Dear Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg,
The 2012 Olympic Games will be hosted in London, which, no doubt will be a source of pride for the nation. The Games are a model of diversity in all its global forms. It is also very modern, especially with all the technology at the heart of its administration and the evolving rules to accommodate new and sensible changes in practice. The Games may have originated in Athens, from which the long journey of the symbolic Olympic Torch still begins, but the face of this important international event has become more inclusive, more fair and more rewarding for smaller countries to participate in. If a tiny country like Jamaica, thanks to Usain Bolt and his colleagues, could lead the rest of the world in the medals in Beijing, being placed just after the big guns, anything is possible. What might it do with the resources of those top countries? Better still, what might the UK do with a motivated and fully inclusive team in 2012? Which brings me to the point of this letter.
The concept of 'equality' (in terms of everyone being entitled to experience the SAME reality) is a social construct: idealistic and impossible. Nothing is equal in Nature in that context, and humanity is an integral part of Nature. That is why we can never eradicate social inequality because man's natural diversity, and the desire to feel significant, valued and worthy, will always prompt him to find ways to differentiate himself from others. What needs to be fully understood is that we are already made equal, but different, in our value. It is man's refusal to accept value in diversity, the natural fear of difference - and the desire to level everything down to one acceptable common denominator instead - which is preventing real social equality from becoming a reality, and nowhere is there such a contradiction than in the UK, as demonstrated by the following random examples.
1. It is a contradiction in terms to have an unelected head of the country (the Queen, with all the inherited trappings of power) and then to talk about true equality. If the monarch's presence - and an unelected House of Lords - cement a three-tiered highly unequal social system, how can equality work in the rest of society? It's like piously giving one message to one powerless section, while the powerful assiduously practises another! The stark reality of equality in Britain is a continuous message of some people being more equal than others, enshrined in the Royal Family and the nobility. This makes a nonsense of valuing people when there are clear tiers of worth. Incidentally, though London has over 36% of its population from minority communities, you would be lucky to spot anyone black around this Royal Family when they're in the UK! Mixing with anyone of colour, or employing them even, appears to be reserved for when they are abroad, yet both Buckingham Palace and St James' Palace sit right at the heart of London.
Criticism Without Solutions
2. Mr Cameron, you recently said that multiculturalism (in Britain) isn't working. This is the worst thing you could have said to your country because such negative statements do not build anything. They only destroy what is already there, and what could be possible, while giving a firm slap of disapproval to the many individuals working tirelessly to ensure social harmony and success. Quite simply, the future of the nation depends upon that harmony. Anyone can criticise current attitude, behaviour or practice, if they have a solution to change the status quo. But to make such a statement, yet not offer any solutions as to how things could be remedied, is yet another example of using fine words to appease the more powerful and privileged sections of society, while instilling fear, angst and dread in the rest of it. Your words were like dropping a grenade in the middle of a crowd, yet not expecting it to blow some heads off! If multiculturalism isn't working, where is the inclusiveness among the population? How does one change things for the better? There is no problem without a solution, so what is your solution, Mr Cameron?
Britain is already multicultural, take it or leave it. Our current social state is not a 'project' that can be started, then evaluated, then stopped if we don't like the results. We are now stuck with it, whether we like it or not. The minority population is now expanding more rapidly than the majority. We have to make the best of multiculturalism so that it benefits as many people as possible. This can be done through a simple but powerful little word: RESPECT. But at the heart of respect is SENSITIVITY, and there's the key problem.
The reason why multiculturalism isn't working (and that's a pretty sweeping statement which flies in the face of what is happening in many parts of the country) is primarily because:
* There is no national leadership around it;
* No firm guidelines on appropriate public behaviour;
* No consistency across society to instill individual confidence and reassurance:
* And no sensitivity being applied right across the board to the various communities.
Everyone appears to do what they like, and to accept anything, for fear of anyone else being upset. Thus some communities end up being treated more sensitively than others, mainly to appease in many cases, and to avoid any hassles. But wherever there is perceived injustice, there will be discontent and a feeling of exclusion, no matter who perceives it as relevant to them.
Britain is a wonderful country, as many of its multicultural citizens will testify. It is not for outsiders to impose their values on it, or for politicians to denigrate the essence of that society for political expediency. It is the duty of politicians to promote inclusiveness, purely because of the fact that, once elected, they represent every single person in their constituencies, not just the ones with the loudest voices, the right cultures or the right skin. They simply cannot choose some and reject others.
Outdated Honours System
3. While the Olympic Games march on to its inevitably modernised version, Britain is still stuck back there in an invisible empire, even though the last vestiges of that empire disappeared over 60 years ago. Minority communities are still excluded from being fully British by a pretty racist and exclusive form of accolade - the Public Honours System - which still glorifies an empire which is long gone and divides a multicultural community in the process. Worse still, the word empire means two completely different things to different sections of our society. For whites empire is about glory, power, heroism, conquest and control. For blacks and Asians, who were yoked under its highly unequal colonial system, it represents repression, discrimination, cultural imposition, lack of value, lack of identity, exclusivity and unworthiness. The real irony is that every time someone black or Asian receives such an award, they are actually being asked to celebrate and uphold the very injustices done to their forefathers! Once again, a total lack of respect for multicultural Britain.
Mr Cameron, this country can be made far more inclusive simply by replacing the word Empire in the Honours with the word 'Excellence'. That would take away that divisive term and unite the UK's multicultural population through the unified striving for excellence that would make Britain great again. At a stroke it also unites the old awards and the new ones, in that the current MBEs (Member of the British Empire), for instance, would also sit alongside the new Members for British Excellence, without them being excluded or sidelined in anyway. The initials would still be the same without removing any of the value from past awards. I have always resisted any public honour, or nominating anyone for it, because of this glorification of an invisible empire. However, I can now say, quite openly and truthfully, that I would be the first in the queue for an award - and even keen to promote it - if they became more inclusive! Prime Minister, it's the present that matters, not past glories. The past brought us to where we are, but it's the present that will decide our future. If that present is mishandled we all will reap the dire rewards.
4. There is a general mindset, both corporate and individual, that fears difference of any kind. A mindset that refuses to accept the validity of diversity and its strength in preference to an artificial levelling concept of equality that is meaningless, irrelevant and patronising to those it applies. For example, anything applying to white males appear to be the norm. No one questions their suitability in the corporate world for any position. However, mention anyone else in the frame, especially women and minorities, and immediately terms like 'merit', 'best person' for the job and 'not lowering the standards' are pronounced with gay abandon. Ipso facto, only men 'merit' anything automatically in the workplace, only they are the best ones for the post and only they will uphold the standards of recruitment! Anyone deviating from them has to be questioned and kept out to keep the status quo in place. Yet the number of men who currently gain their positions because of whom they know, and their gender, rather than what they know, is simply legion!
The Limitations of Laws
What we have in the process of our evolving society is rapidly expanding technology having to contend with old mindsets around age, difference and diversity; fearful mindsets that are trying vainly to cope with current needs and failing dismally. The most important point relating to such mindsets is this: Laws do not give equality. Laws merely provide a framework for its process and a source of information for its compliance. Laws do not make people equal because they are equal already in their own right. The only thing that gives true equality is an acknowledgement and acceptance of difference: respect to that difference without trying to level it to suit the most powerful sector, and sensitivity to all parties involved, not just one group against the others.
We need a new mindset that says anyone merits whatever they are given, until proven otherwise. A mindset that readily accepts diversity, seeks to learn from it and to celebrate it - a diversity that is fully inclusive of whites as well as blacks, men as well as women, and old as well as young, to name a few.
Those four examples dealt with equality on a general public level, but what of the inequality on a personal level?
5. Let's use that honours system again, where the honours are awarded to gays like Sir Elton John. He is a knight of the realm, and he is married with a partner. Naturally, David Furnish cannot be called Lady John, as would have happened with a heterosexual couple. But why hasn't there been an equivalent so that Sir Elton's family, and others like him, do not lose out on enjoying their achievement? What about The Right Honourable, for partners like David, or a brand new title that addresses the needs of gays in this respect (that sensitivity again), instead of just paying lip service to their legal marriage without the rights that are naturally accorded to their straight counterparts. It's sensitive, personal INCLUSIVE elements like that which make people feel valued and equal, not contrived situations which deny their inclusion and have little relevance for them. An individual feels equal not when a law says so, but when his/her life has relevance, meaning and significance to him/her AND to others. The army of virtually invisible minorities in Britain are a long way from feeling any relevance or significance in their lives, despite their ongoing contribution to the country and their loyalty to it. Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, if you want to know how invisible minorities are in Britain, have a look in Westminster Abbey on April 29th. You really won't be disappointed.
With the orgy of cuts going on at the moment, it is easy to believe that as long as everyone is treated equally, i:e the same, then the cuts are justified and the most vulnerable won't suffer. Except that cutting 10% of £1000, in a household where that income is barely enough (the worst paid people in Britain already being Bangladeshis and Pakistanis), is not the same as 10% of £50,000, where that family is already well off! Equality does NOT come through sameness, applying everything right across the board in one great majestic sweep of fine intentions. Equality comes through appreciating and accepting the diversity of our world, and valuing people as they are, with due sensitivity to their needs and what matters to them - and in a spirit of compromise. Not just imposing upon them what we think is right in order to make them fit our vision of the perfect world.
Again, equality is not trying to make others into what we wish them to be by ignoring their difference. True equality comes by enabling diverse peoples, through their own perspectives, to see their value, their worth and what is truly possible, by working together with others in a spirit of mutual respect for the common good.
I have twinned the Olympic Games with the concept of equality and multiculturalism because when the UK was bidding for the Games, it shamelessly cavorted its multicultural community to impress the international Olympic Committee. There was no talk of multiculturalism failing at that time! In fact the cynical message to the rest of the world was how well it was working in Britain which made it the best place for the Games!
The diverse Olympic Games will be staged in our capital in 2012. But how truly diverse will Britain be when it welcomes the members from all those countries? How fair and sensitive will it be to its own people? Will it still be stuck back in its unchanging white empire as politicians welcome the diversity of the Games while hypocritically trumpeting the failure of multiculturalism to score cheap points?
Or will it simply be unequal business as usual after the grand PR displays have faded, the torrent of empty words become an echo, and the victorious but tired competitors have gone home?
Sincerely,
Elaine Sihera (Ms CYPRAH)
Author: Managing the Diversity Maze
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