When you have people like Nigel Farage, with the allegations about racism and antisemitism coming to light in his past and his failing to answer questions about them, and the likes of his colleague Sarah Pochin talking about how seeing black and Asian people in TV adverts drives her mad, it clearly emboldens people. [1]
This is a liberal MP. He is commenting on comments made by a Reform Party MP. Sarah Pochin said: “It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people”. It is actually quite hard to find media which will provide the context. However; it is possible. As this [2] piece on Sky reports the context was a discussion about TV advertising and the representation of various groups in adverts. [2] I’ve noticed a disproportionate share of black and Asian people in all kinds of advertising. It doesn’t annoy me; but I note that it is some kind of social engineering.
The point is that much of the media and apparently the Liberal MP quoted above simply mispresent the comments. If someone just came out and said: “It drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people” it would definitely sound racist. But – she is “mad” not about black people per se, but about their over-representation in advertising. The comments are being widely misrepresented.
People who insist that anyone who complains about immigration at all is being racist, are doing the same thing. Racial harmony in society is not brought about by pretending that a huge surge in people from other cultures arriving has a neutral effect on society, or that blatant social engineering in advertising, is not happening. It might be brought about more by acknowledging realities. People trying to hoodwink the population, “there is nothing to see here, move on”, make the problem worse.
Notes