A sense of belonging
Posted on | December 21, 2009 | 1 Comment
Trudging through the snow on my way home the other evening, I stopped at a pedestrian crossing. Crossing the road in the opposite direction was a known homeless man clutching his tattered sleeping bag.
‘Spare some change please? he asked.
I refused, knowing that any money given to him would most likely end up being spent on drugs, booze, or both.
My refusal led to this witty response:
‘Well, I hope I get treated better if I’m ever in your country,’ he said.
‘This is my country, mate,’ I quickly retorted, stung by his assumption.
He muttered ‘Yeah right’ and walked off.
Now what would have made this homeless man think that this wasn’t my country? Could it have been my sunny Caribbean accent? Or my dark skin?
The experience reminded me of a television advert a couple of years ago for, I think, an insurance provider.
The ad featured two black men running out into the snow and jumping around in wonderment while the voiceover said something about appreciating things the first time you see them.
I can remember how the choice of black men to represent foreigners seeing snow for the first time, struck me at the time. I can see how lazy advertisers would choose black people to represent foreigners, but haven’t we yet come to the point where we have stopped assuming that black skin=foreigner?
Clearly the homeless man hadn’t, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that it was a point of view shared by many other people.
Perhaps this is where Gordon Brown and his government officials can learn a thing or two. When it comes to developing a cohesive, integrated society, the task isn’t simply getting the ‘foreigners’ to fit in; a large chunk of the job is getting the white, mainstream population to come to the realization and acceptance that our Britain is a multi-coloured place, and you can’t pigeonhole someone as not belonging just because they look, or sound, different.
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January 8th, 2010 @ 12:53 PM
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it