Our Racist Friends: A Little Argument With Myself

“If you have a racist friend – now is the time, now is the time, for your
Friendship to end…”
The Specials AKA

“If I can’t change the people around me, I change the people around [me].”
Chuck D

IS IT BETTER TO STAY FRIENDS…?

I think so – partly because I don’t like to agree, and do like to argue – and partly because I never agree with anyone about anything.  Not even with myself, about this point.  You can never have too many friends, though, can you?  And we listen to our friends, don’t we? 

The government likes to claim things like “We’ll never talk to ISIS/Taliban/IRA – we’ll never talk to terrorists” (even though they secretly were talking to the IRA, for years (and this was a good idea (and lying about it was also a good idea, given that the IRA were killing people – and the a lot of British voters didn’t know why – perhaps including those who lied about talking to them about it….and all that lying and secret talking eventually helped get a peace deal that has lasted))).  Anyway, the same people will quite happily chat to the Saudi government and others who routinely kill and abuse humans and their rights.  But they also sell oil and buy weapons, so they’re cool – this is called realpolitik, and it’s the “art” of condemning people who are of no practical use to you, while being an apologist for those who are.  Even if they do the same things, and you have to condemn an abuse in one country while apologising for it in the place next door.

BUT THERE’S A LINE THOUGH, ISN’T THERE?

Where it’s not a tactical disagreement, or a difference of opinion on a narrow issue, but a red line – why do you want to be friends with a racist?  Everyone is different on this; for me, I can make grand declarations that “anyone who doesn’t like The Smiths is an arsehole”, or “If you don’t get Jeanette Winterson, we just can’t get along”, or “I couldn’t be friends with a City fan” (there’s always three examples, aren’t there?  That’s how it works, you’ve all seen stand-up comedy before), or somesuch similar idiocy….but those things all apply to people I love.  So they can’t be taken seriously.  Like saying you’ll never talk to terrorists while conducting secret negotiations with terrorists to end their terrorism because that’s a proven, effective way of ending terrorist campaigns.

I don’t think I’m racist, and I don’t think any of my friends are.  But almost no one thinks they are racist, do they? Because it’s an insult.  Even in racist societies, most people don’t think “I hate that other ethnic group, I’m a racist”, but they do adhere to the priorities of their cultural milieu, which is easier than not doing that. 

Racist is a word sometimes used to shut down debate….I like debate.  I’m not naïve enough to think debate solves all our problems, or changes people’s minds in one go – neither do protests, but that doesn’t mean we should all give up on it.  One debate, one protest, rarely achieves a concrete goal – it’s keeping the pressure up that gets results.  Because everything we do matters.  Anyway, I like debating.  And I’m good at it, and I’m intelligent and articulate and sensitive.  So back the fuck off.

BUT THERE’S AN ECHO CHAMBER THOUGH, ISN’T THERE?

Yes, it seems so; but a heavily filtered newsfeed is nothing new, is it?  Information is always managed, and it still pays to consider information from a range of sources.

So why would we only talk to people with whom we broadly agree, and then get really upset and factional when someone with whom we have loads in common thinks slightly differently on one thing but wants to work with us on all the areas where we have a mutual interest/shared goal?

NO PLATFORM?

I agree with the popular petition-writers that the lovely angelic, blameless president (who hasn’t even bombed anywhere yet) shouldn’t be made to have tea with the vicious, racist queen, who is bezzy mates with all the worst dictators.  

IT’S JUST SYMBOLIC, THOUGH, A STATE VISIT – IT DOESN’T CHANGE ANYTHING.  IT DOESN’T EVEN REALLY MEAN ANYTHING. 

Symbolism is important.  People notice things, and Everything We Do Matters.  Power speaks in symbols, and a lot of us get it.  Also, things are not “mere” symbolism.  Whatever the achievements/disappointments/crimes of the last US administration, breaking the colour bar on the presidency was a Big Deal, and not “merely symbolic”.  The current backlash provides some circumstantial evidence.

BUT THESE ARE UNUSUAL TIMES.

They are.  In a way.  A lot of people seem to think they’re startlingly similar to times around 80 years ago, in Europe, but I think that’s a bit of a flimsy comparison, and therefore agree with your premise – with the additional caveat that all times are unusual and that the conventional wisdom that history repeats and we don’t learn lessons is mostly bollocks.

Each case is different.  The US war on Iraq was not the same as the US war on Vietnam, though there were similarities.  History only repeats itself in the sense that our structural and psychological problems are largely the same as the have always been – but the consequences of this are unpredictable.  And they are unpredictable in the way that football is unpredictable: Arsenal will very likely beat Sutton in the FA Cup, but there’s an infinite amount of variables that could decide the game, and no way of accurately predicting the future.  Violence almost always leads to more violence, but that doesn’t always make it easy to predict when, where and how it will occur.

(That’s why football is so good, so endlessly fascinating to so many: it’s just like life.  Anyone can win a game against anyone else, however unlikely – even though, structurally, it is far more likely that a very small handful of teams will win all the top prizes and perpetuate that structure.  And the culture of football is abhorrent to some, but alongside all the unpleasant stuff there is genuine solidarity, political organising and charity fundraising.  It says something fundamental about the human condition.  It represents the best of us and the worst of us.  At the same time.)

IT’S JUST A TEST!  THEY’RE SEEING HOW MUCH THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH!

All the more reason to tell them to get to fuck, then.  Did I pass?

YOU’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THEIR HANDS!

Uh-huh.  If that is true, it’s still worth doing, the above does not make it not worth doing.  Public opinion matters.  Even in totalitarian societies.  Which neither the UK or USA is, and will not become if we don’t let them.  (If the former president thinks that and I disagree with him on some other things, it doesn’t invalidate him, or I, on this point.)

If we want to see which perspective is most useful, think about which makes us feel empowered, useful humans with agency, whose actions matter – as opposed to those that make us feel despair, that nothing we do matters.

What a relief it is to have folk around who can see The Truth™ that most of the mass of sheeple cannot, bound as they are in the mainstream media spin machine, with no ability to interrogate sources or think critically.  That’s what it says in an article someone shared on facebook, anyway.

YEAH, WELL I DIDN’T SEE ALL THESE PEOPLE PROTESTING WHEN….X/Y/Z WAS HAPPENING….

That doesn’t mean they didn’t.  (And how would you know?)  And if they didn’t, maybe they didn’t have time/weren’t alive yet/it’s not your business. 

…WHICH WAS WAAAAAAY WORSE.

Well, it isn’t always the (morally) “worst” thing that gets everyone riled up, is it?  If it were…well, everything would be different, wouldn’t it?  How would that work – would we wait to do something until things could not get any worse, or would we start by protesting every single thing that anyone does?  Everyone has their own triggers to action.  And someone else having different ones to you does not make them awful, just like it didn’t make you awful when you started noticing/caring about these things.
I understand if someone who has noticed/cared about these issues for a long time heaves a world-weary sigh whenever a self-congratulatory bandwagon rolls past, but if lots of people are against/for some/all of the things you are against/for, that’s a good reason to work with them, no?  It is tempting to berate them from the side lines though, particularly if you have a lot of experience of that.  As most of us do. 

SO YOU THINK WE SHOUDN’T –

No.  I think all the stuff above, written in a (possibly doomed) attempt to combine outrage, confusion, satire, understanding and compassion with a warning against casually dismissing each other.  I’m saying: if things are as bad as you/I/everyone think/s, we haven’t got time to be shouting at the Judean People’s Front.

SO, YOU’RE SAYING…?

No.  I’m saying what I’m saying.  And I’m saying it the way I’m saying it; it doesn’t need to be put into different words.  It isn’t law, or a grand statement, it’s my subjective, current view of the things I’m choosing to discuss.  Other views are available.

So, to conclude: I’m still very much interested in discussion and will continue to speak to anyone I know about any and/or all of the above.  I’m still not interested in arguing with people I don’t know on the internet, or watching people take a minor difference in tactical approach or viewpoint as a cue for endless facile criticism and/or personal abuse.

Cheerio for now.