I am fairly certain I am no longer a racist – that sounds bad! I am 70 so was bought up in a white town in Essex. I watched “till death us do part” and thought it funny (although I was not an Alf Garnet fan, the Liverpudlian was my preference), I watched the “Black and white Minstrel Show’ without questioning its basis. I have never been overtly racist, but will admit to being slightly shocked when talking to a black Nigerian Professor and realising just how much cleverer than me, he was! By racist I think I mean the little things. Tamsin had a friend called Leon who was black and an ace skier – I asked him where he was from – my interest was the geography and not meant to be racist, although I realise it was (well Tamsin pointed this out to me rather bluntly! I think I have totally banished even the hidden covert racism now. Is anti-semitism racism?
I hate what the government of Israel is doing, and with that the actions of many Jews. I have been to Israel and found the people friendly. So I am not anti-Jewish – maybe some of the people I meet are Jewish? I do wonder about why the Jews have been persecuted throughout history though! I put them/that in the same category as persecution of catholics and protestants in this country in the 1600’s. Basically I suppose I think all religeon is rather peculiar and I would not die for it anymore than I would my football team. I do think that Israel is out of order in Gaza and understand why the Palestinians resorted to the massacre. I would like to believe in a single party state rather like that which hopefully Ulster is moving towards.
So i am lacking a term to describe myself. Is there a word to describe someone who is anti-bigotry? Is it WOKE? By definition people like me will not take to violence in our cause so are we always destined to be dominated by the bullies like Trump, Orlan, Putin, Farage, Johnson, etc.?
It seems that much of the racism and bigotry in this cpuntry is associated with priveledge and perceived entitlement. The likes of Sunak and Rees-Mogg believe that they are better than the rest of us – yuck!
I hope I am not racist?