They know not what they do

They know not what they do

This weekend I got around to watching Jimmy McGovern’s excellent drama ‘Anthony’ which was about the tragic murder of teenager Anthony Walker in Liverpool in 2005. The drama imagines the life Anthony could have had had it not been so cruelly cut short by a couple of racist thugs. As always, Jimmy McGovern writes with the eye of a man who knows life and the pain and joy it can bring. Anthony Walker’s mother, Gee, showed incredible fortitude when she said after the trial of her son’s murderers…

‘At the point of death Jesus said, forgive them for they know not what they do. I have to forgive them. My family and I stand by what we believe-forgiveness.’

Watching the drama made me think of all of the lost potential when a young life is cut short. It also demonstrated the incredible strength family members need to get through such dreadful times. The courage and dignity shown by Gee Walker reminded me of the dreadful events of 1995 when teenage Celtic fan Mark Scott was murdered for no other reason than the team he supported. Like Gee Walker, Mark’s father demonstrated a powerful sense of dignity when he said at his son’s funeral….

‘There are two victims in all of this; my son and another young man who has been raised among such hatred that he could do such a thing.’

Therein lies the genesis of so many horrendous crimes; some folk bring children into the world and teach them to hate. No child is born hating others; it learns from the significant others in its life and from observation of their actions, words and values. It isn’t hard to create the concept of the ‘other’ being different from us, being somehow less than us and that can lead to problems in our lives and in our society. The killer of Mark Scott came from a family steeped in bigotry and extreme politics. His father and uncle were involved with the UVF during the troubles and as well as supplying weapons and explosives to their masters in Belfast, actually blew up bars in Glasgow they perceived as being republican. What chance did a child born into that environment have?

When I was a teenager I used to watch some of my schoolmates head off to an underpass at the motorway which formed the border between two districts of Glasgow. There they would meet the young men from the scheme next door and engage in fairly savage gang warfare. Summer nights were the favourite time for this pastime and a good few young men were injured and scarred from these battles. In the end a young man I knew was killed and the authorities finally decided to act. The underpass was sealed off and tall metal fencing made traversing between the two districts a long and arduous task. I recall playing football with my pals and wondering why some preferred throwing bricks to kicking a ball. It all seemed so pointless and futile. Why was it that for some folk who lived half a mile away had to be seen as the enemy?

I’ve been attending football matches in Scotland for more years than I care to remember and for many it is an engrossing, entertaining and hugely tribal pursuit. On occasion a minority stray over the line from rivalry into nastiness and even hatred. For many it is empty posturing and for all its bad taste is seldom to be taken literally. Of those thousands who chanted about being ‘up to their knees in Fenian blood,’ in the past, how many actually meant it?  The danger is of course that by doing such things it gives a safe space, even tacit approval, to that unhinged minority who are prepared to be violent.

Social media can amplify extreme opinions and groups tend to interact with like-minded individuals and thus form an unhealthy bubble where their opinions aren’t challenged but are in fact supported. Thus the echo chamber of unchallenged bigotry can exist. Now and then there are hardy souls who speak up against the prevailing culture and it’s good to see them have the courage of their convictions. Others say nothing, feeling it isn’t worth the hassle trying to reason with unreasonable people.

Research has shown that some people form a stronger bond when they share a common dislike or hatred of others. It may be rooted in their own insecurities and allow them to funnel their negative feelings into blaming someone else rather than dealing with their own role in their problems. If they find like-minded people who share their view then a mutually supportive group can form in which prejudice is normalised and reinforced. I spoke to a man recently who expressed a very low opinion of some of the new comers to Scotland in recent years. He trotted out fairly predictable opinions that they were scroungers, lazy, dirty, etc. I told him that some people said the same about my grandparents when they got off the boat from Ireland a hundred years ago. I knew his background was similar to mine and hoped he’d get the point.

People are all individual human being with their own character, biography, strengths and weaknesses. To ascribe common traits to every member of a group is unhealthy and on occasion dangerous. The stereotyping and scapegoating of people has led to some of humanity’s worst crimes. The ‘other’ is society; be it the taig, the hun, the asylum seeker, the gay, the black, the Jew, the Roma or the foreigner are all people like us and we are people like them. When we forget that we allow space for hate to slip unbidden into our minds.

Maya Angelou, the African-American writer, once said, ‘hate has created a lot of problems in the world but it has yet to solve one.’

She had that right.