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THE question is: Is racism ever ‘banter’?
Banter is defined as the playful or good-humoured use of words, usually between acquaintances and friends.
This is currently a news-worthy item because a professional cricketer in England, being British of Pakistani descent, is called a word over a period of time which shortens the name of his country of heritage by a team-mate.
He complains (a number of years after the event, admittedly) and the cricket club holds an official enquiry. The enquiry report dismisses the complaint claiming that the use of what is, in effect, a racist slur is ‘banter’ between colleagues and friends. Another cricketer at the same club is now referring to being urinated upon by a white colleague and the desecration of another cricketer’s prayer mat.
This is precisely the type of insidious and overt racist experiences which I and countless others from ethnic minorities growing up in England experienced at one time or another – be it at school, in a shop, at a sports club and even on the street.
All these jokes about Asians not being able to find a corner without building a shop on it, etc, etc. All these extremist organisations – the National Front and the British National Party – telling Black and Asian people to ‘go back where they came from’.
I must say that, thankfully, many years on we live in more enlightened and liberated times. The UK is now a truly multicultural society and there is much less tolerance of racism as is evidenced by the outrage caused by the events at this cricket club.
The point which I wish to make is that racist language and behaviour is never ‘just banter’ and needs to be called out as such.
By the same token it’s not always white people who are racist against black or brown people. I have to say that the treatment of migrant workers here, in our own backyard, is racist when people of a different nationality are singled out for discriminatory treatment.
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