The
Know-Nothings
The nature of prejudice and its role in the
subjugation of groups in just about every human society has long been discussed
by social scientists. It remains a cultural heirloom passed down the
generations and as such can be difficult to eradicate. Abraham Lincoln once
wrote to his friend Joshua Speed using words which could fit any number of
conflicts today…
More years ago than I care to remember, I sat
in a bothy on a building site nestling in a Glasgow scheme which was being
renovated. To my left was ‘Chelsea’ so called because he wore a Chelsea top to
work each day; on my right was ‘Ian’ who wore an England top and liked to spend
his breaks using felt pens to decorate the bothy walls with child-like artistic
impressions of Loyalist insignia. Both young men were Glasgow born and bred.
What surprised me was the fact that the mixed group of workers in the Bothy
barely batted an eyelid at behaviour and language which was overtly racist and
sectarian. It was as if this was the way things were and nothing could alter
it.
‘Ian’ was a particularly nasty person with what
some call ‘wee man syndrome.’ His daily
anti-Catholic remarks and bitter little jokes could perhaps be excused as he
was also clearly, ‘not the full shilling’
as my dad used to say. He didn’t like my humorous putdowns and was far from
happy when my response to another of his predictably moronic statements; ‘Ain’t no black in the union Jack’ was,
‘Aye but there’s blue and red so can
Smurfs and native Americans get in yer wee club?’ His face was as scarlet
as the red hands he liked to sketch, particularly as the bothy laughed at him.
Humour remains a powerful weapon when used well against those seeking to spread
division.
Chelsea was a brighter if somewhat misguided
young man. He seemed desperate to find an identity and a world view to guide
him in life. I told him one Monday morning that I saw him at the weekend fighting
with Celtic fans at Duke Street railway station. He tried to explain himself
with the old. ‘Aye Tims like you are OK
but those other ones deserve it.’ I
pushed him to say why the others deserved it and he fell back on tired old
tropes like, ‘They’re all IRA supporters’
etc. He was bright enough to see how hollow his words were even as he spoke
them; in honesty, he just liked the excitement of violence. I got to know him quite
well and it struck me that his life revolved around cultural, sporting and
social events which restricted his interactions to those he called his ‘own people.’ Getting to know people from
other backgrounds personally through work though introduced him to the idea
that they weren’t so different to him. ‘Ian’ may have seemed to be beyond
redemption back then but Chelsea was potentially a good guy despite adopting
shallow tribal postures and attitudes which helped him fit in to his chosen
sub-culture. You got the impression he never fully bought into the nonsense he
sometimes spouted.
We all know people like Chelsea and Ian; young
men looking for purpose and meaning in their lives and through the more malign influences
around them, find it in worn out attitudes and prejudices which in reality can
blight their lives. I met Chelsea in a totally different context a couple of
years back and he was thankfully a wiser man who had shed the worst of his
prejudices and lost the friends that needed losing. Some people learn and grow
in life; some follow the same old groove all their days.
I thought of these two chaps as I watched
footage of England fans in Seville for a match with Spain. A minority displayed
all that old ignorance and arrogance which makes them as popular as the plague.
Their prejudices have been weaponised by
Brexit and are now portrayed as less absurd than they should be by some. We had
the usual ‘fuck the Pope and the IRA’
no doubt learned over the years from those other Brit-Nats further north. There
was also an utterly obnoxious ditty about Scott Brown and Madeleine McCann.
Jack Pitt-Brooke, writing in the Independent with characteristic candour said
of them…
‘We all
know inside ourselves that the behaviour of so many of England’s fans abroad is
no aberration and no accident. It is not at odds with our national character
and mood but entirely at one with it: insular, arrogant, confrontational,
territorial, unable to see anything through the eyes of anyone else, suspicious
of minorities and foreigners, increasingly dependent on national myths and
purity tests. Do not be too surprised by the behaviour in Seville. Just turn on
the news.’
The current national discourse regarding Brexit is
undoubtedly feeding this xenophobic fringe in the UK. The so called ‘Football Lads Alliance’ march in London
demonstrated that a group set up as ‘anti-extremist’ has in fact drifted to the
far-right itself. People of my age have seen these types before. They have gone
by many names but the values they espouse are always the same; exclusively nationalistic,
xenophobic, racist and reactionary. We saw then in George Square in 2014 after
the referendum on Scottish independence. We saw them try to march into the
Jewish quarter of London’s east end in 1936 when the Jews, Irish and others
stood up to them. They never change,’ it’s always some minority’s fault, never
the fault of the so called ‘elites’ who work them like puppets.
No matter your politics, your view on Brexit or the team you
support, there are limits to what is acceptable. Overt racism or bigotry is going too
far and we must stand up to it as individuals and as a society. As Abraham
Lincoln said of the bigots of his time…
'When the Know-Nothings
get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except Negroes…. and
foreigners…. and Catholics….'
The ‘Know nothings’ exist in every group, every community and
yes, every support. That’s why it’s everyone’s business to call it out and
shame those who practice the sort of ignorance and racism we saw from a
minority of England fans in Spain. It’s not about being anti-English; it’s
about being decent human beings.
These are challenging times in our world and
we need the good folk to be heard now more than ever.
Excellent article, the real enemy of the working class are the business owners, they are actually the ones pushing longer hours for less money not the immigrants.
ReplyDeleteThere is truth in what you say, the ability of human beings to exploit others & then sleep easily in their beds never ceases to amaze me
DeleteVery well put my friend! The know-nothings have taken control unfortunately, and making an absolute arse of it. Too much hate and stupidity everywhere just now
ReplyDelete