“The very serious function of racism,” said the late author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, “is distraction.”
She’s right too.
The Tory party cashed in on it last week when Labour MP Rupa Huq was rightly condemned for claiming Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was only “superficially Black”.
Whether intended or not, the offensive implication from Huq was that you can’t be intelligent, erudite or go to Eton if you are Black.
Regular readers of this column will know of my disdain for Kwarteng and his history of working against the interests of millions of Black and Brown people in this country.
But Huq was wrong to insult him in that manner.
She could easily have added his defence of Boris Johnson’s racism to his inept handling of the country’s finances.
She could easily have reminded us of Kwarteng’s backing for moves to ship immigrants to Rwanda, or his defence of the Government over the Windrush scandal.
Instead, Huq opened up scars for people like me, insulted over the years by dinosaurs and insular colleagues unable to grasp that you can be Black and have an impressive command of the English language. You can be Black and be educated at a top school.
I’ve lost count of the number of times in my 27-year journalistic career I’ve been told: “You don’t sound Black on the phone.”
It is a statement that always reveals more about the person making it than me.
One councillor, during my news reporting days in local journalism, used it as a pathetic explanation after literally cowering in fear – I kid you not – as I approached him outside a cafe for a first-time lunch.
Huq’s nonsense last week gave credence to that kind of dated, ludicrous misconception. The shameless MPs and right-wing commentators embarrassingly silent over the Government’s racism over the past 12 years were stampeding on to Twitter, TV and radio last week to foam at the mouth. The brass neck was real.
Stone-cold racism, they called it. Conveniently forgetting their own racism and their roles in stoking the culture wars that have caused far more division than Huq’s comments.
The distraction for Kwarteng was a gift. A sympathetic life raft for a man drowning in the criticism he’d received over his cack-handed budget.
They were at it again on Saturday when the wrong picture was used in a story about Kwarteng on the Mirror’s digital platform.
The error was quickly acknowledged and an apology was issued, privately and publicly, to Kwarteng – also for the offence. Just like every other organisation or individual we call out, The Mirror knows when it has to do better. Nothing we have done in the past – or that we are doing currently – renders us above the law.
Where Kwarteng would defend the indefensible for the Tories, I will do no such thing.
A Black individual’s job in senior management is not to be a human shield or run interference.
There are lessons to learn, systems to tighten up and culture to assess further.
Just as the Tories stew in the delusion that Black and Brown Cabinet ministers making life worse for millions represents diversity, so the Left is in denial if it believes its record absolves it of any accountability.
Black History Month is a reminder of the contributions made to our society by a demographic who need to be heard and listened to.
Sometimes it takes adversity to remind us of that.
