One of the daily responsibilities of my Parliamentary Assistant is to trawl through the press and internet blogs to find interesting articles that I would otherwise miss.
This week’s selection included I wanna be black: the perils of self-identification by Manick Govinda in The Critic (The Critic is a monthly political and cultural journal)
It detailed a number of bizarre examples, here’s a selection:
An exhibition for artists called for artists who “identify as black”;
Another similar opportunity was targeted to “artists, academics, and researchers who identify as black”;
A white German woman went to great lengths to become (in appearance and attitude) what she believed to be the ‘quintessential black woman’;
A Theatre director , born to white parents, was awarded a traineeship funded by Arts Council England, which was intended to address the under-representation of black and minority ethnic people in British theatre. Apparently, his argument was that because he looks like a person of “mixed heritage”, he had undergone the struggles of a black man as a consequence of his physical appearance;
A college student union published a statement asserting that it had “a long history of enabling its members to self-identify as being black…”
I’ve used this column in the past to explore the controversy surrounding the issue of self-identifying as a different gender. I can understand how someone might be confused about their gender, but self-identifying as a different colour, is a new one on me.
Four years ago I apologised to those who took offence when, in rather poor taste and equally poor judgement, I went to a Blues Brothers themed party as James Brown -the musician who invented Funk and grand-fathered Hip-hop. Nevertheless, it was intended merely as a tribute to a hero of mine. There was no pretence that I was a black musician.
This new fad however, of actually identifying as Black, has become more than a mere performance where, for some people, it isn’t enough just to have an interest in Black music, art, theatre, or whatever, instead they identify as actually being black.
Well, does it matter?
After all, it’s still pretty rare, and we are hardly fooled. Yet there is an impertinent presumption that we are required accept the fiction of false self-identification.
Despite my prejudice in favour of order and discipline, I have a libertarian streak: as long as you aren’t harming anyone else, you can call yourself whatever you like.
I was mortified when people were offended by my appearance as James Brown. But when two constituents explained to me precisely why they were offended, I understood and apologised.
I can’t believe people of any colour won’t be offended when a white artist claims an opportunity that was properly made available to address disadvantages experienced by artists who are black.
But then, in a free society, we have no right not to be offended.
Undoubtedly, many will be offended by my prejudice that the whole business is bonkers.