Neil Connor, Birmingham (UK) Post, March 24, 2008
The Birmingham born-and-bred singer, who recently left the chart-topping reggae band after raising concerns about its business affairs, said it had inherited “segregation and racism” from America.
He nostalgically looked back to the inner city Birmingham of the 1980s, describing it as the “exact opposite” of the current climate in which youths from different racial groups fight each other.
Campbell said he was proud of the mixed ethnicity of his former group, which he claimed was a uniquely Brummie concept. But he said that integration was a thing of the past in the city as a whole.
His comments were rejected by the city’s head of equalities, Councillor Alan Rudge, who said Birmingham had an “enviable” situation in terms of race relations.
Tensions with a minority of people in ethnic communities were caused by youths looking up to celebrities as role models, particularly in the music business, said Coun Rudge.
Campbell, who now lives in Dorset, said: “It’s all changed in Birmingham now you know. The hip hop generation have inherited segregation and racism because that’s what America is.
“It’s the most segregated country in the world, and the most racist country in the world. It seems to me that the kids of today hang round in all white or all black or all Asian or all Somalian or all Russian groups, all the same race, and they all wear hoodies and they all fight each other, which is the opposite of what we thought was happening in the 80s.”
He said UB40 were influenced by the blues parties they attended as teenagers in Balsall Heath, echoing those in Jamaica. In Birmingham these parties evolved into racially inclusive garden parties.
The group produced its first album, the 1980 release Signing Off, in the garden of a bedsit in Birmingham. He said: “In the 80s the blues parties that included white people sort of turned into garden parties in Birmingham, in Moseley and Balsall Heath, but that’s all gone—unfortunately.”
He said he did not blame hip hop music for the breakdown of multiculturalism but voiced his dislike of the attitude that was promoted by the genre.
“The misogyny and the race issue is always number one on the lyric,” he said. “It’s not the music, it’s the things that come with it like the gang culture and the segregation. It’s so American and it seems that the new generation of kids they all hang around in groups of their own type and it’s a real shame.”
Birmingham City Council claims to have taken great strides in developing race relations since the Lozells riots in October 2005.
Coun Rudge (Con Sutton Vesey), the local authority’s cabinet member for equalities and human resources, said the city was racially harmonious because of the grassroots work of his officers.
He said: “I would question what Mr Campbell knows about the racial situation in Birmingham. In the last few years, when I have been involved in equalities, I believe we have moved forward better than any other city in Europe in terms of bringing people together.
“Our policy is to make sure that those who consider themselves a separate group are actively involved with what happens in the city. It would be foolish to think that there is still not lots of work left to do but we are in an enviable situation.”
Coun Rudge also said music would always have a hold over youngsters but he blamed the “cult of celebrity” for many of society’s problems.
Asked if Mr Campbell’s industry was causing alienation among the country’s youth, Coun Rudge said: “That is what I am saying.
“The cult of celebrity has caused a lot of the country’s problems. People think it is easy to achieve celebrity and it is not. I think there are plenty of examples of good role models to be found in the community, such as the local imam, or the local priest.”
Another member of UB40—keyboard player Michael Virtue—only days ago followed Campbell in severing his ties with the band. It followed the shock departure in January of the singer who blamed management difficulties for his decision.
Original article
(Posted on March 26, 2008)
Comments
I’ll just keep saying it over and over again; why not?
The Family - the most basic bio-social unit since the Paleolithic, certainly Neolithic Age, is in ruins, and we’re talking about Race relations? As if being a failure in one will automatically make us a success in the other!
And we’re not just talking about Race, we’re obsessing over it. I wasn’t impressed as a teenager and I’m not now as a man. It is one method more of avoiding reality. This is the reason why I post here, as I’ve said before. Because of the REALISM in Race Realism. I know from a lot of personal experience, whether immediate family, cousins, friends, neighbors, where they have so many family needs that are left unattended but the obsession with Race rages on!
Family, Education, Business, Government, I mean, who are we fooling? This country, Europe, in short, the West, has been in a nihilistic freefall for over One hundred years, when it was almost entirely White.
Most people in the West that ARE sympathetic are defending it by depending solely on common sense and intuition. It’s not enough. Then there are others who think we can regain all of the territory we’ve lost and go BACK to an all-White Christian country! A Farmer would have better luck putting last years harvest back in the ground! That is, if he could find it. But he wouldn’t go looking. Of course you can still believe in Jesus. I’m not a Christian but I have no problem at all with Jesus; can’t say the same for some of his followers. But that’s only because they just don’t walk the talk.
But an all-White, Christian country? That is the polarized opposite of the Race-obessed people. It is one distraction more that succeeds only in keeping those who believe it out of the place they seem to have developed an alergy toward - Reality.
Race? Who knows. I don’t even know if there’s anything we can do about the Family. But each individual alive today HAS to live in Reality whether they want to or not; and most just don’t like it. How else could you explain why a hateful illiterate, with no manners or gratitude, ie; half the NBA, make millions and millions of dollars? Well, they are symbols of mans tolerance for anything OTHER than Reality. Let’s do something about that! Let’s start a National Dialogue on Reality, not Race, which is subsumed by Reality.
Posted by Dedalus at 6:35 PM on March 26
“It’s all changed in Birmingham now you know. The hip hop generation have inherited segregation and racism because that’s what America is.”
The truth is more obvious; be it a nation in Africa or a town in England, black behavior is universal.
Critical mass strikes again.
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:04 PM on March 26
I am very happy that Ali calls himself a “Campbell” and not a MacDonald.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 7:04 PM on March 26
What about Mexico with their caste system, how about India and the Hindu population and their caste system known as the “untouchables” where one is born into a society and can never rise above a rat catcher How many immigrants is Japan taking in? China? Mexico? ZERO. The only multicultural societies are the white, free countries being destroyed. Come to Saginaw, MI and get shot in a drive-by, how about Detroit, 80% Black, highest crime rate for a city its size, dog fighting and drugs, Black women and Hispanic have the highest AIDS rate, a lying hip-hop Black mayor bringing another city to its knees.
Racist America, why is the world still coming here? All people self-segregate, it is human nature to be with ones own kind—you cannot change human nature. Blacks are racist also, as are Chinese, Hispanics, Hmong, etc. This was the greatest country 90% white and civilized before the 1965 Immigration Act inviting the third world and discriminating against immigration from Western Europe into our First World. Birds of a feather flock together. Any comments on the Black Flight from Mexicans in L.A.?
Posted by at 9:48 PM on March 26
YOU imported your own racism. It infects from the bottom up and YOU have imported a LOT of the bottom in recent years. Birmingham was a natural interface point because it was already a liberal experiment in diversity. I wonder what it’s like now that white people are a hated class there?
Grobbbbbbb
Posted by grob hahn at 9:51 PM on March 26
It never fails to amaze me how “musicians” and “actor/celebrities” are all specialists in the department of human interactions. Specifically, they all think whitey owes the world a living for all the evil whitey has done. And America is the backbone of all evil.
Posted by at 10:15 PM on March 26
Typical blame America for everything wrong in the world person.
Posted by Spartan24 at 10:22 PM on March 26
Yes Yes Yes very one is equal, and gender and race are superficial qualities having no deeper meaning exept in the minds of evil biggots. And of course classical music could just as well been born in the Congo and rap music in the heart of Europe. And bolth forms of music are equally edifying and anyone who doesn’t think so is an evil biggot. And little white girls should be impregnated by little black boys,.. what a wonderful world it would be…
Posted by Petrarch at 1:52 AM on March 27
So, Ali Campbell has moved from Birmingham to Dorset. Billy Bragg, of whom some of you might have heard, moved from Dagenham, Essex, to Dorset some years ago. Birmingham and Dagenham are multiracial towns. Dorset is mostly rural and, er, hideously White. Are we getting the picture? These people become millionaires and leave their working class, multiracial, home towns for somewhere more to their taste. They’ve segregated themselves, in fact. Hypocrites!
Posted by Can'taffordtoliveindorset at 3:00 AM on March 27
“His comments were rejected by the city’s head of equalities, Councillor Alan Rudge, who said Birmingham had an “enviable” situation in terms of race relations”
Uh-oh. How long before some USA lib decides we need to have a “Head of Equalities” councillor?
“…the local authority’s cabinet member for equalities and human resources, said the city was racially harmonious because of the grassroots work of his officers”
Great. They actually have “officers” to go out and enforce their P.C. garbage. Now, when they find that even the officers can’t enforce racial harmony there’s only one place for them to go..
ME! TURNS OUT IT’S MY FAULT AS AN AMERICAN! Unbelievable, laughable, but scary because it’s serious.
Note to self: buy some more canned goods and another box of ammo.
Posted by BRIGAND at 6:57 AM on March 27
Typical white liberal. Spouts about all the benefits of multiculturism and then moves to an all white area in Dorset. We’re just learning now why Americans might have negative opinions about some minorites. There nothing like a dose of reality.
Posted by watfordman at 7:22 AM on March 27
“describing it as the “exact opposite” of the current climate in which youths from different racial groups fight each other.”
Translation: the current climate in which every racial group fights with blacks, until the authorities give in to terror. Thereafter promoting the infoulability of blacks and constant guilt-mongering for everyone else.
Posted by at 10:41 AM on March 27
“This was the greatest country 90% white and civilized before the 1965 Immigration Act inviting the third world and discriminating against immigration from Western Europe into our First World. Birds of a feather flock together. Any comments on the Black Flight from Mexicans in L.A.?”
Birds of a feather, flock together… We have poor neighborhoods of blacks, hispanics, asians and poor neighborhoods apparently filled up almost exclusively by groups from places such as the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I’d be interested in hearing about the poor neighborhoods filled up almost exclusively by whites.
Posted by at 10:50 AM on March 27
Someone might want to ask this clown what exactly does “racism” mean? It seems we give them too much leeway in these anti-white tirades clumsily disguised as “anti-racism” pontifications.
Posted by Simmons at 11:19 AM on March 27
Typical white liberal. Spouts about all the benefits of multiculturism and then moves to an all white area in Dorset.
Here’s one white liberal who finally got a taste of her own medicine:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article952861.ece
Needless to say, she was less than thrilled.
Posted by qwerty at 12:21 PM on March 27
“I believe we have moved forward better than any other city in Europe in terms of bringing people together.”
‘Bringing people together’? Now, is that where the immigrants move in and the whites move out? Birmingham is on course to become Britain’s the first white-minority city, so it’s inevitable that other races will fight for dominance. Ali Campbell is an idiot and was probably stoned in the 80s.
Posted by Eugene at 6:47 PM on March 27
White neighborhoods made up of exclusively whites are safe neighborhoods whether rich or poor. Rural whites are poor, but safe, friendly people. Some farm, some own small farms, some rent land to farm. Livonia, a suburb of Detroit 100,000 whites live there and are harassed constantly because their neighborhoods are being integrated against their will, Howell, MI, white, is being harassed because people of color will not patronize their businesses because they are not diverse enough.
My hometown in the Southren Tier part of NY was all white, at that time we all had the opportunity to climb up the ladder, there was no affirmative action. We had pride in working hard, not handouts. We knew to study hard to pass the civil service exams, until people of color could use their skin as a weapon—no more civil service exams if people of color couldn’t pass them. Homogeneous neighborhoods, countries, (Finland) Highest in education in the world, Sweden, well educated and top-notch in IT.
My neighborhood 30 years ago was all white, safe, prosperous, well educated people (rich and poor) never had to lock my doors, could walk anywhere, anytime and be safe. I still can today, but here in MI because of crime in the cities, the elites of color started moving to my safe, neat neighborhood. Now mind you, the elites could care less of their underclass people of color thugs. White people have western civilization, and the Founding Fathers to be thankful for creating a unique country—the greatest in the world before the third world invasion. Third world countries are corrupt, have dictators, have governments that steal U.S. foreign aid, create overpopulation, unskilled and uneducated people. If I had to walk in downtown Detroit tonight and on one side there were people of color, homeless people, etc. and on the other side of the street were skin heads, I would walk on the skin head side, even though I would not agree with their views, I know I would be safe.
Posted by at 10:46 PM on March 27
