Complexities of antiracism

For another example of how complicated diversity and antiracism make things, here’s something by an Asian woman born in Uganda and now living in London: Racism and the truth about the Ugandan Asians. Say what you like, she’s a woman of principle. The first principle is that everything is really something else. The second is that someone else is really to blame. The third is that the presence of “racism” trumps and transforms everything, including normal human reactions like resentment for gross injury and gratitude for generosity.

A typical passage:

Never forget that when we came here in 1972 Enoch Powell was at his most powerful [this was four years after the Tories bounced him from the shadow cabinet], although there were thousands of people who did welcome us and the mood was not as hysterically anti-immigration as it is today. Nor was Idi Amin as wholly demented as people believe.

Posted by Jim Kalb at August 05, 2002 05:26 PM | Send