Racism and xenophobia are hot topics in the UK press yet again. For the first time since World War II, a far-right group, backed by 23 million members in EU states, has won a place in the European Parliament. Calling themselves the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) party, this new ultra-right winged bloc have been dubbed “gypsy-haters, holocaust-deniers, xenophobes, homophobes and anti-semites” by the Independent. Besides the usual suspects (Asians, Arabs and Africans), the expansion of the EU has led to Eastern Europeans being the latest targets of xenophobes. Ironically, the admission of Bulgaria and Romania in January this year was what sealed the deal for Europhiles like Jean-Marie Le Pen, who voted against Romania and Bulgaria joining the EU in the first place. The arrival of six Romanian and Bulgarian extremists gave the ITS the 20 seats it needed at the Strasbourg Parliament on the 16 January 2007. Members include, Bruno Gollnisch of France’s National Front, who is awaiting a court verdict on charges of Holocaust denial, Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Benito, former UK Independent Party leader Ashley Mote and other nationalists and extremists from Austria, Poland, Denmark, Poland and Slovakia. The idea that this mish mash of peoples with distinctly separate, cultural heritage and language could rally together is almost comical. Jean-Marie Le Pen when introducing these party leaders at a National Front conference once said: “These are all our friends…they all hate each other, of course, but they are all our friends.”
From a political perspective, there are a number of reasons for the growing influence of the far-right. The increase in immigration has lead to a feeling of deprivation and fear among the European working class who now have to fight with labourers from third world and developing nations for jobs. These new immigrants tend to set up their own ethnic communities, and are reluctant to assimilate. Such in-grouping is a form of reverse elitism and by keeping huddled in closed communities, these groups sow the seeds of paranoia in society. Developed nations like America and Britain are moving towards militarianism, and in order to fund foreign wars, the respective governments need to drum up public support and get people believing propaganda like “Arabs are terrorists”. A report by the European Centre on Racism and Xenophobia states: “Racism and xenophobia are present everywhere; not one EU member state is exempt from this.” Perhaps, none of us are exempt from this. The appearance of the ITS in an institution like the EU Parliament is proof that it is not just the ignorant, poor or educated who are xenophobic.
The Oxford dictionary defines Xenophobia as an “intense dislike or fear of foreigners or strangers.”
Xenophobia is a natural as any fear. I recall as a child my own fear of an Australian family friend whom we called Uncle Charlie. Charlie Galloway was almost seven foot tall, with white hair, big hands, a hooked nose, freckly skin and an accent I couldn’t understand…and he smelt like sheep! My grandfather was a shipwright with an Australian vessel in the 1950s and when he fell ill in Perth, Western Australia, a good Christian couple, Charles and Joyce Galloway took him in and nursed him back to health. My family had become close to the Galloways over the years and had spent their honeymoon in their home. Charlie was a kind and friendly man with gentle eyes and he never did anything mean, but as a little Chinese girl who lived in a world inhabited only by slitty eyed, petite, black haired Orientals, this white-haired giant scared the be-Jesus out of me. Every time, uncle Charlie came for a visit, I would hide behind my mother’s skirt and scream and cry. When he tried to shake my hand or give me a present, I would shriek and run off into the kitchen. How awful it must have been for the poor old man. I must have made him feel like a mutant! Another, not so benign form of xenophobia is the kind that parents and grandparents instill in children through racist jokes and remarks. As a toddler, I would go for meals with my grandmother at the open-aired hawker centres. To stop her hyperactive granddaughter from running off on her own and getting lost, my grandma would tell me to sit tight, lest a turbaned Sikh whom she called “Babu Singh” caught me and put me in a gunny sack. She had made a boogeyman out of a racial minority. My grandma had given me one of the worse gifts one can give a child – a stereotype. It took many friendships with Sikh kids in school for me to unlearn it.
Xenophobia, like jealousy, low self-esteem and warts can be treated. The best way is through dialogue and humour. “How do Chinese parents decide on the names for their children? They throw pots and pans down a flight of stairs and pick the first sound they hear! Ching, Chong, Kong, Tek!” “Why are Italians and Greeks called W.O.P.s? Cause when you take a bag of shit and throw it against the wall, it goes WOP!” Ok, so these jokes are very silly and crude, but off-coloured humour is the only way we can safely address something that is a part of us all – the fear of people who look, behave and think contrary to us.
As a teenager, I hung out with a group of friends at the Far East Plaza shopping mall. There were Chinese, German, American, French, Indian, African and Malay, Middle Eastern and Eurasian youths who would all get drunk and smoke cigarettes together after school. The only thing we had in common were parents who didn’t understand our need for individualism and an eagerness to know about the world beyond little Singapore. We developed a lingo which allowed us to use semi-derogatory colloquial terms for each ethnic group in the most affectionate way. A Chinese person could be greeted by his non-Chinese friends with the word “munjen” (Tamil word for yellow tumeric – the colour of a Chinese person’s skin), an Indian person would be called a “tambi” (Tamil word for errand boy or office boy), a Caucasian person would be called a “guai loh” or “guai mui” (ghost boy/girl), “mat saleh” (white man), or “ang moh” (red head), a Malay person would be called a “mat” (short for the prophet Mohammed) and “minah” (the prophet’s mother) and a Eurasian would be called “grago” (in reference to Portuguese shrimp fishermen) or “chow hair” (Hokkien for smelly shrimp). It was like each ethnic group had its’ own comic strip super hero identity, and most of us didn’t mind the use of such terms. The terms were only used by other kids who were close enough and considered each other really good friends, blood brothers and sisters of sorts. So in our little teenage world in Far East Plaza, it was actually a privilege if someone called you a noggin or chink. It meant that you were a part of the inner circle, that you were not looked upon by the group as typical of your race. That you are no longer a foreigner, but part of a youth subculture where racial differences add to the ‘cool factor’. Of course, such candidness is reserved only for a certain place and time, and if the adult world operated in such a way, society would be in chaos. Gender, religion, sexual orientation and race are issues that most people feel too uncomfortable discussing in an in-dept way. Because you are either in or out. Depending on the consensus of the day, you are either the victim or the bully, the good or the bad.
I was at the hairdressers yesterday, and I overheard a white hairdresser talking to her British Indian lady client about the racist attacks by Jade Goody on Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on “Celebrity Big Brother”. The Indian lady said: “I don’t think Jade did anything wrong. That’s just her personality. They (the TV station) shouldn’t blame her. I don’t think she was being racist at all.” Shetty was allegedly called “the Indian”, and “cunt” on the show. Goody, articulating her xenophobic impulse had said: “She makes me feel sick. She makes my skin crawl.” Model Danielle Llyod remarked to another contestant when Shetty cooked a roast chicken dinner: “They eat with their hands in India, don’t they? Or is that China? You don’t know where those hands have been.” Llyod also called Shetty a “dog” and said she “wants to be white”. But our Indian friend in the salon obviously does not think that the abuse heaped upon her fellow Indian was racist. The white hairdresser said: “ I don’t know why they (the press and people in India) are making such a big deal about this. There are much more important things they should be talking about.”
This is exactly the kind of attitude that perpetuates xenophobia and racism today!!!! Parents not talking to their homosexual children about their sexuality and relationships! Husbands not talking to wives about the fact that her pay checque is bigger than his! Ethnic minorities not wanting to admit the reality of racism, and ethnic majorities dismissing the matter as if it were trivial.
The first racist slur that Shetty suffered may have been due to the fact that she is Indian. However, any subsequent remark can no longer be blamed on the colour of her skin or her accent. It can be attributed to her own cowering and meek personality. Anyone, regardless of rank or file invites insult when they are unassertive. The trouble with minority groups in any social situation is that they feel that they have to apologize for their minority status. That because they are black, female, Jewish, gay or have some kind of physical or mental defect, they have to work extra hard at making people like them and accept them. Or they become so conscious of their own differences that they interact with people in a very tense and socially awkward way, which makes people uncomfortable and attack them. Another problem with ethnic minorities, particularly those from post-colonial societies, (here Lloyd might be right) is that they ‘want to be white’ and the rest of Mediterranean and Slavic Europe secretly want to be Vanderbilt and Astor WASPs. It is hard to respect someone who is not somewhat nationalistic or at least proud of his or her roots. Some might argue that many third generation immigrants born in foreign cities have adopted the nationalities of their host countries. That is a weak excuse. When we look in the mirror, or at our father’s or mother’s last names, we know the community from which we belong. Irish accents and Italian traditions may have gotten lost in America, Chinese and Indian customs and languages may be restricted to kitchens and living rooms today, Afro-Caribbean songs may exist more so in memory than in day-to-day life. But they should not be abandoned. National and racial identity is an essential part of the human psyche and it needs to be embraced.
John Lichfied of the Independent wrote: “The far-right cannot be a coherent pan-European movement, but it can be a virus which spreads through the democratic institutions that it abhors like some kind of super-bug, a political “MRSA”.”
The virus does not come from the far-right. It comes from the people who would pretend that xenophobia does not exist within themselves. The presence of the ITS is perhaps a backlash against globalization and multiculturalism. A warning that the only way to deal with the potential threat of a fascist revival is to give people what they need – the right to be bigots, and to hate bigots. We don’t need to accept or tolerate, much less respect anyone unless we choose to. And even so, respect needs to be earned. We don’t have to like each other to live together or to keep our economies alive. As Le Pen said: “They all hate each other, of course, but they are all our friends.”
Copyright 2007, Michele Koh
