by Miriam Smith

Tuesday 6th April 2021 

‘Race’ and ‘racism’ has been a hot topic of late.  It seems as though ‘racism’ is everywhere.  So much so that the lengths to which society must go to prevent and address racism, are getting more and more extreme. From jobs offered to only ethnic minorities, to the countryside being racist, owning dogs being racist, to the latest suggestion (that I have just read) that we should teach toddlers about ‘white privilege’ in nursery school to prevent them from growing up to be racists.  This is happening at a time when white, working class boys are significantly underachieving at school compared to their peers from ethnic minority backgrounds. I’m getting quite fed up of all the nonsense frankly.

Everywhere you look, everything you watch is trying to highlight the plight of a minority group and the evil of the white patriarchy.  This rhetoric is dangerously inaccurate.  It is causing division and is damaging race relations in the UK.  In truth, we are a great nation that has been working together and coexisting well for some time now.  Furthermore, when I sit down to watch a bit of television before bed, sometimes I just want to be entertained, why does everything need to be a political message of the far left persuasion?

I am mixed race. I remember the first time I noticed skin colour very clearly. I was about 4 years old and I was getting a jigsaw puzzle out of the sideboard in the living room. I looked over at my Mum and Dad who were sitting on the settee and it suddenly occurred to me that they were different colours. I then looked down at my own hand and discovered that I was a different colour to both of them! So I asked why we were all different colours. My Mum, true to her style, said the first thing that popped into her head, which was, “When God made us he had to bake us like cakes, he didn’t bake me long enough, he baked your Dad a bit too long, but you came out just right!” To my 4 year old brain this sounded perfectly reasonable and I never thought about my race or skin colour again in any significant way until recent years – because the looney left won’t stop going on about it!

It is fascinating how those who claim to oppose fascism are the very ones who want to silence and de platform those who disagree with them.  Similarly, those who are so adamant that they are against racism see skin colour and race everywhere, and have separate ‘rules’ for people of different colours. I have always believed and always will believe in equality and equal opportunity, this is now, oddly,  considered racist.

I have had some interesting discussions on social media regarding race and cultural appropriation.  Recently, I dared to say it is wrong to advertise a job only for ethnic minorities as that is not equality.  It also suggests that if you are not white, you need extra help as you can’t achieve what a white person can on your own merit.  I would be mortified to think I only got a job (or anything for that matter) because of my skin colour.

Another more heated conversation a few weeks ago was about immigration.  I was told yet again, that because of my ‘background’ I should not want controlled immigration.  This is a puzzling one. According to many leftists, because I am not indigenous of this land (even though born here), I am not allowed to voice my opinion on borders and immigration.  In fact, I should agree with open borders because my Dad was an immigrant!  Surely dictating to someone what their political view should be, based on their ethnicity, is kind of racist? In this particular thread I was called a ‘nasty little racist’, so I asked just who it was they thought I was racist towards…they can never answer that one and they get more and more incensed! The admin of this group eventually removed all of the comments, and to my surprise did highlight that it was he that had mentioned ‘race and ethnicity’, not me.

As a child I lived in a very mixed area, we all got on and accepted each others differences (but to be fair, as children, we didn’t notice them). At the age of 18, I moved away and have spent the bulk of my adult life living in rural areas. I absolutely love the countryside and I feel completely at home and welcome in it… why wouldn’t I?

I have never, ever been held back by anything in life other than my own limitations or lack of confidence (and only one thing actually comes to mind). Isn’t it a shame that instead of ramming fictional and divisive terms like ‘white privilege’ down our throats, people are not highlighting the greatness of our nation, and uniting us as a society under the British flag? 

Imagine teaching that to toddlers.  They would learn a sense of pride and belonging regardless of who they are or what they look like.  Sadly, this is not the agenda of the looney left. It must then be remembered and promoted by the silent majority instead.