It’s Carnival day, and in the spirit of multiculturalism I’ve decided to scrap the post I was writing about race. To be honest, I was having a hard time tying all the points together without asking “Why can’t we all just get along?”. It’s a hell of a complex subject, and I’m afraid I just can’t do it justice.
Instead, I’ll present you with a few of the points I wanted to raise, and ask you for a moment of quiet reflection to draw your own conclusions from them.
- On the 436 a few weeks ago, I saw a young Asian man attacked by a young Black man, for no obvious motive other than their colours.
- Camberwell has a large Somali community, and yet they are almost invisible in terms of presence in local businesses.
- When I watch football in the Cadeleigh Arms, about half of the punters are Black; yet the only insults that get thrown around are to do with club loyalty.
- Fear is often based on stereotypes; there’s a poster over at the SE5Forum who seems convinced that kids only go to the cinema to deal drugs, stab each other and get each other pregnant. I can only imagine he’s never been to the cinema.
- There’s a group of young Black kids who often hang around outside their house in the street where I live; they used to make me nervous, until one time I gave one of them a cigarette (back in my smoking days) and he was very polite, asked my name and addressed me by it from then on.
- Even as an advocate of the right to free speech, I recognise that limits need to be imposed; while I don’t think the Rasta/separatist rally in Lucas Gardens should have been outlawed, I don’t believe the Council should have provided resources for it.
- Love see no colour.
Make of that what you will.
On other matters, I dropped into the Dark Horse for a half of Addlestones this afternoon; the staff were very friendly, which I appreciated, but the place was pretty quiet; I don’t know how that compares to other local pubs.
Update: Forgot to mention, I found a pub that shows Premiership Plus games — thanks to everyone who gave me tips on that. Two problems with it:
- It’s in Peckham (the Albert on Bellenden Road)
- It’s full of Man Utd spoilers