Spearchucker Jones

Cameron sacks frontbench Tory after slur on ethnic minority forces

This is the story of Tory MP Patrick Mercer who made a few ill-advised comments about race relations within the armed forces, and found himself resigning a few hours later. This is always going to be a tricksy subject, especially when you're a white middle class MP suggesting that use of the word 'nigger' is not always racist, and I completely understand how and why he resigned so quickly...

This is an excerpt of his statement:
"I had five company sergeant majors who were all black. They were without exception UK-born, Nottingham-born men who were English - as English as you and me... They prospered inside my regiment, but if you'd said to them: 'Have you ever been called a nigger?' they would have said: 'Yes'. But equally, a chap with red hair, for example, would also get a hard time - a far harder time than a black man, in fact. But that's the way it is in the Army. If someone is slow on the assault course, you'd get people shouting: 'Come on you fat bastard, come on you ginger bastard, come on you black bastard'."

Now, I may be completely wrong on this, but that doesn't sound like a racist man to me. He may very well be ignorant, or naive, or completely unaware of the world we inhabit, but to me that sounds like a man talking honestly about a subject and being misunderstood. I have no authority to comment on racism within the army, and it is entirely possible that Patrick Mercer's interpretation of events is wildly different to that of his troops, but I think he is legitimately claiming that not all derogatory comments about race are racist in nature.

I think of my friends, and those of them who are different to me. Those of them who are of a different race, gender, sexual preference, religion, height, hair colour, musical taste, nationality, weight and financial success - all our noticable variations are used in positive and negative ways as subjects of derision, and of admiration, and of humour. How close I am to somebody is directly proportional to how directly we can insult each other. It's an acknowledgment of knowing the other person well enough to see through their stereotype, be that of a different race, gender, sexual preference, religion, height, hair colour... etc.

Please don't misunderstand me. Not for a second am I suggesting that being called 'nigger' is all 'one big old laff' to black people, because that's blatantly not the case, and there is still a terrifying amount of discrimination within the military, and the world in general. However I would dare to suggest that not all cases of racial mention within a close-knit group of people are racially motivated. That's what I think Patrick Mercer was trying to say. He just made the mistake of saying it out loud in a society where any attempts to talk honestly about race are immediately leapt upon as discriminatory.

Admittedly, he did also say this:
"I came across a lot of ethnic minority soldiers who were idle and useless, but who used racism as cover for their misdemeanours. I remember one guy from St Anne's (Nottingham) who was constantly absent and who had a lot of girlfriends. When he came back one day I asked him why, and he would say: 'I was racially abused'. And we'd say: 'No you weren't, you were off with your girlfriends again'."
which is slightly harder to justify.

We live in a very complicated world. The differences between people are exaggerated and poured over while we all try as hard as possible not to see them. I can't claim to know anything about the validity of Patrick Mercers comments, and as a white male I'm hardly in any position to talk about racism, but I am worried about how quickly he was leapt upon and dismissed. We seem so fearful to talk honestly about race in this country and whether what Mercer said was right or wrong, it really should have been discussed, not silenced.

More on the story here.

By the way, Spearchucker Jones is a character played by Fred Williamson in MASH. So named because of his direct throw while playing American Football.