The rise of the far right

[Ian H]

There is no reason for black and Asian people to be a monolith.

Yet you then go on to put these communities into boxes.

Anyway, UK Asian heritage communities are mostly from India and Pakistan so both socially and economically they would be expected to have a (small 'c') conservative outlook with a preference for 'small government', self-reliance, and less liberal views on divorce, abortion etc.

You might expect the UK black community to be more left wing, but again, those from the West Indies are often quite conservative in social attitudes. And it's the older folk who turn out to vote.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Nope. I'm not putting them in boxes. I'm giving you some background as to why many in the Asian community don't automatically support liberal or left wing parties, even though (superficially) it might seem in their interest to do so.

With black and Asian politicians like Sunak or Kwarteng it may be that their class background is more significant than their racial background in forming their politics. The experience of an ethnic minority politician from a middle class or wealthy family who has been through private school and then Oxford or Cambridge will be very different to that of a working class one who hasn't.

 

[Ian H]

Nope. I'm not putting them in boxes. I'm giving you some background...

You're 'giving me' your opinions about black & Asian people in the UK. What are your opinions about how white British people vote?

 

[Bazzer]

Usual? Each had very similar aims.

Apartheid and the repression which went with it should, at least outwardly, have been too similar to what happened with Jews under the Nazis. But when many African states turned against Israel, the South Africans also being isolated and like Israel seemingly having the world against them, found working with each other mutually beneficial.
It also probably helped that the Jews in South Africa were white. So as much as they may have disliked the Afrikaans, they at least were not classed as black or coloureds.

 

[AuroraSaab]

You're 'giving me' your opinions about black & Asian people in the UK. What are your opinions about how white British people vote?

This whole forum is people giving their opinions. Race/colour/cultural background is less of a defining factor in white people's lives so it's relevance to how they vote is reduced. Class is more likely a defining factor. Unfortunately the UK working class are now hateful Brexit voting bigots. Well at least until the next election when the Left will expect them to show class solidarity and turn out for Labour.

 

[BoldonLad]

This whole forum is people giving their opinions. Race/colour/cultural background is less of a defining factor in white people's lives so it's relevance to how they vote is reduced. Class is more likely a defining factor. Unfortunately the UK working class are now hateful Brexit voting bigots. Well at least until the next election when the Left will expect them to show class solidarity and turn out for Labour.

Always a bit of a problem to make a statement about several million individuals.

I would question your use of the word "now".

Although many people I encounter in day to day life are far from tolerant of foreigners or people of different religion etc, I would say that, in my life time (75yo), they have become more tolerant rather than less. Which, I would agree, tolerance levels in the past must have been pretty grim.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Do you mean the working class have always been hateful bigots?

 

[AuroraSaab]

I would question your use of the word "now".

Do you mean the working class have always been hateful bigots?

 

[BoldonLad]

Do you mean the working class have always been hateful bigots?

I suppose so, yes. But, in my experience, they have become less so over the last (say) 60 years or so. At least, that is my personal experience, speaking from middle class Tyneside. Perhaps I have a particularly untypical circle of family, friends, and acquaintances.

 

[newfhouse]

Race/colour/cultural background is less of a defining factor in white people's lives

Say what?

 

[AuroraSaab]

I meant that their race doesn't negatively impact on them on a daily basis like it can for black and Asian heritage people so it would be a less influential factor in their voting intentions. I think you probably knew that though.

 

[winjim]

The fact that anybody was even entertaining the idea that Johnson might become PM again ahead of Sunak is surely evidence that race plays a massive role in white people's politics.


It's like The Hum. Always there but you don't notice it until someone points it out and even then you have to really concentrate.

 

[AuroraSaab]

Is that a class thing as well though? Sunak is rich but he's nouveau, he's not old school rich. I'm not even sure Johnson's return was anything but a brief fantasy in a very small number of people's heads. It sank pretty quickly.

 

[winjim]

Is that a class thing as well though? Sunak is rich but he's nouveau, he's not old school rich. I'm not even sure Johnson's return was anything but a brief fantasy in a very small number of people's heads. It sank pretty quickly.

I don't think you can disentangle race from the British class structure.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I think you're mostly right, though the idea of a united working class with a common interest regardless of race or religion seems to have pretty much dissolved in the UK.