Expressions of Discontent

Darcus Howe, the activist who found himself at the receiving end of Joan Rivers' angry vitriol on Wednesday has been the subject of a profile published in the Independent today.

Some quotes:

The personal is political with him. He has had seven children by four different women and opines: "Divorce is to be celebrated. Anybody who challenges that is an enemy of freedom."

...But although he rails against other people's stereotypes - "you can't simply say black people can run faster and white people can swim better" - he's quite happy to employ his own. Geordies only seem interested in beer and football, he said on TV once, in an off-hand way which would outrage him if someone said the same thing about blacks and drugs and promiscuous sex. "I am a West Indian. That means I make children all the time," he has said. "West Indian men are historically violent," he adds, by way of excuse. "We tend to fly off the handle quite quickly."

Classic.

On Wednesday morning, BBC Radio 4's Midweek discussion show unexpectedly varied from its usual anodyne self, to flash instead brilliantly with the fireworks of a full-blown race row as New York comedienne Joan Rivers flew into an incandescent rage over a remark by Trinidad and Tobago-born British race pundit Darcus Howe that she interpreted as an accusation of racism. It was a great moment for live radio, and a great moment for Joan Rivers -- it certainly won't hurt the publicity for her current tour. Most newspapers in Britain have carried the story, and some abroad, too.

The whole episode was highly entertaining, and if you missed hearing Ms. Rivers' rant and you're feeling bad about that, you can hear it and read a transcript on the BBC news website, here. You can also hear the whole program in Real Audio on Midweek's page on the BBC's website Joan Rivers' rant starts 23 minutes in, but there's some context earlier on.

Darcus didn't really accuse Joan of racism -- at least, it's not clear that he did, so it could be argued that Joan was being unreasonably sensitive, but I'm siding with her anyway, partly because I much prefer her "colourblind" attitude to his race-obsessed view of the world, and also because Darcus Howe is a pompous git.

The first clue that Darcus deserves a verbal kicking comes about five minutes in to the program, when Jackie Collins, who is also guest on the show, is talking to Libby Purves, the presenter, about her latest book.

Collins: I had this girl, Liberty, who is a very interesting character to write about. She's biracial, but she doesn't know who her father is, but her mother is black, and her mother stands her in front of the mirror one day, um, and says to her, "You've always got to remember, you could pass for white, but you're a black girl, and you've always got to remember that." And I had taken that from an interview I saw with Halle Berry one day and I said to Halle Berry, I hope you don't mind, but I've used that in the book, and it works very well for the character.

Purves: It's a regular feeling, isn't it, Darcus, is parents of mixed race children say "Look, look, don't forget you're black."

Howe: I recognize that sentiment, and you have to make it clear pretty early on, because you alway -- there's a lot of confused children.

Already, I've got a problem with this guy. Darcus Howe is one of those people who believes that mixed race children are "confused" unless great care is taken to indoctrinate them into the idea that they are black. Why? Like the fictional Liberty's mother, he's an advocate of the one-drop rule, which is a piece of nonsense dreamt up by racists in Jim Crow era America, and no longer applies in the real world, and perhaps never really did, since thousands of people successfully "passed" during that era.

Later, about thirteen minutes in, Darcus starts to describe the TV documentary he's come to talk about. It's about his youngest son, who has apparently begun to go off the rails. According to Howe, it's all about race.

Howe: And one of the issues at large is the issue of young black boys, not they're good or bad or indifferent, they're just what they are historically, they've just emerged into the world of globalisation with a certain attitude. They have a musicality which reflects that attitude. They spend a lot of time in prison which reflects society's serious intolerance of their behaviour however mild.

Hmm. A certain musicality? Isn't that a racist stereotype? And mild behaviour is getting these lads into prison? I rather doubt that, myself.

Six minutes later, we learn a little about Howe's relationship with his ex-wife.

Howe: We have been inseparable, so I blow up at her, and she blows up at me...

Purves: But you make it racial, you say I've been persecuted from day one, by everybody who isn't black.

Howe: Yeah, including her, including her. I had to educate her about what black people were. I never let her forget that. I never let her parents forget it either.

Collins: Is she black or white?

Howe: White.

Collins: Oh, she's white!

Howe: But we got on like a house on fire.

Collins: Uh-huh, okay! Sexual tension here.

Purves: Hehehe -- she then storms out!

Gosh, it must have been fun being married to him. A barrel of laughs, no question.

The discussion continues, beginning to sound more like one of Radio 4's more hard-biting programmes, like Moral Maze, than bland old Midweek:

Howe: That is one thing about very close relationships -- having to bear the weight of the sad time of race. You hear your wife say something and you thought, huh, what are you? Why don't you go and join the BNP or something? You hear that!

Rivers: Same generally with White people. I'm so bored with race.

Howe: No, no, no, um. You are entitled to be bored by it. I am not.

Rivers: Yes you are, and yes you are. I think the best thing...

Howe: What are you talking about?

Rivers: Let me explain, give me a minute! I think people should intermarry, everybody should be part this and part that and part everything, and race doesn't mean a damn thing. It's about people. You talk to the star, Halle Berry, it doesn't matter if you're black or white, you're beautiful and you're wonderful, and you're having a good life. Your son will have a good life. Everybody just relax, take the best of their back cultures, and move forward.

Purves: That's a very American approach, a melting pot approach...

Howe: That's not an American approach, America is one of the most savagely racial places in the world.

Purves: Well, it's an American ideal.

Howe: I worked in American South in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Comittee with Ashrab Brown, Stokely Charmichael. Malcom was in the North. Martin was a moderate, and people disappeared in the night. That's what I know about America. So that's not an American...

Collins: But that was a long time ago, wasn't it?

Howe: Shall we deal with now?

Collins: Oh, you want to deal with now?

Rivers: No, let's deal with Africa now, when the Tutus are killing the - it's not a - It's about hatred, it's about people get the idea that, I hate your tribe, you hate my tribe - It's not all about white, and black!

Howe: I live a reality. I live with reality.

Rivers: But the reality is that you picked a white woman and you have two mixed children. Let them go forward.

Howe: No, I don't have two mixed children.

Rivers: Three mixed children.

Howe: It have two, two -- children.

Rivers: Yes, but you're making them choose.

At this point, Libby Purves manages to calm the discussion down by asking Mr Howe a very long question about his documentary, but Darcus isn't happy yet. He can't stand it that someone has challenged his race-obsessed worldview and got away with it, so he sticks in a sly dig:

Howe: There are hundreds of thousands of Caribbean children - since Black offends Joan, I will make it...

This is a strange accusation to make -- that Joan is guilty of some kind of weird PC-ness in which the word "black" is taboo. I think Howe knows this doesn't make sense, but he's relying his target to be too polite, or just too sensible, to challenge him. The sly ambiguity of "black offends you" invites an interpretation that means "you don't like black people", i.e., "you're racist", but Howe can easily deny that he intended such an interpretation, so the target who takes him up on this point risks looking foolish. They will therefore, if they are sensible, sit quietly and endure a certain discomfiture, while he enjoys having the last word.

Unfortunately for him, he picked the wrong target. Joan Rivers is not sensible that way, and she went ballistic. "Wait!" she screamed. "Just stop right now. Black does not offend me. How dare you? How dare you say that? 'Black offends me!' You know nothing about me. How dare you." She went on to demolish the thesis of his "stupid film", and to mock him as a sef-deluding deadbeat dad with a huge chip on his shoulder.

Serves him bloody right, really. People have been too polite to challenge Howe for far too long, and his pomposity has long been in need of some public deflation. People who play identity politics, and especially those who, like Howe, make a career of it, need to be shouted down more often. Their divisive brand of social politics does no-one any good at all, except that they get money and an ego boost from their role as "community leaders".

Advocates of race and ethnicity-based identity politics have only two possible responses to advocates of colour-blindness. The first is that their opponents are naive, and the second is that they are crypto-racists, who are using the cover of colour-blindness as an excuse for ignoring extant discrimination. Both accusations are sometimes true, but sometimes (and increasingly often, I would say), neither is. Rather, the accusations have more force when they go in the opposite direction: The champions of ethnic identity-politics can often be shown to be race-obsessed and out of touch, as happened to Howe this Wednesday.

Poor Libby Purves, though, accustomed normally to gentle banter, but caught today between two giants of obstreperous gittism. The gave us a great line to end with, though, when she turned to the fourth guest, Andrea Jones, and said:

Purves: Andrea, shall we talk about plant photography, while Joan and Darcus glare at each other in the corner.