Colour has been used to separate us in society and be weaponised as a point of divide, in fact, that seems a rather arbitrary difference to focus on, but as it’s one we can instantly access, it does feature in our conditioning. Ideals, traditions, culture, language, education, knowledge, and personality all vary from people to people. Making the world a far more interesting place than it would be if we were all the same, like those little boxes we once sung about.

But the growing issue of what is known as multiculturism is cause for concern from many quarters. The mass importation of unknown people’s being strategically placed for maximum disruption has raised more than just eyebrows. And the problem gets distorted, and becomes the old xenophobic argument of ‘go home’ and ‘you’re not British’ etc. Some of us are only three generations away from immigrants, so I’m not sure how ‘British’ many people really are, or what scale they are using to determine what qualifies anyone in that. And once you have enough people from a differing viewpoint, doesn’t that then change the current viewpoint of the majority to then be the prevailing attitude? How long did it take us to become what we are today referring to as ‘our way of life’?

I was brought up to be accepting of other cultures and people, and judge them on their character, actions and heart, not by the colour of their skin. But as you get old you start to realise that isn’t actually how it works in the real world. I attended mostly white schools growing up, but my mother spent some childhood years in Africa, and married someone of Pakistani descent in the UK when I was a child, so we didn’t have an average household set up. My first proper lesson in racism came thereafter, because he was in the armed forces and was refused promotion because of his colour. My teachers couldn’t seem to pronounce my surname correctly because it was foreign, even after they were told, and it wasn’t a hard one either. But it was noticeable to me, that we were treated differently just by extension, so I started to understand there was a problem. Witnessed in a different way when I worked in south London in a factory for a few weeks a long time ago. A very odd feeling going on in there with half of the staff being white and English, and the other half being Indian, and none of them mixed. At all. Apart from the weird racist banter now and again – but while on the line, the Indian women would speak Punjabi, and at lunch time they would sit together and talk. And because I was white, it was expected that I would sit with the same colour as me and go along with it all. I did not last there for very long, as it was just too weird, but again, showed me just how separated people wanted to be sometimes. On both sides.

The problem of integration isn’t a new one, and is not colour specific at all, and you really can’t force it. When I moved to Spain for a couple of years, I hadn’t quite comprehended how much the ‘English’ group together, and stick to what they know. And if you don’t speak the language (which I don’t), then you end up being a bit of a fish out of water, even though the locals are as helpful as they possibly can be, it must be quite an imposition to have to deal with us. Just as we have to deal with others. But tourism was the golden ticket to make people put up with it and encourage it, having people from elsewhere constantly passing through, turning up and being around, and you would make money from that imposition. But this new drive of people movement is breaking down so many things and destabilising what was already in place and working. Employment, housing, education, health, tourism and travel, all things that have been gradually eroded and replaced by ideas and ideals of no-one having anything, everyone being everywhere and no-one being allowed to do anything. Everyone is being used against each other, weaknesses and vulnerabilities exploited and opportunism being exposed and utilised to maximum effect.

No wonder people are getting fed up and frustrated (and that’s putting it mildly), because no-one can plan, get on or move on – instead being held in a strange state of limbo, holding your breath and waiting. For the next law, the next rule and regulation, the next stupid idea to bankrupt your present and future, and to completely corrupt what is. And all for… what exactly?

(c) K Wicks