Stereotyping
Another fairly direct form of unwelcome and unwelcoming discourse is the use of ethnic stereotypes
or dismissing individuals or whole groups of people as thinking or acting in a particular way due to
their race or religion in particular. It is not my experience or finding that this kind of thinking is
prevalent in the modern Labour Party but nor is it completely absent, and so I think it worth discussing
with a view to achieving the highest standards that we seek to maintain.
A classic example (though not from our Party) would be of impugning the credentials or good faith of
the US President in the context of our EU referendum debate on the grounds of his "part-Kenyan"
heritage. The remarks (notoriously made by a senior Conservative politician) were doubly offensive in
both stereotyping per se (i.e. in the suggestion that people of Kenyan heritage think a certain way),
and in unleashing the classic conspiracy trope that people of a particular minority or of mixed race are
somehow suspect or disloyal to the mainstream because a multiple identity equals dubious allegiance.
The example I give refers to the stereotyping of the first US President of African heritage whose
American nationality, education, career of public service, democratic mandate and two terms as
Commander in Chief proved insufficient to "trump" his part Kenyan heritage in the eyes of his proBrexit critic. However this kind of discourse is just as likely in relation to Jewish and Muslim people in
some political discourse, including regrettably, on occasion, in the Labour Party.
To suggest, for example, that all or most Jewish people are wealthy or interested in wealth or finance
or political or media influence or less likely to be of the left or likely to hold particular or any views on
the subject of the Middle East is a classic stereotype. Equally, to doubt the political or national loyalty
of a Jewish person on account of their actual or perceived connection to fellow Jews elsewhere around
the world including in Israel is (unwittingly or otherwise) to tap into an age-old antisemitic conspiracy
trope that will inevitably and understandably leave your Jewish friends, neighbours or fellow activists
feeling vulnerable, excluded and even threatened. Once more, I am not saying that this is endemic, but
any seasoned activist who says that they are completely unaware of any such discourse must be
wholly insensitive or completely in denial.
I have heard the painful experience of a Labour councillor who was told that he would be particularly
good at a finance role (for no reason other than being Jewish). I have heard from an MP around whom
rumours circulated that she was some kind of agent for Mossad. This was simply on account of her
faith identity and pre-parliamentary career in community activism. I have heard from Jewish students
expected either to defend or condemn the policies of the Israeli government during their freshers'
week when in truth they have no firm or developed view and just want to settle in and go to the
parties like everyone else.
Similarly, I have heard Muslims (en masse) being derided as inherently sexist and/or antisemitic and
potentially of split or dubious loyalty in the context of Party membership and political participation.
Once more, they are sometimes expected to explain and condemn the actions of Isis or particular
terrorist acts before, or more vehemently, than anyone else. This is simply not fair. I suspect that both
communities suffer as a result of an occasional allergy in some parts of left thinking to religious
motivation and identity, and more generally from an actual or perceived identification with fellow
Jews or Muslims elsewhere in the world. Labour's internationalist and human rights traditions should
be more than capable of embracing the multiple identities of Britain's diverse communities and of
remembering that Christianity had its place alongside socialism and secularism in the foundations of
the Party from the outset. Of course no religious doctrine, discourse or community can be free from
criticism from the modern left (not least on account of the vintage and necessarily patriarchal
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