{Immigration and Race Relations}[29th April 1968]

[Redbook1:36][19680429:1900]{Immigration and Race Relations}[29th April 1968][Age 16]

Monday 28^h April 1968

7.0p.m.

            I have just not eaten a very nasty supper of old fish fried in breadcrumbs (artificial) with lumpy mashed potato.  One mouthful was enough.  O.K., I know there are thousands starving in India who would love this food -- but that's no excuse for serving up foul on muck of this sort.  Even at 2/-a meal, I should have thought that they could do better than that.

            The rain is sheeting down outside, I have had a bad essay handed back to me (about Grade 'O' standard at 'A' level), and I have a lot of work which I feel singularly disinclined to do.  However, I have written a little more verse and I have, I hope, got myself out of judging [?] the 'Babcock' Athletics Trophy, so things aren't too bad.

            I am having some difficulty in choosing my natural style of writing.  On the advice of Dr. D, I have decided to adopt this sloping style since, although it is less tidy than the upright style, it is easier and does not slope backwards -- I am told that backward sloping writing is a disadvantage when one is applying for a job, since it indicates nervous disorders etc.  I am also told that large writing is an advantage, so I shall try to adopt it.  D says that upright writing his best, but mine tends to slip backwards so I can't use that safely.

            The immigration problem is worrying me slightly.  I think the Americans' pessimism is slightly wishful thinking: they would secretly like to see us in the same boat as them, if only for company, as we, no doubt, would secretly like to see them in financial trouble -- not through malice, but so that we would not feel so alone in the scornful eyes (we imagine) of the world.  We have not the same inbred sense of superiority and scorn for the black man as the American South has in many places; therefore, it should be an easier job to eradicate it.  The most important thing is that schools and facilities for young people should NOT be segregated; I have a small hope that the next generation -- my generation -- will accept black men completely, so long as they can be indoctrinated -- yes, I'm afraid that is the only word, to do so.  But it is for this generation's prejudices and fears that we must plan.  Part of the problem is that at this particular moment there is overcrowding and unemployment and individual and general insecurity.  Overcrowding often encourages militancy -- it is one of man's deepest instincts, I think, to swing his arms about and clear space for himself in overcrowded conditions.  How else can he have survived by migration?  -- In early times, the great migrations must, I think, have occurred when overcrowded conditions made famine inevitable, but before it occurred -- otherwise it would have been too late.  This is why archaeologists puzzle over the causes of the great migrations, because there are no visible signs of a catastrophe – i.e. piles of bones -- to cause such migrations.  The answer is that nature takes over before famine strikes -- usually, but not always.  But I digress.

            As I was saying, overcrowding encourages men to fight, whether for air or for rights.  Unemployment and insecurity desire scapegoats, and who better than men who one knows to have recently arrived in the country, because of their colour?  [“]They are the root of the trouble.  They are the men who are taking our jobs, sleeping with our wives, marrying our children, infiltrating [...] the most sacred aspects of our great Nation’s Way of Life....[“]

            You see what I mean by prejudice.

            We must make it absolutely illegal to incite racial hatred -- in fact, we have already done so, but the law either isn't strict enough or isn't being enforced enough.  I'm afraid this is one area where we really can't afford freedom of speech as we know it today.  This may sound awful, but think of these possible headlines: Race Riots in London; Birmingham burns; Looters in Edinburgh; Troops called in in Coventry.  Perhaps it is the last phrase which has the nastiest ring; a nation which has to use its own forces against its own people is in a sorry state indeed.  We must also set up a body (not another one!) with complete powers to regulate the number of people coming into Britain.  They may choose on the basis of intelligence, need, or whatever -- or even on colour.  At a time like this they should allow virtually no one in.  Their facts of admittance (figures) must be made available to the public at regular, short intervals.  No immigrants should be sent home, but all who wish to should be given a free passage so long as they clearly understand that they will not be allowed back.  Perhaps those who we want to keep should not be offered a free passage.  All this must be irrespective of colour, we hope.  The racial discrimination laws should be enforced on blacks who lead protest (militant) marches as well as on white employers who refuse black men jobs -- simple tests could be made by phone -- on account of their colour.

            Immigrants should get voting rights and free services e.g. National Health Service at a short interval after they arrive -- from one year till three years, depending on what the privilege is -- but they must lose these privileges if they have their fare home paid for.  They can give e.g. one year's notice that they are going to come for things like education and national health.  England must be made to look like less of a paradise and more of a workhouse to those abroad.

            Of course, the basic problem is one you can't legislate against -- that of the basic instinct of people to keep the stock pure.  This can be indoctrinated out, however, by modern mass media -- the press, t.v., schools, political speeches, radio, advertisements, and the Church.  Perhaps the last would play the most important role in giving forth Christ's attitude to colour prejudice, and in emphasising that "Love thy Neighbour” includes black men.  They should indeed say that a man who hates his neighbour because his skin is dark has no right to call himself Christian -- I believe this to be so.  Unfortunately, the Church feels itself to be in such a precarious position that it probably will not risk itself in this cause -- in which case it will have failed in its duty to God and mankind.

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