Britishness, equality & inclusion: a future manifesto | Chris Allen | TEDxUniversityofBirmingham

In recent years much has been made about what it means to be British and to protect British values. A number of drivers might be seen to have catalysed these debates including today’s society becoming ever more diverse, increasing levels of inequalities between ‘the haves’ and ‘the have nots’, and the spectre of radicalisation and terrorism that places Muslim communities especially under intense scrutiny. Consequently, research tells us that not only are we becoming more intolerant but so too are discriminatory practices and hate crime on the rise – especially Islamophobia and Antisemitism – resulting in increasing numbers of people feeling ever more isolated and excluded. Having considered some of these issues in more detail, this talk will aspire to set out a future manifesto for Britishness, one that upholds our core values whilst also being more equal and inclusive.

Chris Allen is a Lecturer in the Institute of Applied Social Studies at the University of Birmingham having previously been a Director at the National Equalities Agency. For the past decade and a half, he has been undertaking research into Islamophobia and other discriminatory phenomena. This has included researching the experience of victims of Islamophobic hate crimes and the ideologies of the British far-right among others. As well as publishing widely and appearing in the media regularly, he was until recently an independent member of the Government’s Anti-Muslim Hate Working Group. He was born in London and has been a lifelong supporter of Millwall Football Club.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

OK, I'm taking my coat off

because we mean business after lunch.

OK, so...

The thing today is the road less traveled.

I thought I'd give you
a little bit about myself first

in terms of road less traveled

because, in many ways,

I guess I shouldn't really be here
because of the road I've travelled,

doesn't normally take it to this place.

So, the first thing is that my mum was
an unmarried teenager when she had me.

So, if you read the Daily Express,

you know, she was the one who started

the kind of decline of Britain,
the "broken society".

Also, I've never met my real dad,

So again, I should really be
at the front of that "broken society".

And I also was brought up
by my grandparents

on a council estate in the City of London.

And I guess that my nan,

she was the first generation
of migrants from Ireland.

And so, again, there was this kind
of thing you say "Wow!", you know,

"How did I get to here from there?"

The first year that the school league
tables come out, as well.

My primary school was declared to be
the worst primary school in Britain.

So, what I would just say
is that in terms of this:

don't ever believe the stereotypes.

Because, if you read the Daily Express
or you read the Daily Mail,

I should actually be living
on Benefits Street.

I shouldn't actually be at the university,

trying to bring about some sort of change,
in terms of the research we do.

And this you'll see
from the blurb as well,

it's that I'm a Millwall fan.

Now, I've just been texted and told

that Millwall are winning
one nil, which is a rarity.

But also, if you were to believe
the stereotype, then I should be a racist,

and I should be there
shouting abuse and so on.

But today I'm going to be talking
about a sort of Britishness

and also starting with that point
about racism.

Because how many today realised
that today was the international day

for the elimination
of all forms of discrimination?

How many of you do?

OK, there was two hands, I think.

There was some who kind of went like this,
who wasn't sure, you know, so on.

OK so, yes, what we are doing today
fits in with this because

there are lots of activities going on
all around Europe, all around the world

about the elimination of discrimination.

OK, who knew that this year,
was the 50th anniversary

of the first piece of race relations
legislation in the UK?

Maybe four hands?

Now, why is that important for us?

Well, it's important because,
let's be straight:

we haven't tackled
all forms of discrimination,

we haven't tackled racism,

but what it does show,
is that Britain was at the forefront

of implementing legislation
that tackled this stuff.

So we really are at the forefront of this.

We've actually led where
the rest of Europe have actually followed.

And, so, I think it should,
you know, it's really something

that we should acknowledge,
in terms of this.

Now, we can't rest our laurels
because, actually,

if you look at the British
social attitudes survey,

what it says is that
our levels of prejudice

are actually beginning to rise.

And if you look at the kind
of research what it says,

it says that, "A growing hostility
to immigrants and Islamophobia,

has actually set us back 20 years".

So, yes, we've had 50 years
of race relations and legislation

but actually we've gone back.

So, even though we've moved forward,
we've actually taken some steps back.

And that's really important because
in a week where Nigel Farage said

that we should be rolling back
race relations legislation,

the racism is not the problem
that it used to be in Britain.

I think it's a really dangerous message
to be sent out in terms of that.

And Trevor Phillips as well,

the former head
of the Commission for Racial Equality

and the Equality
and Human Rights Commission

he has also said, "Well, there's some
things we can't say in a multiculturalism,

race relations has actually stopped us
from being able to say what's fact".

And as academics,
this is a great position for us

because we do talk about facts.

But it's the way in which
you use those facts,

and the way in which
the Daily Express uses those facts,

and the way we use those facts,
it's completely different.

So, I think it's really important
that we acknowledge this.

Now, this is where my research comes in,

because over this period of time,
I've been researching Islamophobia.

And I've been looking
at these issues, I've been looking at

what is it about in a sort of society,
why we see Muslims as being other,

why is it that there's growing prejudice
against Muslim communities?

From my research, what's interesting
and relevant today is that 2 years ago

I did some research
with visible Muslim women.

Now, you may not realise
but visible Muslim women are actually

most prone to be attacked at street level.

And what we have here
is that sort of research

that went in and spoke to them
and said, "How does it make you feel?"

Now, what's interesting here
is that this is someone,

this is one of the research participants

and what she said is that she knew
her heritage was from Bangladesh

but she was always British,

she saw herself as British.

She didn't know how to live in Bangladesh.

Her parents and grandparents
were from Bangladesh,

but she was actually British.

But when she becomes a victim of hate,

when she's actually walking down
the street and someone targets her

on the basis of what she is
or what she's preceived to be

then it becomes really problematic

because what she says there
is that the identity crisis kicks in.

And then she questions
whether or not she's British

or is she always going to be Bangladeshi?

And so, when we talk about
sort of communities,

when we talk about the way
in which societies work together,

and the way we come together,

we really need to realise this.

Because, actually, sometimes
it's not just about communities

wanting to be isolated or different.

It's about their experience which
makes them isolated or different.

And, we can't get away from this image.

If you look in the media, you'll see

that 95% of images of Muslim women
in the media look like this.

Actually, less than 1% of the UK female
population of Muslims wear a niqab.

So, we have to kind of look at the facts
and we have to look at the reality.

And we have to look at what's presented
and what's represented

and what becomes the norm.

One of the things I think
that Bhikhu Parekh said was

that in terms of this what we have
is that the problems of society

are seen to be problems
of Muslims and vice versa.

So, when we see people say,
"Oh, the death of multiculturalism,

multiculturalism's died, it's not working.

We need to reject it."

I look out here today

and I see a beautiful audience
of multicultural individuals.

I look across here and I see
that actually, this is who we are today.

It's not about who we were then.

And so, what we need to do
is we need to look at this.

Because, one of the reasons
and one of the ways

in which people have
asked us to respond to this,

is about being more British,

and about teaching British values.

Now, British values: what does this mean?

Does this mean that I queue nicely?

Does it mean that I like
to go for binge drinking?

Well, I don't know.

So, the government, what they say is,

British values are democracy,
rule of law, individual liberty,

tolerance in different faiths and beliefs.

It's not very inspiring, is it?

I mean, what you've got here
is something that's very bland.

And, actually, if you look, it doesn't
make us distinct whatsoever.

All of those things would be
what the Swedish would say,

the Australians, the Canadians,

the Americans, the Germans,
the French and so on, and so on.

And what you have here is
that it doesn't make us distinct at all.

What is it that makes us British?

So, what I've done today
is this, this is my manifesto.

This is me taking Britishness forward.

And I want all of you
to come on that journey with me.

So, the first thing we have here:
we have to address our history.

Now, how many countries in the world are
so arrogant to call themselves Great?

You know...

(Laughter)

Imagine how annoyed we would be
if Sweden suddenly said

"No, no, no, we are not Sweden anymore.
We are Super Sweden".

You know...

Imagine if the French suddenly said,
"We are Fantastic France".

Imagine how annoyed we'd be.

But, of course, we are Great Britain.

You know, how arrogant.

You know, we're great.

And when were we great?

Well, we were great
when we had the Empire.

That's when we were really great.

When we ruled the world.

My grandad had never traveled
outside of London.

But he used to say to me,
"We can walk anywhere around the world

and we can say we're British,

and everyone leaves us alone".

How he knew that, I don't know,
he never even had a passport.

(Laughter)

But he used to say this to me.

And what we have here is this notion,

that we were great back then.

And now... well, we're a bit rubbish now.

And why are we rubbish?

Well, all those immigrants
coming to Britain, you know.

Like mass migration after the war.

That's really what made us rubbish.

Now, did anyone see
the genetic map this week?

This map of Britain, of the genes,
the genetic makeup of us.

It says that actually we've had
immigration for 10 000 years.

I mean, Nigel Farage must have
fallen off his chair when he read this.

You know, 10 000 years of immigration!

This country. This nation.

This is who we are.
This is who Britain is.

And what I would say with this is,
what makes us great then?

Well, ok. Let's forget about the racism
and the colonialism and all that.

OK, it's still there.
But let's forget about that a little bit.

And let's look at where we are today
and I look out here.

And actually the product of that Empire,
is who I see in this audience today.

So that's what makes us great
on the first, see?

We don't just have to be
great in the past,

we can be great because
of who we are here today.

The second part is this.

This is a quote from some research
that was done into last year.

When Scotland was voting for
the referendum to be taken away.

And actually someone said,
"what does he like about Britain?"

It's this notion of tolerance.

So, tolerance. Right.

How great is tolerance?

Because it's the lowest,

the lowest setting of the bar.

Who's got kids?

So, if your kids play up.

You know, if they're naughty.

What do you do?

I won't tolerate that behaviour.

It's not about loving each other.
It's not about being great.

It's about the lowest level.

Tolerance is the kind of bottom line
of what we would do.

So, when we talk about community cohesion
and integration and getting on,

this is really kind of fake.

Because, actually,
the best that we can do,

it's what we've always done in Britain.

It's being tolerant.

We don't have to be
everyone's best friends, you know.

And Karen earlier spoke
about kind of big electric gates.

Isn't it weird how we look on
the kind of the areas

where there is poverty,

and where there is
a high levels of minority groups.

And we say to them:

"You need to come
and be cohesive with us".

And yet we can go to some areas

where there's massive walls
around big rich houses.

Where there's like electric gates.

Where there's intercom systems.

And actually, we never say,

"You need to knock those walls down
and get those electric gates gone,

because you need to come
and be cohesive with us".

So, tolerance.

Let's keep it low.

We don't need to try too hard
when it's too low.

Now, does anyone recognise what
this great moment in British history is?

No. OK, that's fine.

OK, this is the battle of Agincourt.

Now, I only found this out the other week.

I took some students on a tour
to the House of Parliament.

And I'm talking about
the battle of Agincourt.

And they said that when
we went to fight the French,

the British soldiers, the English soldiers
took their dogs with them.

To keep them company.

Because they were so small in number,
they took their dogs.

And... we actually won.

OK. So, let's not be,

we don't want to be jingoistic
about the French.

I've already said about the French,

being called "Fantastic France".

We don't need that.

But why is that issue
about the dogs important?

The issue about the dogs
being important is because

it's where the phrase
'underdog' came from.

We were small in number.

We thought we're going to lose the battle.

But we actually won,

and that's where the phrase
'underdog' came from.

So, "underdog" is something we do,
we stand up for the underdog.

As a Millwall fan: when we played
Manchester United in the FA Cup final,

in the early 2000s.

All of a sudden,
everyone was a Millwall fan

because they wanted Millwall
to beat Man United.

We lost, by the way.
But that's another issue.

But this issue's about the 'underdog'.

We stick up for the underdog.

That's another one of our values.

The other one is fair play.

Let's have another football analogy.

Who remembers when Maradona
put the ball in with his hand

and we got knocked out of the World Cup?

British players would
never have done that.

And how long has that gone on?

We would have won that World Cup
had it not be for Maradona.

Fair play.

If we could've stuck to
our rules of fair play,

we would have actually got there.

And this is been overused,
it's a little bit naive, I have to say.

But "keep calm and carry on".

So, Hitler's bombing us.

Bombing, bombing, bombing.

And what's the best we can do?

Keep calm and carry on.

So, no fuss.

This is what being British is about.

No fuss whatsoever.

Just doing what we do.

50 years of being at the forefront

of race relations
and equality legislation.

Did we tell anyone? No.

You know, we just got on with it.

So, where does this put us?

So, we have the Government's
notions of what British values are

and then we have
my values of what Britishness are.

And this is where my manifesto comes in

because if we look at these tolerance,
standing up for what's right,

supporting the underdog, fair play.

You know, sort of keeping calm
and carrying on.

Not making a fuss.

Tolerance: we rub along.

We don't all have to be friends.

But, look at this.

Multiculturalism works! It's here!

It's in Birmingham!

It's on this campus.

This campus is wonderfully multicultural.

And on the whole we get on.

We rub along.

We learn to get on with people.

Standing up for what's right,
confronting discrimination and hate.

You know, this is what
Britishness is about.

We stand up
and we confront discrimination,

we confront hatred,
we confront bigotry.

Supporting the underdog,
protecting those minority communities.

If a minority community
is experiencing discrimination,

we protect them.

That's what we've been doing for 50 years.

That's what we do here.

Fair play, equality for all.

Treat us all fairly.

This is what all it's asking.

All of us are given
equality of opportunity.

The stereotypes about
one community or another,

don't actually take over
and become the norm.

And then the final bit is just:
keep calm and carry on.

Don't worry about immigration.

The front page of The Guardian
yesterday: "286 000 immigrants".

They're the ones that are making
the actual economy grow in Britain.

The politicians won't tell you this.

But actually, let's just
keep calm and carry on.

Britain is not going to be overrun
by Muslims.

You know, 4.4% of the population
overthrowing 95.6%.

I'm not a great maths person.

It's not going to happen.

Let's look at the reality.

Let's take Britishness for what it is.

Now, I'm going to wrap up now.

I'm going to give you one image.

There's two other qualities
or two other values about Britain.

One is that we are irreverent,

and the other one is our sense of humour.

And so I'm going to preprare you now,
for the image that is coming up.

OK?

Now, if we see this.

How brilliant is that?

Because actually, we may go:

"Oh, these Muslim women,
who wear the niqab.

They are not a part of us.
There's a barrier to integration".

I think the woman, on your left,

knows exactly what culture,
of what country, she is in.

When someone's sticking
a camera on her face,

I think she knows what message
is coming across with that.

You know, that's not an Islamic sign.

That's not a sign from the Middle East.

It's not Arabic.

It's pure, 100% British
irreverence and humour.

And I think that this,

so this highlights the point.

It's that even if we think,
if we're told somebody is other,

look beyond the otherness.

Because actually they are probably
more like us than what we are.

And I want to wrap up with just one thing

and I want to say: let's make
Britain great, for being who we are.

And when I say '"we", I mean all of us.

Let's not be told anything different.

Let's make Britain great.

Thanks very much.

(Applause)