When I was a wee lassie growing up in Clydebank in the 70s, STV (Scottish Television – our local ITV channel) used to show “fillers” between their regular programming. There was “Tales Of Crime” with Bill Knox who regaled us with lurid stories of the Glasgow underworld (he was probably one of the first people to use the term “neds”and reminded us on “Crimedesk" that all calls to the police could be “in confidence”) and “Teatime Tales” (they didn’t have a thesaurus) with Lavinia Derwent from Hawick with the adventures of Tammy Troot and his wiggly beezers (don’t ask!). They also used to put on what can only be described as prototype music videos with songs like “The Candyman Can” and “The World Is Just A Great Big Onion” with strange psychadelic animations accompanying the music. One of the other tunes was Blue Mink’s “Melting Pot” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HHT_V294Co) which had the lyrics –
“Take a pinch of white man
Wrap him up in black skin
Add a touch of blue blood
And a little bitty bit of red Indian boy
Oh like a Curly Latin kinkies
Oh Lordy, Lordy, mixed with yellow Chinkees, yeah
You know you lump it all together
And you got a recipe for a get along scene
Oh what a beautiful dream
If it could only come true, you know, you know.”
- which might seem to our 21st Century sensibilities really non-PC (especially the “red Indian” and “yellow Chinkees” – my deepest apologies) and dated. However, my dad found the chorus that went -
“What we need is a great big melting pot
Big enough to take The world and all its got
And keep it stirring for a hundred years or more
And turn out coffee coloured people by the score”
- particularly offensive. The idea that black and white people would intermingle horrified him and he once told me that if I ever went out with a black guy he would throw me out of the house, to which I replied that if I did, I would be more than happy to leave and would always choose love over him. I loved my dad and he was really intelligent and measured in many other ways (his greatest wish was to take me to visit Japan, where he had visited while on National Service in 1953) so his vehement racism shocked me to the core. My granny would also sit and tut, complaining that Top Of The Pops was “just all black people these days”.
I wished and dreamed that I would grow up a world where these ideas would be consigned to the rubbish bin of history and in my youthful political days marched to “Free Nelson Mandela”, boycotted South African produce and belonged to anti-fascist groups against the National Front (one of my proudest memories is of standing in a large group of protestors facing police horses on Hope Street outside the Toby Jug pub where the then NF leader John Tyndall was due to address a meeting and hearing that police, fearing a riot, had taken him off of the train at Carlisle and made him turn back).
So it makes my soul cry to read and hear in 2011 that the English Defence League and the Scottish Defence League are garnering support. That they try to march on 9/11 and appear on camera spouting their ignorance and hatred,
What does it matter to you that your dentist wears a hijab? Surely you should be more concerned that the wee girl from down the street had beans for her tea last night? Or that the elderly man you see in the library is there because he’s scared to put on his heating? Or that 1 in 10 of boys leaving primary school to go onto high school does so with a reading age of 7 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14371183) ? If we spend less time about worrying what other people are doing and more about the spiral of poverty we are in, both of means and spirit, that our government of Bullingdon boys with no experience of life outside of their own and the government before who dragged us into war while schmoozing up to media liars and scoundrels while shafting the economy have set us upon. As Bill Hicks says “Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one”. Maybe that’s we should be thinking now, instead of trying to find other ways divide ourselves. I got told off on Facebook last week for commenting that I found the use of the word “faggot” offensive. But I do. As my Twitter friend @ClipSnap tweeted last week you should only concern yourself with someone’s sexuality if they are cuddling up to you on the sofa. Having said that it makes my heart soar to hear a fella talk about his husband or a lass about the wife! It should be celebrated that 2 people want to marry and make a commitment to each other with their friends and family.
What we need is a bit more love in the world, not less. Have a lovely weekend xxx
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