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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.