Anyone who knows me and reads my own content, whether by blog or Twitter, will know of the healthy respect that I have for Musa Okwonga.
- A young black man is stopped and searched by a Metropolitan police officer in London. Photograph: OnTheRoad/Alamy (Guardian.co.uk)
He is, in my opinion, one of the most talented individuals that I have encountered in a modern generation which eschews ranting and self-opinionated dross, encouraged by its own ego and self-publicity. Well I have news for you, no amount of followers or comments makes you talented, it just makes others gullible.
Musa, on the other hand, is someone with whom you can enter into a healthy debate, someone who is prepared to respectfully listen to opposing views and counter them with a balanced viewpoint, as opposed to typing a few swear words on a screen and going into the anonymous hiding that is cyberspace. He is honest, can really convey his thoughts, and can write them in a way which engages the reader.
I have watched in utter disbelief as race has become the hottest potato in this country, in a way that has not been so for a generation. Or is that really so? Have we, as Blacks and Asians, ever been treated equally in this country?
The truth is that the majority of people in the UK, certainly those in my life, admittedly one centred around a more privileged background than many, have not a racist bone between them; but it is a small minority, and the refusal of the authorities to deal with them that makes my blood, and that of others, boil.
I was sickened to read a comment in today’s Guardian, relating to the most recent race row within the Metropolitan Police force. I will simply refer to 2 quotes from the piece, which can be read here in full:-
PC Alex MacFarlane to a young black man, Mauro Demetrio: “the problem with you is you will always be a nigger”
The Crown Prosecution Service decision not to prosecute: “partly based on a belief that no alarm or distress was caused by the racist abuse“
Rarely, in the near 38 years of my life, have I read anything with such a putrid stench.
I was interested, therefore, to read the thoughts of Musa in today’s Independent. As always, he is passionate, and his language betrays an anger which I have previously not seen from him, one to which I myself would be prone, not that I am for a minute comparing my humble talents to those that he possesses. Yet, despite recalling an episode from his own life which would annoy even the most inexorably patient of Saints, he finds a balance, one which allows him to acknowledge the good. Resonating with me is the comment:-
“So please, CPS. For goodness’ sake. When you encounter such a specimen in the midst of the police force you really need to hang him or her out to dry.”
The problem, for me, is that I trust neither the CPS, nor the Police, to do anything that might ‘endanger their own’, and until they ever do, I will simply be another cynical black man to those who live in their Ivory Towers and tell us that racism does not exist in 21st Century Britain.
The saddest aspect of this is to read the comments beneath this excellent post by Musa. So many ‘smartarses’ wishing to debate the rights and wrongs of slavery, wishing to ridicule the fact that this country still has serious issues around race. It says more in a few words than I ever could.
You can read Musa’s post here: Police, the race game, and a request to the CPS. It is a must read.
