Sociology of racism in Brockley

Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.

- Samuel Johnson (18th century English writer) in conversation with James Boswell

Brockley is a rising star. The way that Londoners understand that Camden has had its moment in the sun, and Shoreditch is the flavor of the month, so too we can see the promise in little SE4. But does that promise also come with a lingering sense of failing multiculturalism?

Crunched between Lewisham and News Cross, the Zone 2 district became a conservation area in 1974 "following a campaign from local residents to protect the area's overall character of period houses, large gardens and open spaces; all of which had largely survived intact since the area was first developed from around 1870, but were beginning to be under threat of extensive re-development".

This attention to preservation has paid off as a walk through this neighborhood of 4000 houses will attest. The houses are that much better kept-up, a neighborhood watchman strolls leisurely through in the evenings chatting with residents, his walky-talky occasionally blurting out sounds from other foot soldiers patrolling and protecting the unique serenity of these streets in an otherwise rambunctious quarter of southeast London.

Lewisham is a transportation hub but comparatively soulless with bland urban landscapes and New Cross is to Camden what Brockley is to Swiss Cottage. The area is currently a hotbed for musical talent building on a legacy that saw Siousxie and the Banshees kick off the goth movement in the 1970s and in the last couple years Bloc Party, Art Brut and most recently Geniac, who I saw play at the Catapult Club last month and are one of the best unsigned punk/rock bands in Britain at the moment (download this raw mp3 for an idea of the sound).

So it is more likely New Cross, with two stations on the East London tube line, will lead the charge from the southeast to promote a new hub of cultural and artistic activity and eventually inherent the trendy mantle from Camden and Shoreditch. The council recently turned down planning permission for a new Starbucks on the high street and the borough very nearly elected the UK's first Green MP in recent political elections.

But it is Brockley that the househunters and transplants will seek out as the most obviously pleasant place to live in the surrounding area. Many of the academics at nearby Goldsmiths College already call it home and the suited commuter rush at local St Johns train station speaks of an already bulging middle class occupation.

So that sets the stage for our exercise in sociological imagination, understanding the self and the social in little SE4, and exploring those "human habitations" of which Johnson speaks in our opening quote. For there remains demons lurking in the multicultural milieu of the streets and those who live among them.

Despite recent growth in the area commercial support for the residents continues to be very undeveloped . The big grocery stores call Lewisham and New Cross home, restaurants and coffee shops are few and far between, and most residents trek to Greenwich for any evening activities. Arriving locals lament the lack of decent pubs in the area. So with most of the newcomers avoiding the local establishments, it provides a unique opportunity to connect with a more traditionally fixed Brockley resident.

Approximately five blocks apart sit two pubs, on the main arteries leading into Brockley from one side, and for the purposes of this little exploration it is unnecessary to identify them by name. Unless of course we adopt the names articulated by patrons.

"We're all white," says Tad at the bar with a wink. "That's what we say around here. Ha ha ha. You know, We're all right and we're all white."

And this pub is all white. On the half-dozen occasions I've been in I've never seen a black or visible minority of any kind. Well I guess that's not actually true. A local Pakistani shopkeeper occasionally stops in for a pint after work. When he's not around the other patrons make an exception on his behalf.

"That Paki," says another patron. "He's a good Paki."

The barmaid laughs and others join in. "Ya. He is a good Paki, that one," another chimes in. The racial slurs are not spoken with obvious malice, although there is tremendous distrust for other skin colors among the 20 or so patrons who linger around the bar making small talk and downing pints. The fact the my skin color is white and I am sitting in their pub makes them comfortable speaking naturally (racially) with me as well.

Herein lies one of the greatest challenges of the sociologist. Like an undercover policeman who wants to infiltrate a gang of drug dealers, so too must the sociologist often put personal convictions and perspectives to the side in the interest of being allowed to participate in sociological activity. On one occasion I let slip during a conversation with a patron that I had overheard racism from fans of a local football club. My tone was disapproving. We'd been chatting for an hour but he subsequently turned his back on me for the remainder of the evening.

A colleague here at Goldsmiths had done an in-depth study of fans of this club and also had to submerge himself in the communities and conversations of the subjects of his research.

"Yes I did some of that research," he says. "And I certainly have the scars to prove it."

Five blocks down the road the situation does not improve. If the other was the 'white' pub, this is the 'black' pub. On the four occasions I have been in this busy pub I have never seen another white patron. The music is dub reggae, the atmosphere significantly more lively, and a more nomadic patron population circulates among each other, from table to table. Here the color of my skin provides obstacles to even engaging in conversations or observing interaction.

On my second visit, after sitting alone for the entirety of the first, I got frustrated and tried to barge into the community. I sat down at a table with other patrons and introduced myself. They rose from their chairs to find another seat. Subsequently I managed to pin one of them, obviously uncomfortable with our conversation, at the bar where we spoke softly. After several futile forays into small talk I approached the situation directly.

"Why doesn't anyone want to speak with me?"

His response surprised the sociologist in me: "Racism my friend. We've lived under slavery. We don't trust you. You want to dominate."

Later the bartender would politely ask if I wanted to find another place for a pint. As the door swung closed behind me I heard a laugh from inside: "Blood Clot Bakra".

A browse of an online Patois Dictionary tells me that I was being called a curse followed by a derogatory term for a "white slavemaster, or member of the ruling class in colonial days. Popular etymology: 'back raw' (which he bestowed with a whip)".

It is a product of my relativist perspective that I was more shocked to hear that the patrons were connecting my skin color with racism a century before than the utterings at the 'white' pub. But perhaps these blacks understood the derogatory emphasis and words spoken in the pub down the street, without needing to sit and listen.

So like two garrisons camped on two hills, these pubs in Brockley serve their own populations, oblivious to the multicultural agenda so prolific in political and social discussions in the UK. And of course these perspectives are not limited to these particular pubs, or to Brockley, where blacks and whites move freely on the streets, if not interacting, interliving.

I have written a short story soon to be published based on my experiences in another part of East London where the glaring chasm between races and hopes for reconciliation is far more dramatic than the discussions and observations highlighted here.

And like most sociology, there really isn't much scientific validity to the perspective presented in this blog posting, more simple observation of people in a place or time to do with as you please.

But what these observations do suggest is that we need to dig still deeper within the cultural and social fabric of communities to illustrate the work that still needs to be done to arrive at a collective perspective of shared humanity. In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, disrespect the other and you disrespect yourself for you and the other are the same.

Labels: london, sociology

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Thursday, May 19, 2005