the black, black sun

Janelle Monae Feat. Big Boi - Tightrope from Fred Romano on Vimeo

Growing up amongst white people you could never admit that white people could be cool (and for the most part, they weren't...this was the time, folks, when racism was still very much a "normal" part of the conversation). Of course, it takes a while for some to realize that coolness doesn't have anything to do with colour or religion or gender or sexual preference.

But to think with my left foot: I doubt whether in the strange netherland that is suburbia there is much appreciation of the possibility that strangers-blacks, muslims, women-can offer much in terms of "high" culture. Even if you listen to pop, you're probably conditioned to think classical represents the pinnacle.

I guess this is why I find David Goodhart infuriating (his new book has just been published). I had run in with him some years back.  Not worth recounting, really, but it did seem then (as it does now) that there is something slightly nasty lurking below the surface, and it's something that reminded me of views I heard in my childhood, views that originated in a fear of the stranger who lives amongst us. Old England, the trauma of it going (Larkinesque?): the language, the customs, the openness, all to be trampled on by people who don't really 'get it'.

But is that the real story? Somehow doubt it myself (which is not to deny the difficulty any host country would face with a sudden change in its population-especially if the newcomers come from rural/semi-urban backgrounds). But what is missed out on is the fact that the newcomers do adapt, do come to like the place they live in (by and large). At least after one generation things are radically different, even if the second generation harks back to a mythical land/time that no longer exists and never really did anyway.

Secondly, the immigration debate is really a red herring. The more fundamental changes happening in culture, work, the way we live stem from globalisation and the nature of the modern economy. If in late capitalism everything is in flux, from religious belief, to family structures, work and identity then it's pretty bad form to scapegoat immigrants for the loss of the sense of 'place'. And post-modernism has nothing to do with asylum seekers!

Thirdly, for those who do venture to listen to other types of music, extend their minds to pick up something from other people's culture, to those who are receptive to the wonder of art from distant lands (my moment came at the Met, NY and a statue from the Chola dynasty), or the sublime pleasures of different cuisines; for those who make friends across the borders and are open in a sense that is a lived experience and not dependent on a mythology of 'liberty', to those people such old-world posturing will seem ludicrous.

Goodhart, you think, could never really be a New Yorker or a Londoner. A bastard: yes. But not in the best sense of the word.