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PoliticsCan Britain's new black political elites get the nation back on the "equal rights" track?
Britain's new top political appointees, Afro-Britons Paul Boateng and David Lammy, will give a crucial boost to New Labour's flagging program of national reforms. But can they be counted on to hold aloft the banner of Black and disadvantaged Britons? Prime Minister Tony Blair's surprise reshuffle of his Labour Party government in May thrust Boateng into the post of Chief Secretary of the Treasury, making him the first Black in a British cabinet. Boateng, 50, was once considered the bête noir of British local government: a radical Black lawyer and fiery orator against police corruption and racism, and for Black rights groups in the Labour Party. Amidst great controversy he was elected to Parliament, the nation's legislature, in 1987 to represent the multi-racial Brent South district in London. Since then he's moved up the ranks and gained responsibilities for health and prisons. Born to a Ghanaian father, who was in President Nkrumah's Government, and a Scottish Quaker mother, Boateng says of his appointment: "My colour is part of me, but I don't choose to be defined by my colour". Instead, the devout Christian and lay preacher says in words more appropriate to Dr Martin Luther King, America's famed civil rights leader, "I work for a world in which people are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."
David Lammy, a young Blairite, aged 29, also gained from the cabinet reshuffle. He is of Afro-Caribbean origins and is the youngest member of Parliament. Bright and the first Black Briton to study at Harvard University, Lammy is a lawyer and represents Labour for Tottenham in north London, the former seat of the militant black activist Bernie Grant. Like his predecessor, Lammy has courted controversy. He shocked the political establishment with his call for "more Blacks and ethnic minority political representation". He recently hosted a songfest by Alicia Keyes, the Black singer and Grammy award winner, that caused an uproar in the sacrosanct legislative halls. "I am never anonymous in Parliament," he says, "but I look forward to a day when black people will not stand out as something special". Boateng and Lammy's appointments are notable because successes for Afro-Britons are rare in the highest circles. They are among only 12 non-white lawmakers in the 659-seat House of Commons. Ethnic minorities make up about 7 percent of Britain's population, and probably a third of these minorities are nonwhites of Asian and African Caribbean backgrounds. Yet, British Blacks after 60 years of recent immigration remain on the margins of national politics. They have no visible power in the higher echelons: no black chiefs of police, no high court judges, generals, company executives, heads of national newspapers, television channel controllers or Civil Service bureaucrats. "The glass ceilings appear to be triple-glazed across the country," The Times newspaper editors reported. Despite the gap in their years, Boateng and Lammy's rise to prominence are remarkably similar. Both are Labour Party stalwarts representing multi-racial, and cash-strapped London boroughs. Intense short periods of militancy, that endeared them to Blacks and irritated many whites, were followed by acceptance in the political ranks and a rapid rise in Government administrative posts. Does this herald a new maturity in British politics? Some lobbyists for black ascendancy in the top corridors of power say "yes". Rev Joel Edwards, a black churchman and head of the evangelical alliance, was jubilant. "At last cracks are at appearing in the glass ceiling," he said. "We think this is a very positive step for the Labour Party and the Labour government in that it sends a strong signal to the black community that they are wanted," said the campaigns manager at Operation Black Vote. Gurbux Singh, chairman of the government funded Commission for Racial Equality, says Boateng is a mainstream politician who cares about mainstream issues. He happens to be black." However, among his critics, Boateng is accused of abandoning his "Black Power" and left-wing credentials as his career progressed. As minister in charge of mental health, he defended hard-line policies to crack down on the severely ill. As Home Office minister he promoted tough measures on street crime that demonised Black youth. This volte-face is not unusual says Kalbir Shukra in her book, The Changing Pattern of Black Politics in Britain. Many Black radicals of the sixties were co-opted into the Labour Party and the mainstream political system in the eighties. The new black elites described here are part of the "new face of New Labour". Boateng's first task, under the watchful gaze of party financial controller Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, will be a sweeping review of state finances and public-private partnerships. Lammy will have to look at the failing national health services that are seriously under-funded and recognised as institutionally racist by many Black professionals, ward attendants and patients. These are not token positions by any stretch of the imagination. Both men are qualified and confident, and their tasks are of crucial importance, nationally and locally in the cities. However, in the eyes of the Black community what matters is how Black elites ensure that Government policies deal with the scourge of the run-down city districts where many Black people live. The chaotic transport system, the lack of employment prospects and affordable housing, and under-funded health, environmental and educational services are all public policy issues that significantly affect inner city dwellers.
So,
what can we expect Black political elites to be and do?
African and Caribbean students and workers movements against post-war racist attacks in Notting Hill and Nottingham provide some examples. The lives and writings of activists such as the Pan-Africanist George Padmore and the anti-fascist C L R James are instructive. The ennobled Lords Learie Constantine and David Pitt organised thousands to gain race equality in Britain and political liberation in the colonies. Secondly, says Adi, the author of West Africans in Britain 1900-1960, and himself of Nigerian and English origins: "We must recognise and confront a fundamental political reality: the new Black political elites will not be free agents of beneficial change." The perils of Black strategies of accommodation are clear, he suggests. "The new appointees may become merely mouthpieces for policies viewed by many as against the interests of Black communities and others in Britain; and hence in profound conflict with the spirit and direction of the struggles of the past," says Adi. Nevertheless, the elevation of Blacks to the political inner sanctum has some validity in our times. Prof Harry Goulbourne, professor of sociology at South Bank University, London says "when Afro-Britons breech the well-guarded bastion of post-colonial power it is of great significance. It shows our children that becoming a leader in politics or indeed prime minister is not beyond their reach".
But the Jamaican born Goulbourne, author of Race Relations in Britain, a study of colour-based inequalities in British society, urges caution, "We must also be vigilant, making sure that successes in the public realm are replicated until they are considered normal." "When leadership and participation in public affairs becomes seen to be normal that will be important for Black people," he says. Clearly, Boateng and Lammy, and their non-white colleagues in politics have set a pattern for aspirants to the elite circles of government - a kind of strategy of accommodation. But the danger is that a paralysis of Black leadership will ensue. Perhaps there is little hope that Black neophytes in Government can reconstruct party policies to directly assist the advancement of Black communities at this moment in time. But there are some principles and actions they can propose and support with all their energies and influence.
To be Black and proud, like being competent and having ideals, should not be a paradox in a society that genuinely respects diversity. As elected representatives of multi-racial communities, Boateng and Lammy, and those who come after them, have an historic opportunity to make Britain more equitable and equal.
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