Oldham, Burnley and Bradford are in a state of flux and a little too complicated for the simplifying minds of most journalists, politicians and traditional "community leaders", all of whom are as responsible as the evil racist extremists for the chaos we now find in these areas. I am referring both to internal and external chaos, and the ways in which both affect the brown and white inhabitants who are too readily aroused.
Many of the young Muslim men do not know who they are. Abused as "Pakis" all their lives, their parents and others have driven them to embrace a Pakistani identity that is a negation of their Britishness. Many in the older generation tell me that the youngsters are "too British, too much full of rights ... Bloody fools ... In Pakistan the police would kill them on sight."
If you talk to white locals, the same confusions about identity and self-esteem emerge. They hate it that their Brontë-land has become a Balti-land, even though most of them have never even watched a televised version of Jane Eyre and could not survive a week without a curry.
Any (reasonable & within TOS) comments?
2006-12-05
03:46:48
·
11 answers
·
asked by
Anonymous