The first thing that strikes you about London is the diversity of the people. Stand inside any tube carriage and in that small space you will see people from different colours, a mix of languages and styles. It is what makes London so special so unique, here you are on an English island and yet you can eat the best Indian food outside of India, French restaurants, falafel from the middle east, and in each restaurant the food would be served by Indian, French and Lebanese staff to make the experience authentic. One would think that this is the perfect place to get rid of prejudice, shake off those stereotypes.
I always thought that the origin of superficial stereotypes is ignorance: you never met black people so you think they are basketball players or rappers, you never met Jews so you would say that all Jews are rich and they are all lawyers. But once you get to meet people they cease to be unidentified groups and become individuals with specific traits that don’t have necessarily anything to do with generalisation. And what better place to meet different people than London?
Ironically, I found that the longer you live in London and meet people from different cultures, the more the stereotypes are being reinforced, because you feel that just by meeting one or two blacks/Jews/Japanese you already know all of them. Which made me think: perhaps it is just human nature, not necessarily good or bad, but when does stereotyping become racism and xenophobia? Where is the limit? Clearly violence, verbal or physical, is the ultimate limit but is one considered an anti-Semite only when one says a “dirty Jew” or is it also anti-Semitism saying “all those banker Jews”?
Recently there was a talk about banning saying “that is so gay” in children’s playground, is that taking politically correctness to the next level? Or is it just helping us becoming more civilised, because in order to live in a multi cultural society one needs to be more sensitive. Surely we would not tolerate the insults of “nigger” or “kike” so why tolerate “you are so gay”.
We are all more attentive when it is our group/culture that is being stereotyped but we would happily look down at other groups thinking it is alright. Jews would be appalled at anti-Semitic remarks but would be quite indifferent about comments on Arabs or blacks. On the other hand the Jewish creators of the TV shows “Family Guy” and “Curb your Enthusiasm” make such explicit jokes about Jews that if they weren’t Jewish you would say they are anti-Semites.
So what do we need to do? Do we need to stop being primitive and stop generalising every behaviour we see in one person and saying “that is so Italian”, or accept that this is part of human behaviour, it is natural and there is nothing to do about it and as long as it is not offensive just accept it and ignore it? Well I am not one for ignoring it, if that is what we did then the word Nigger would still be acceptable and that is not what we want in a civilised society. On the other hand, is everybody saying “that’s so gay” a homophobe? If everybody saying “Jews are rich” is an anti-Semite then I am afraid most of Europe would be considered anti-Semitic.
Perhaps it is the context where we use these stereotypes or simplistic generalisation, perhaps we need to be aware that we are using these terms just to make life easier on ourselves to deal with the different cultures we encounter on a daily basis, and as long as we are aware that this is just superficial and not necessarily true than it is acceptable. The trouble is, when you hear these stereotypes again and again you start believing in them. Is this our natural mechanism for dealing with Multiculturalism? On the one hand this is one of the biggest allures of London that it attracts people from all over the world bringing their traditions and food, but on the other hand I guess we are not used to it and the way we deal with it is boxing all these cultures into simplistic stereotypes.
I am afraid I don’t have answers only questions, to me London with its diversity is the most extraordinary place and I love meeting people from countries I have never been to, but I would lie if I would say I don’t cringe sometimes at hearing certain languages or seeing certain people, I acknowledge that it is my problem and try not to discriminate or mistreat anybody based on my preconceptions I can only hope you do as well.
einatsohar 