Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Chapter 4 focuses on the anxieties white people have of being displaced by Black people. Conservative politicians have long railed about white people losing their place in society to the alienated “other.” In 1968, for example, Enoch Powell declared to a rapt audience that “In fifteen or twenty years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man” (117). By drawing on the imagery of slavery, Powell’s racist speech not only tapped into white fears of subjugation but also tacitly acknowledged that power historically resided in the hands of those who could physically subjugate others. Contemporary politicians play into similar fears when they express concerns about the disappearance of the British way of life and clamor to curb immigration. For them, multiculturalism threatens British national identity. The 2016 Vote to Leave campaign, a referendum on the UK’s membership to the European Union, was fueled by these kinds of sentiments.

In 2009, Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National Party, gave a speech about Britain’s embattled white minority on a television show called Question Time. This speech is significant because of the broad influence Griffin has in Britain.