Who's The Foreigner?               -by Will Kemp
--------------------

I heard this woman today, sitting on the beach outside my bungalow 
on the Thai island of Koh Pha Ngan. A beautiful red sunset had just 
passed and the full moon was rising over the coconut palms. She was 
among a small group of British tourists who were celebrating the 
birthday of one of them. She was a Geordie and she had a loud mouth.

But what got my back up was that she was complaining about how black 
people in Hackney have got a chip on their shoulders. She started 
almost every sentence with "I'm not racist, but..." I listened as 
long as i could stand it and when it came to the point where i'd 
soon have to go down and have a go at her, i went somewhere else. 
It's not easy to confront a group of strangers and verbally attack 
one of them. Sometimes i'll do it and other times it doesn't seem 
worth the effort.

It's a few hours later and i'm still angry, so i'm putting in 
writing what i probably should have said face to face.

She was complaining about the hostility she's experienced from black 
people in Hackney. At the same time, she was talking in a 
patronizing way about how she likes black people! She was saying how 
they're not really british even though they might have been born 
there and she was indignant about the fact that she felt they were 
racist towards her.

Firstly she should consider how come she's rich enough to take a 
holiday on a beautiful tropical island in south east Asia, when most 
people in the world are lucky to get the odd day off from struggling 
to *feed* themselves and their families. The wealth that she's 
getting the benefit of was never created by her. She probably 
wouldn't know how to produce as much as a tomato, let alone any of 
the incredible ammount of other resources she consumes without 
thinking every day. The wealth she's living on and the wealth 
Britain is just coming, painfully, to the end of, was produced in a 
significant part by West Indian slaves. It was also plundered from 
Africa, India, Australia, America and south east Asia.

If she even gave this a passing thought, she might begin to see 
things a little differently. It takes more than a few generations to 
forget the rapes, murders, beatings, imprisonment and slavery that 
the british government and its agents used to ease the pillage of 
the empire. It takes much, much longer - in fact it never seems to 
happen. Some of Britain's class problems today have their roots in 
the subjugation of the Kelts by the Romans - two thousand years ago!

Secondly, in her thoughts about whether blacks are really british, 
has she ever considered where *her* ancestors came from? As Marcus 
Garvey said, "a people without a knowledge of their past history, 
origin and culture is like a tree without roots." And like a tree 
without roots, this foolish and sadly typical british person is easy 
to push over.

If you listen to the way Geordies speak, you might notice that it 
sounds very similar to Danish. This is because they are, in a large 
part, descendents of  the Vikings, who came from Denmark, robbing, 
murdering and raping, and who controlled that part of Britain and 
much of the rest of the east coast for many years. She's very likely 
got more scandinavian blood than british blood (whatever that is)!

The other important point, of course, is that she doesn't come from 
Hackney, only recently having moved into the area - unlike the 
majority of the people she's whining about. She complained about 
black people not assimilating into british culture. Unfortunately 
their hostility is probably a sign that they've assimilated only too 
well! I've travelled a fair bit, in four continents, and i've yet to 
find a more unfriendly and hostile bunch of people than the British!
When i was a kid in Essex, we moved *one* mile down the road and we 
were considered "foreigners" for years! She's come from the other 
end of the country, just another colonizer to the few Hackney people 
that haven't been driven out by the flood of provincial british 
migrants swarming into the place over the last fifteen years. She's 
racist - and anyone who's subjected to racism every day can spot it 
on first eye contact. And she obviously hasn't got a clue what's 
really going on in the borough.

She should develop a bit of sensitivity, learn to be less arrogant 
and take the time to develop an understanding of her new home - like 
all non-british migrants to Hackney invariably do. When she's been 
there ten years, or even five maybe, then she might have earned a 
small right to be critical of the people who were born there. 
Hopefully by then she will have come to understand why they are the 
way they are.

The writer of this article is white, british and has lived in 
the London Borough of Hackney on and off since 1979.

