It's an opportunity for someone with an interest in a subject to expand on their views — views that are not necessarily shared by the staff of Isle of Man Newspapers. Today's contribution is written by ffinlo Costain. He is a journalist and broadcaster and the director of Costain Communications.----------
'THERE'S no racism in the Isle of Man.' 'It's not a problem.' 'Those who say it is are just stirring up trouble.' At least, this seems to be the attitude of the Department of Home Affairs.
Earlier this year I researched attitudes to race and found that 68 per cent of residents thought racism was a problem.
The survey was self-selecting, but the sample size was larger than the average Mori poll.
It showed that nearly half of Islanders surveyed (43 per cent) felt sympathy towards racist views. (Full details at www.ffinlo.org)
The survey was for a series of radio documentaries, but as it turns out it's the only formal investigation of its kind ever to have taken place in the Island. Despite the fact that the Manx economy depends on foreign investment and foreign labour, the Government has never felt it necessary to monitor racial attitudes among its increasingly multinational citizenry.
Bearing the uniqueness of the research in mind one might have expected the DHA to take an active interest: to query the methodology, to ask what else I found out in my interviews.
Instead there was a stony silence. On the other hand, Isle of Man Police were keen to discover more.
For the last year they too have been trying to address racism, which the top brass see as an increasing problem.
But despite their operational experience of life and disorder on the street they too have felt the cold shoulder of the DHA.
In addition to asking questions my survey also asked people to comment. Many took the chance to record racist incidents they'd witnessed.
One person wrote: 'I've seen a child being made to call a black man on television a monkey and being told if he sees one to go up to them and make monkey noises.'
This should be shocking — but sadly, while many people in the Island are decent and generous, there are plenty of others, including some church-goers and commissioners, who use words such as 'nigger' as casually as they'd comment on the weather.
In advance of the programmes I wrote to Tynwald Members. Most ignored the correspondence. One MHK, who at least took the time to respond, served only to reinforce my concerns. He told me that racism in the Isle of Man was not about 'faith or skin colour'. He felt you were more likely to feel 'threatened' if you were from, what he termed, the 'indigenous' Manx population.
This notion 'indigenous' is misleading. It's also rather frightening to hear a Manx MHK using the language of the notoriously racist British National Party.
The Island doesn't have an indigenous population — instead our immigrant community has been built up over centuries by Come Overs, including the Celts and Vikings we're now so proud of.
The MHK seemed to suggest that people with old Manx names had accrued more rights than those who'd moved here more recently.
Yet, without a continuing influx of black, Asian or Polish immigrants NHS wards would close, Steam Packet would cease to sail, and the hotel sector would simply shut up shop. It's all very well trying to preserve Manx jobs — but if Manx people don't have the skills we should be grateful when people from other nations come and work in our damp little outpost of the Commonwealth.
Personally I'd rather have a skilled Asian surgeon operate on my kidneys than a chap from Kirk Michael who feels qualified because he once ate a steak and kidney pie. While so many of our young people continue to flee the Island we'll continue to need foreign labour to fill the skills gap.
It's also worth reflecting that immigrants working in the Island also pay tax — and while non-white immigrants may be easier to spot, less than half our population was actually born here. We couldn't afford to run our schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure without the necessary critical mass in our tax-paying working population.
Beyond that our Finance Sector depends on foreign investment. We're happy to do business with people from around the world, yet it seems the Island still projects a global reputation as a place where non-whites aren't welcome.
Only recently a key business leader from apartheid South Africa was reported in the SA Times as seeking Manx residency.
'There are no Muslims, no blacks. I'm going to the Isle of Man,' he said.
Racism is fuelled by fear and arrogance.
Some people genuinely believe they're superior to other races just because they're white (five per cent in my survey).
Many others fear change, especially when they feel threatened by the influx of other cultures: it's OK for Asians to come to the Isle of Man so long as they learn our ways.
But as soon as immigrants expect to practice their own religion for example . . . well, that's a different matter entirely.
In early 2009 the idea of a new mosque was floated. The response was vigorous and ill informed. With only 300 Muslims resident in the Island it's not as if they're taking over. It seems reasonable that they should have a place to worship — not to mention the fact that freedom to practice religion is a basic human right.
Yet social networking websites, Facebook in particular, allowed people to spread hatred against Manx Muslims like a rash.
A Manx Ku Klux Klan group was removed, but an anti-mosque group continues and features violently racist comments.
Perhaps this is unsurprising when Muslims are so frequently caricatured as terrorists or fanatics on TV and in films.
In this environment, on an Island so desperately seeking global respect, I'd expect Government to take racism and multiculturalism seriously.
Instead the legislation protecting citizens from ethnic minority backgrounds is limited and out of date. No effort is made to welcome or advise those who arrive from other nations, or to encourage integration.
Politicians are elected to Tynwald to make the right decisions to protect and enhance our society — not to fantasise about a mythical Island where inequality doesn't exist.
Thankfully, there are those who go out of their way to champion the underdog, but unfortunately it seems that DHA, and many individual Tynwald Members, simply want to brush racism under the carpet.
Until our politicians face up to the challenge of a modern multi-cultural Island many of our ethnic minority citizens will continue to face bullying and abuse.
-------------
Comment on this article by emailing newsviews@newsiom.co.im
