Munira Mirza
After Blair
What now for the M-word?
Tony Blair's New Labour party did not invent the concept of
multiculturalism. But it did place it at the heart of its project and it has
pushed for the institutionalisation of multiculturalism in various areas of
British society.
Since the 1960s, state and civic institutions were under recurrent pressure
to grapple with ethnic unrest in urban areas like Notting Hill, Southall and
Brixton in London and Toxteth in Liverpool. The escalation of riots in the
1980s led to a shift from a predominantly legislative approach towards more
direct policies of community relations work, race equality action in local
government, and racial monitoring.
The Scarman Report, following the Brixton riots of April 1981, highlighted
the exacerbating factors of racial discrimination in areas such as policing,
housing and employment. At this point, official anti-racism began
tentatively to adopt the tone of multiculturalism, advocating greater
awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences among groups. The 1985
Swann Report ushered in an era of multicultural education, usually decried
in the tabloid press for its 'politically correct' approach to language
(most famously, there were rumours that teachers were banned from saying
'blackboard' and singing 'Baa Baa Black Sheep'). Many local authorities in
areas with a large ethnic population, such as Bradford and Birmingham, began
to develop race equality action plans.
These early multicultural policies in the 1980s were relatively marginal and
often attacked as policies of the 'loony left'. In the 1990s, under the
Major government, the political importance of multiculturalism began to gain
ground, especially as many involved in the anti-racism movement began to
move into official positions of employment in councils and public sector
work, developing relations with local community groups. But it was under New
Labour - a political party and project that lacked any clear ideological
vision of its own - that multiculturalism truly acquired institutional
backing and force.
The appeal of multicultural ideology to Tony Blair was clear from the start.
With all its talk of inclusiveness and difference, multiculturalism offered
New Labour a break from divisive political ideologies of the past. The
colourful emphasis on Britain's diversity became part of an attempt to
rebrand British identity around 'tolerance', away from older national
virtues of empire and tradition. Under New Labour, multiculturalism was also
a strategic tactic to win new alliances with ethnic and cultural groups,
particularly in areas where Labour's old working-class support was
dwindling.
The struggle for equality, which had proved so difficult to win, gave way to
an emphasis on cultural difference and identity, which could be managed
comfortably alongside a new managerial approach to public life.
Official anti-racism
Perhaps most importantly, multiculturalism offered a clear moral consensus
around the notion of tolerance and official anti-racism. At a point when
systematic and popular forms of racism were actually in decline, the
authorities began to fix upon anti-racism as a moral mission. The watershed
moment was the publication of the Macpherson report into the Stephen
Lawrence Inquiry in 1999, which first charged the police with 'institutional
racism', a previously unknown academic term that had been rejected by
successive government reports in the 1980s.
The term, which was originally intended to point to structural factors in
the causes of racism, acquired a new meaning under New Labour. Instead of
racism being accountable to individuals or clear policies, the term was
deployed to introduce an element of ambiguity about cause and effect,
structure and agency. Racism, previously an ideology driven by inequality
and state sanction, now emanated from the murky depths of 'canteen culture'
and deep-rooted psychology where unwitting prejudices reigned free. At the
same time, racism was so pernicious that it could float freely in the
structures of institutions, beyond the culpability of any single individual.
This moving target meant that an entire institution was eligible for moral
reform, giving New Labour a sense of mission in its early years.
The effect of official anti-racism on the police is notable. Following the
introduction of a raft of positive action policies - ethnic monitoring and
targets, race-awareness training courses, and anti-racism mission statements
- the police have been transformed from being nasty, racist bully-boys who
arrested people on a whim, into oversensitive, race-aware bully-boys who
still arrest people on a whim. In the 1980s, they were rounding up black
youths in Brixton, whereas today they are more likely to be making trips to
the local school playground to arrest a young child for using the word
'gay'.
Since Macpherson, few institutions in British society have escaped the
charge of institutional racism, with some even revelling in the charge as a
kind of mea culpa. The former head of the BBC, Greg Dyke, famously declared
the BBC to be 'hideously white'. New Labour arts minister, David Lammy MP,
has accused museums and galleries of being 'too white'. Lord Patel recently
accused the mental health sector of institutional racism, while the
Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) is currently investigating the
Department of Health to see whether it is institutionally racist.
Official anti-racism has been implemented with full legal force. The Race
Relations Act 1976 outlawed direct and indirect discrimination and
victimisation in a range of areas such as education, housing and employment.
Over 20 years later, the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000, which extended
the law to cover 43,000 public authorities, was significant in that it
placed a general duty on them to 'have due regard to the need to eliminate
unlawful discrimination, and to promote equality of opportunity and good
relations between persons of different racial groups'. The main significance
is that the duty requires bodies to take action to prevent acts of racial
discrimination before they occur, meaning pre-emptive measures or
racialisation have proliferated throughout public life.
Under New Labour, diversity management has flourished to become an effective
strategy of behaviour management. The seemingly innocuous injunction to
'respect diversity' has become common in workplaces, schools and hospitals,
voluntary organisations and civic venues such as churches, charities and
local neighbourhood associations. Most organisations in the public sector
have a diversity manager in place, as do large private sector firms. Targets
for making workforces more 'diverse' have become accepted norms, despite the
obvious drawbacks of positive discrimination. At the micro-level of
workplace interaction, people have acquiesced to the regulation of their
speech and behaviour towards others with little resistance, because it has
been done in the name of tolerance. Diversity training - once viewed as a
bizarre and probably inappropriate import from America - has now become a
growth industry.
Identity politics
The thrust of identity politics was already strong prior to New Labour
taking power in 1997, coming as it did off the back of social fragmentation
and the weakening of older political and collective identities. Lobby groups
and 'community leaders' representing religious, ethnic and minority
communities were already entering the political domain and vying against
each other for resources. In 2001, the Cantle report into the northern mill
town riots in Oldham, Bradford and Burnley pointed to the way in which local
authorities' policies had deepened segregation in parts of Britain.
New Labour further institutionalised this trend and turned identity into the
cornerstone of political engagement. Local and national state institutions
developed 'partnerships' with community groups and leaders, offering
recognition of their supposedly different needs. This process has encouraged
a demand amongst groups for recognition of their difference, and in some
cases, the protection of difference.
The most obvious case is that of the Muslim lobby in the guise of the Muslim
Council of Britain, which gained significant encouragement by New Labour in
its early years and particularly after the terrorist attacks of 11 September
2001. From being marginal players, the MCB leaders began to assert their
importance, claiming to hold the votes of Muslims in the palm of their
hands. MCB head Iqbal Sacranie was rumoured to have turned down requests to
meet with lower level ministers, insisting instead on meeting with the prime
minister himself.
The MCB has since fallen out of favour, but its shortlived success reflected
the strategic importance of 'community leaders' under New Labour, as a way
to engage the citizenry. In the case of Muslims, this engagement has not led
to a rise in political engagement but an exacerbation of their political
alienation. Like most young people, Muslims are disillusioned with the
political elite. But their cynicism has grown exponentially due to the
government's engagement with unelected, and largely irrelevant community
leaders who are themselves out of touch. This cynicism no doubt fuels the
aggressive anti-politics of some younger Muslims.
Of course, identity politics is something that exists far beyond young
Muslims - most other ethnic groups have joined the fray and demanded their
own recognition and protection. New Labour's Religious Hatred Bill was
supported by an alliance of religious groups who share only their sense of
vulnerability and victimhood in common. These momentary alliances coexist
with the moments of heated conflict, most recently between gay groups and
the Catholic Church over the sexual orientation law and adoption agencies -
begging the question of whose identity required the greatest protection. As
the state has gradually intervened into the private world of belief and
identity, so now it is called in to manage those differences and act as the
arbiter.
The future
Many of the trends discussed so far will no doubt inform the work of the new
Commission for Equality and Human Rights (as the CRE is renaming itself),
which starts operating this autumn. Its extended powers to bring cases and
enforce anti-discrimination measures will encourage even greater regulation
between individuals and groups, possibly exacerbating rather than
ameliorating tensions.
More broadly, recent criticisms of multiculturalism and fears of social
fragmentation have led to a new phase in New Labour's approach, already
being nurtured by prime-minister-in-waiting, Gordon Brown - the call for a
new national identity. But lacking any political vision and burdened with
the obligation to protect its own cherished diversity policies, New Labour
has struggled to show what this identity might look like. No doubt we can
look forward in the coming years to various contrived measures such as
'Britishness Day', the rebranding of bank notes, or the celebrations for the
2012 Olympics, in the hope of bringing national identity to life.
The word 'multiculturalism' may be increasingly unpopular these days but all
the things it gave rise to - as outlined above - are still in place. They
need to be tackled with a more universalist approach.
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