Prof Gus John: Disagreement yes, disunity no!

‘What has the West done to upset Somalis’, was the opening gambit this morning by LBC disc jockey James O’Brien in response to the terrorist attack in Nairobi, Kenya. . Before that the stations leading shock jock Nick Ferrari spent five minutes informing the capital about the impeding influx of Romanians as the restrictions of EU movement are relaxed for a number of countries. His reporter on the ground in Bucharest, Romania told the Ferrari that he’d never seen such poverty in all his life.

People here are living in tin shacks, with wild dogs everywhere and a mafia boss who had bears and lions that would make a meal of his enemies."

Ferrari closed the short piece by asking his reporter to do one of two things:

Like some Romanians do here in our national parks,"

he inquired,

you could, sleep in their national parks, use the fountain to clean yourself and urinate and defecate in the bushes, or you could go on the streets of Bucharest and beg for money."

The reporter chose the latter and no doubt will report back tomorrow. The whole of last week, of course was characterised by the spurious national debate about the veil.

For Black and minority ethnic communities, we are truly in extra ordinary times. There is barely a day that goes by which doesn’t see one or other minority communities being lambasted, attacked and or vilified, by some politician or a media outlet. In fact when the Ukip MEP Godfrey Bloom referred to aid being wasted in ‘Bongo, bongo’ he was not only hailed as a hero in Blog sphere, but also escaped any punishment from his boss Nick Farage. However, in contrast by calling women ‘sluts’, this attack was rightly sanctioned by his party.

That BME communities are facing a deluge of attacks and are being disproportionately affected by the Government's austerity measures, and a pernicious immigration debate is beyond doubt. But that perhaps is not our biggest challenge, enormous as it is. Our greatest hurdle will not be our detractors but ourselves and above all our unity.

That’s why I was disappointed with my friend-Professor Gus John’s articles about his analysis in regards our research, ‘The power of the Black Vote’ - the lack of courtesy of a call that would have clarified many of his doubts or questions.

I particularly took issue with his analysis/commentary in regards to this line: ‘OBV appears to want to ‘send out a message to Black Britain that hope, if not salvation, lies in throwing in their lot with these politically and morally bankrupt political parties.’

OBV has never said that the only way to tackle race inequality is through the democratic process. That’s just a shocking misrepresentation about who are we are. We agree with Gus John that our politicians have not served us well, but we argue that we should use our political leverage to demand change. Over the next few weeks, organisations, lobby groups and big business will be at the party political conferences using their leverage to gain political influence. We need a voice for race equality too!

After I called John to let him know my disappointment, he felt the need to write a second piece arguing I’d tried to silence him from legitimate debate. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. Our intellectuals, activists, journalists and many others must have a vigorous debate about some of the biggest challenges facing our communities. And of course there might be disagreement. But here’s the point: our disagreements will be less when we truly respect each and pick up the phone or send an email and ask ‘Do you mean this? Have you thought about that? Of course you might not agree, but with that discussion you’re more likely to make unnecessary mistakes, which both lacks respect and undermines solidarity.

Which takes us to the final point: Gus John states that he sees/views OBV no more or no less than any major political party such as the Lib Dem, Labour and the Conservatives. It is this lack of solidarity that deeply saddens me. Unlike the major political parties OBV‘s raison d’être is about achieving greater equality, dignity and respect for our communities.

We at OBV believe that we must confront the daily deluge of attacks and policies that work against us with action, -which comes in many guises including politics-, with passion and above all with solidarity.

Yes, Professor Gus John we can disagree, but without the fundamentals of unity and solidarity, our challenge becomes almost impossible.

Simon Woolley

http://www.gusjohn.com/2013/09/the-black-vote-and-the-2015-general-elect...

http://www.gusjohn.com/2013/09/the-black-vote-public-discourses-in-the-p...