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Chris Searle
ISLINGTON EDUCATION LIBRAE!
Your daily dose: racism and The Sun
First published in this form 1989
by
Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom
9 Poland Street
London W1V 3DG
©CPBF
ISBN 0 9508897 7 6
Printed by Blackrose Press
Typeset by Spencers
Cover photographs by Janet Cable
Designed by Peter Brawne
Contents
Foreword / 7
Introduction / 12
1
The Sun rising / 15
2
The Sun’s jingoism / 20
3
The Sun on Africa / 28
4
On Arabs and Asians / 56
5
The Sun on Britain / US
6
The Sun on education / 62
7
Conclusion: the Murdoch curriculum 77
Appendix one: Repatriation — reinforcing the message /
Appendix two: A poem / 86
Foreword
‘For committed black j ournalists there is no such thing as
an objective impartial viewpoint. We should start from
the assumption that the establishment press propagates
establishment views and it is our duty to propagate the
views of the people, first and foremost black people but
also the working masses at large ... Committed black
journalism to be worthy of its name, should seek out and
expose, every example of injustice against our people.’
Kofi Buenor Hadjor, editor, Third World Book Review
In the main, the media are hostile to the labour movement in
general and to black people they can cast as ‘extremist’ or
‘militant’ in particular.
Many black campaigns and individuals like Sharon Atkin,
Bernie Grant, Linda Bellos and myself have all experienced the
media at its worst. More significantly, black people as a whole
recognize that we have very few friends in the media.
Not many black people actually seek redress for libel through
the courts because of the crippling costs, and there is no statutory
right to reply. As a result, racist papers like The Sun are able to
stereotype black people as muggers, scroungers, rioters/looters
and illegal immigrants with impunity. The historical contribution
of black people in Britain has been bleached from the record. Our
faces are invisible unless a news report can cast us as a ‘problem’.
This includes coverage of black countries where the root causes of
our plight — white colonialism and imperialism — are never
explained. Instead we are shown as helpless recipients of ‘aid’
with ‘incompetent’ or ‘corrupt’ rulers.
My real involvement with the media began three years after
the disturbances that shook Bristol in 1980 and reverberated
around the country in the years that followed.
v An inquiry into the disturbances concluded that the black
population of Bristol had been ignored and their surroundings
neglected with unemployment at its highest for many years.
There was an urgent need for the authorities to be seen to be
doing something. Both Avon and Bristol county councils were
under extreme pressure, hence the decision to provide the
community with a community centre.
The centre was to be a showpiece reflecting a vision of the
local authorities’ dream for gaining political kudos as opposed to
addressing key issues prevalent in the black communities. With
no thought of consulting the black community a white dominated
7
community association was established and the project moved
quickly on. It cost £550,000 and proved to be totally unsuitable,
and lacked such basic amenities as a kitchen! It was too expensive
for the community association to run and the crypt was always
under water.
When I was elected chairperson of the association in early
1983 I declared that we were unwilling to take on the centre
without a further injection of funds under our control. The media
rushed in like a pack of wolves. The issues about the lack of
consultation and our misgivings about the centre through its poor
design were overlooked. The media were more interested in
concentrating on me as an individual.
The revelation of my past criminal convictions brought
widespread condemnation of me and the black community from
outside of the St Pauls area, and shortly after I became known as
‘The petrol bomber who became a politico.’ Nationally, the
patterns largely remained the same. The Sun was quick to point
out that I was a ‘Rasta bomb rat.’ The Daily Star said I was ‘The
rasta big mouth of Bristol.’ The Daily Mail announced ‘Crisis
talks over bomber.’
Any way you look at it the media certainly weren’t interested
in putting across the genuine arguments that still remained about
the centre. The community association fed the media with press
releases explaining the issues about the centre and our refusal to
take it on but they never picked this up. They were only keen to
uncover what they hoped would be a promiscuous and embarrass¬
ing past. At the same time they were encouraging me to feed
them with juicy, sensational one-liners about the possibilities of
future riots!
These factors hindered the promotion of good race relations
and increased the tension and hostility between the black and
white communities. Neighbouring communities were whipped
into almost mass hysteria and paranoia about black people, in
particular our refusal to take on the centre. Many community
group representatives publicly said ‘those people ought to be
grateful.’ Whilst all parties in the councils were adamant that
there would be ‘not a penny more!’
By carrying many letters that reflected this widening gap the
local press appeared to encourage such hostility. This had an
effect on me personally. I began to receive my first batch of hate
mail and letters threatening my life if I continued voicing the
views and aspirations of the shaken but unbowed community.
The continuing saga of the community centre kept me con¬
stantly in the public eye and it wasn’t long before the media
crowned me the ‘Community Leader of St Pauls.’ I continued to
be very outspoken on issues affecting black people, and it wasn’t
long before the media began to publicly dethrone me from a
8
