors have got off ships and spent a few nights at quayside hostels in the dock areas. But these people are so few they do not register statistically.
The black community in the United Kingdom arrived as economic migrants in the 1950s and 1960s.
Their arrival was against the wishes of the majority, and the on-going subsequent arrival of black and minority ethnic people has been against the wishes of the majority.
Was Dr King only interested in the rights of black people, or were the rights of all people of concern to him?
If the latter, Hugh Muir needs to speculate on what Dr King might say about the way in which the majority of people in the United Kingdom have had their rights taken away in the matter of deciding who they should share their country with.
This is of more than just historic interest.
Given the tendency of BME people to vote Labour, the majority of British people have also had their democratic right to decide their government taken away - they now have to endure an BME veto in many marginal constituencies on deciding who is sent to Westminster.
Dr King advised us that a society built on an injustice cannot endure. That is the relevance of his legacy to the United Kingdom. Eventually the BME communities in the United Kingdom will have to apologise for what they have done and make amends to the people they have wronged.
Black people in the United Kingdom would dearly love to be American-style black people - with historic grievances, centuries of fighting oppression, a widely admired blues and jazz culture etc.
Gary Younge so desperately wants the validation of being an American-style black person that he has physically relocated himself to America.
However the reality of black people in the United Kingdom is more prosaic. There is an inscription from the Roman period which might (or might not) indicate one of the Roman garrison was black; there are a few exotic dandies as extras in 18th century paintings; throughout history black sailors have got off ships and spent a few nights at quayside hostels in the dock areas. But these people are so few they do not register statistically.
The black community in the United Kingdom arrived as economic migrants in the 1950s and 1960s.
Their arrival was against the wishes of the majority, and the on-going subsequent arrival of black and minority ethnic people has been against the wishes of the majority.
Was Dr King only interested in the rights of black people, or were the rights of all people of concern to him?
If the latter, Hugh Muir needs to speculate on what Dr King might say about the way in which the majority of people in the United Kingdom have had their rights taken away in the matter of deciding who they should share their country with.
This is of more than just historic interest.
Given the tendency of BME people to vote Labour, the majority of British people have also had their democratic right to decide their government taken away - they now have to endure an BME veto in many marginal constituencies on deciding who is sent to Westminster.
Dr King advised us that a society built on an injustice cannot endure. That is the relevance of his legacy to the United Kingdom. Eventually the BME communities in the United Kingdom will have to apologise for what they have done and make amends to the people they have wronged.
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