Edinburgh Festivals

Book Festival 2001

Debating the Future: Living Together
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Hugh Brody

Munira Mirza

In light of this summer's 'race riots' in the north of England, a discussion about how different cultures can live together in the 21st century seems especially pertinent.

Despite our self-flattery that we are a cheerful multi-cultural society and that chicken tikka masala is our favourite dish, the dramatic scenes of violence between young Asian people and police in towns like Oldham and Burnley would suggest that racial tensions are alive and well in Britain today.

It is the lingering continuity of our racial problem that was discussed by leading journalist and commentator, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (author of the newly published Mixed Feelings) and Hugh Brody, renowned anthropologist and author of The Other Side of Eden. Both authors have researched and spoken widely about the nature and evolution of racism, and their new publications highlight the personal stories of people who have experienced racism today.

Alibhai-Brown's book explores the persistent difficulties of mixed relationships. It is interesting, she told the audience, how 'history continues'. Brody also argued that racism today is a hangover from European imperialism of the nineteenth century, an almost inherent desire on the part of the conqueror to subjugate the indigineous people. His new work investigates the tensions in the Arctic Circle between the white frontier people and their threat to the Inuit population.

Yet, what is more intriguing within the discussion of race is what is different and particular about racism today. As the Victorians were violently turning the world map a homogenous shade of pink, they were using scientific theories to justify their position of power. Inequality was explained as a result of racial difference. At the start of the 21st century, a belief in racial difference continues to occupy the western imagination but it is no longer explained scientifically.

You only need look at the harsh response to the American book The Bell Curve (Richard J Herrnstein, Charles Murray, 1996), which advanced biological theories of ethnicity and intelligence, to see that scientific racism is highly unfashionable in both academic and mainstream culture. Racism today takes on a very different flavour. Today, the word 'race' is replaced by the term 'ethnicity' to imply that the differences between us are culturally, not genetically determined.

According to the multicultural view of the world we are shaped by our ethnic origins and the culture we are brought up in. Like old-fashioned racism, multiculturalism continues to organise society into discrete groups that are culturally distinct and determined. We are taught to celebrate the differences between us and preserve our separate identities. However, this racialising of society can only exacerbate tensions.

Take a look at the town of Oldham to see what a 'multicultural' policy in the local police force can do to stir up trouble. By constantly classifying incidents as racially motivated (even when the victims themselves insist they are not) the police manage to normalise racial difference as an inescapable part of everyday life. No wonder both Asian and white youths feel despondent when all aspects of their life are recast as racial.

The government's concern about the safekeeping of our cultural identities also distracts us from debating the real political inequalities between us. For instance, intelligent discussion about immigration laws is sidelined by the concern that we might be 'offending' asylum seekers so much that they cannot integrate into society. Blunkett's recent idea to give immigrants compulsory English lessons indicates that the Government blames the cultural differences of immigrants for their inability to integrate. They seem oblivious to the fact that it is actually their own border restrictions and welfare policy that is responsible.

If we want to live together in a truly equal and non-racist society, a good place to start would be to ask the state to leave our cultural identities alone and instead eliminate immigration controls - treating individuals as equals regardless of their ethnic origins.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown's Mixed Feelings is available in paperback, published by The Women's Press, £11.99. Hugh Brody's The Other Side of Eden is available in paperback, published by Faber & Faber, £20.00.