Articles - From the Vicar

On a recent edition of the BBC1 programme Question Time a young black woman asserts that Britain is a racist society; a white politician on the platform says that she is wrong and that Britain is a very tolerant society. Some in the audience applaud the young black woman; some applaud the white politician. Which part of the audience would you have been in?

Over the past few months race has become an important issue in our public discourse and is likely to be a major election issue as well. Contributory (though disparate) factors undoubtedly include European integration, the asylum and immigration question, the Stephen Lawrence enquiry and the murder of Damilola Taylor, all of which evoke claim and counter claim from politicians across the parties. Many words are uttered and yet somehow the issue remains apparently intractable.

One thing that seems to be lacking is a genuine will to listen to the experiences of people who have been on the receiving end of racist behaviour: people who have struggled to find employment, children who have faced taunts in the playground, families who have been hounded out of their homes. Those who have not experienced these things, and who rationalise the stories of those who have as 'isolated incidents', can all too easily exude a complacency that is both pernicious and dangerous. The Churches are ideally placed to challenge such complacency because Christians bear witness to the incarnational solidarity of Jesus Christ with the whole human race and, during this Eastertide, continue to celebrate his redeeming work for the whole world.