EDITORIAL

I well remember the 1971 film Shaft and the bonding between two New York detectives, one white and the other black, which prompted the former to appreciate the latter along the lines of: 'You ain't so black, you know'. At that point, Sharp, the black detective was drinking 'kwoffy' from a white china mug which he simply held against his buddy's cheek: 'And you ain't so white'.

As a boy, in and out of the neighbours' houses playing with my pals, running across the marshes, catching newts, frogs and the occasional toad, the only danger I ever ran was getting home late for tea ... or perhaps slipping into one of the many streams. One day a few of us had gone on some errand or other. We stopped outside the Co-op, rooted to the spot. There on the other side of the road, waiting for the tram trundling up the hill, was a man, the first 'black' any of us had ever seen. Such is the innocence of youth. He waved and gave a broad smile as he then climbed aboard. We just stood there, like pillars of salt.

We'd always been told by our elders never to use the term 'black' when referring to people of a certain colour/ethnicity. It showed lack of respect, disdain ... But fashions change. Now it is the only way readily to identify those of Afro/Afro-Caribbean descent, it's the way those of such descent refer to themselves and, as I understand, always wish and prefer to be referred to. But the term still sits uncomfortably on my tongue.

Yet as I broach trans-cultural matters in our world of such fascinating and wondrous variety, I hear the eggshells, like thin ice, starting to crack under my feet.

If I call someone a Jew, although that person may self-style themselves that way and well be of that faith and racial descent, if I call someone Black, although that person may well be so and refer to themselves as such and want me to follow suit, I'm entering dangerous territory, especially in a country such as ours where you can be accused of revving your car engine in a racially aggressive manner and be hauled up on a charge. But others may point their finger at me and cry 'Foreign devil' (Chinese term for 'Not of Chinese stock'), 'Honky' (i.e. 'White/Not black like me'), 'Tommy' (by which the Germans still refer to Brits. Yes, it's interesting how often we can shorten words in English - e.g. British/Britons to Brits - and how often we can't e.g. Pakistani), or call me 'Christian!' in that disparagingly secular way or otherwise use any of the myriad terms employed by ethic/linguistic minorities in the UK and elsewhere to refer disdainfully to 'UK aboriginals'. But I'm not even sure whether such a term as 'UK aboriginals' can exist, is even acceptable or understandable without causing offence, injustice or otherwise infringing upon other person's rights, expectations, nationality, entitlements, sexuality, sensitivities or alternatively casting aspersions on their build, age, colouring, height, weight, use of spectacles ... Perhaps the time is fully overdue for feet, irrespective of their colour, to stamp in catholic unison (I use lower case 'c' deliberately, but upper case if you prefer) and step back from the overgrown monkey puzzle tree of political and even wonky-eyed correctness, that totem pole to which we have irrationally bound our society.

Just a thought.

Happy Easter!