TMP Online

TMPOnline Editor, Justin Baidoo responds to Rod Liddle’s infamous Spectator blog on Multi-culturalism and claims of Liddle’s racism.

Rod Liddle’s blog post entitled “Benefits of a multi-cultural Britain” attributes most of the high profile social ills (knife and gun crime, violent sexual crimes) to African Caribbean males. Aside from this being factually incorrect, he goes on the next day in response to a post on Diane Abbott’s blog to state that he hates racism and in an attempt to appear non-racist quotes Diane Abbott and Trevor “segregate black boys” Phillips which he portrays that they make similar points to his argument which he says is based on cultural rather than racist values.

Here he is being disingenuous, by deriding and highlighting the only contributions an ethnic group has brought to society as “rap music, goat curry”and laden “us” (read: indigenous whites) with an “alien” culture, it cannot be viewed by the impartial reader that he is giving an honest though brutal critique with problems in a community. He is denigrating the African-Caribbean community and suggesting that London would be better off without them.

Is he entitled to say it? Yes.  But let’s not pretend that it is not racism. You can attack ideas without slandering an entire community, Liddle references to multi-culturalism like many BNP activists often euphemistically describe their racist attacks as an “expose on the benefits of ‘enrichment’ and multi-culturalism” Liddle is neither naive or ignorant, he is forcefully made the point when publishing his post that he believes that London has suffered as a result of the presence of the African-Caribbean community. He is not pandering to the politics of the BNP but rather cheer leading them on, his claims of hating racism is as credible as Nick Griffin’s claims that the British National Party do not “discriminat[e] on grounds of colour”.

Though I am not blind to woefully high numbers of African descendant males involved in violent crime in London (they are not only African-Caribbean, but perhaps Rod couldn’t tell the difference), the answers do not lie in the politics of hate and reactionary anger but in precision and truth. No one is hiding these issues but only honesty will bring us forward not dangerous rhetoric.

If Rod Liddle doesn’t believe that lamenting the presence of a ethnic group and belittling the contributions of generations of Caribbean workers to curry goat isn’t racist then I would suggest he volunteers himself for a diversity course.