Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => Politics & Current Affairs => Topic started by: Bubbles on December 26, 2016, 10:15:52 AM
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I was reading up about Malcolm X and one of his visits to Britain in 1965.
I saw this
"On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X flew to Britain again,[148] and on February 8 he addressed the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations in London.[149] The next day he tried to return to France, but was refused entry.[150]
On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, where the Conservative Party had won the parliamentary seat in the 1964 general election. The town had become a byword for racial division after Conservative supporters used the slogan, "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour." In Smethwick he compared the treatment of colored residents with the treatment of Jews under Hitler, saying: "I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens."[151][152] "
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X
I wasn't very old back then, but I don't remember that level of racism, but then again I lived out in the sticks.
I thought it was shocking though and something we don't get reminded of, when they talk of the sixties.
The conservatives sound like they were worse than the BNP at that time.
🌹
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The actual slogan was "If you want a nigger for neighbour vote Liberal or Labour".
We have much the same today, courtesy of Brexit, and Ukip/BNP.
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The conservatives sound like they were worse than the BNP at that time.
Was that Enoch Powell's patch? If so, it might be worth qualifying the comment with 'Enoch Powell's group of ...' I know of plenty of Tories of the times who lived and worked quite happily alongside non-white Brits (though whether any lived in B'ham at the time, I'm not sure!!).