Colour Blind? Race and Migration in North East England since 1945
The North East was long seen as a region that did things differently, where the post-war generations of migrants from the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China were welcomed warmly, with a kindness absent from their treatment in London and elsewhere in Britain. But to what extent was this true? If it was true, to what extent was this experience shaped by the memory of previous migrations, including the migration of large numbers of Irish people to the region in the last decades of the nineteenth century? Or the arrival of large numbers of Yemenis in South Shields from the 1890s onwards? And to what extent equally have attitudes of sympathy survived the decimation of manufacturing industry in the 1980s, and the redevelopment and re-branding of the region from the 1990s onwards?
Published by University of Sunderland Press. ISBN 978187357710
Reviewed by David Bates in Weekly Worker, 13 May 2010:
For over half a century, immigration has rarely been far from the top of the political agenda in the UK. In a culture which places such emphasis on ideas of national pride and superiority, this should perhaps come as no surprise - after all, it is no coincidence that the discourse of ‘border controls’ often draws directly upon British history in its invocation of invasions, conquests and the defence of Britain’s national frontiers against the barbarous foreign hordes. But what is the story on the ground? In Colour blind? Dave Renton sets out to examine the responses of working class communities in the north-east of England to the arrival of newcomers from other parts of the UK and far beyond. More here
Reviewed by Nigel Todd in North East Labour History, summer 2008:
Colour Blind? – taking its title from one of Catherine Cookson’s 1953 novel about the impossibility of love across the racial divide in South Shields – is an important book, but one which poses uncomfortable questions.
Dave Renton maps the history of immigration into the North East, largely as a product of patterns of labour migration and, to a degree, a result of political persecution. It’s a long story that extends back at least into the early 19th Century, encompassing Welsh and Irish migrants, Europeans from many different places (including Jewish immigrants), Japanese, Chinese, Pakistani, Yemeni, Bangladeshi and Indian peoples, as well as many other groups.
Most of the focus is on post 1945 immigration and seeks to answer the question: ‘Is the North East different?’ The region did not share in the pro-Powell marches of the late 1960s, and much media and official comment, as well as received wisdom at all levels of North East society, has claimed that this is a more welcoming place. But thousands of whites took part in a race riot at Middlesbrough in 1961, and there has been a constant strand of abuse, harassment, violence and, occasionally, even murder directed against black and Asian people. It’s not unknown for occasional anti-Irish prejudices to emerge from time to time as well.
The experience of the North East has therefore been mixed. There have been efforts by local councils and other agencies to respond to the arrival of post-war immigrants, but have these been informed chiefly by a desire to manage a perceived problem? The dynamics of migrant groups have also been varied, not least where colour and a strong religious influence have defined incoming cultures. And it could be a heady mix as demonstrated by Chris Mullard’s stormy period as head of the Newcastle Community Relations Council in the early 1970s, when there was a fierce collision between Mullard’s determination to expose and challenge racism, the City Council’s desire to deny the existence of a problem, and the ambivalence of ethnic community leaders anxious to escape from their own marginality by securing official acceptance.
Dave Renton has assembled statistical data on migration together with a good deal of commentary and anecdotal evidence. He has given a voice to numbers of people who came to live in the North East, and to those who have opposed racism through difficult moments. Through the book we learn of Ali Mohammed, one of the first Pakistanis to live in Newcastle, and who had worked for Billy Smart’s circus. There is Nafees Chohan, ‘the first documented Asian woman to settle in Middlesbrough’ who arrived in 1949, and many others.
But there is a disquieting ending to the book. Renton argues that the main bulwarks against organised racism have been social attitudes generated by a strong labour movement, itself rooted in an industrial setting. It was this movement that saw off the Blackshirts in the 1930s, and stopped the National Front from making headway in the early 1970s. Yet as the industrial roots whither, will that organisation and outlook diminish too? Currently, the labour movement in the region is vigorous in its opposition to racism, and has prevented the kind of electoral breakthrough achieved by the BNP in other regions. Union membership is proportionately higher in the North East than in other parts of the country, and from football to music there are powerful anti-racist commitments. But as the economy moves into a downturn, and disillusionment with conventional politics deepens, will this any longer be enough?
Various articles based on the research for the book can be accessed here
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