Tue 23 Jun 2020, 10:13 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, RMT member, personal capacity
Racism in the Ranks is a documentary that can be found on the BBC streaming service, in which Chris Tulley interviewed a number of former black soldiers who had experienced racism within the British Army. The Army have been attempting to recruit more soldiers from black and Asian communities, because currently, they are disproportionately under-represented.
Tulley interviewed David Nkomo who complained about racial slurs even from superior officers and when no action was taken over complaints, the slurs continued. He was called a black c*** and given the most menial tasks to do. Yet, he got the ‘best new recruit’ award and was described by a former colleague as ‘a guy the army needs’. When he made a request to resign on the grounds of racial discrimination, he was told he’d have to resign on ‘medical’ grounds. He felt that the Army chiefs feared the possibility of bad publicity and litigation.
Two-thirds of black recruits to the Army are from overseas and Tulley interviewed two former Fijians who had suffered racial discrimination. They felt that they were treated as second-class citizens and one of them got a £490,000 compensatory payment after racial slurs and discriminatory practices. The other Fijian was beaten unconscious by two white soldiers.
Tulley interviewed Lt Colonel Jonathan Buxton, the head of the newly formed, ‘Unacceptable behaviours Unit. He claimed that the Army wasn’t institutionally racist and to prove the point, he was accompanied by a black captain who said that he too had experienced racism but that soldiers should complain. Tulley didn’t say so, but being officers these would have been far less likely to suffer the same racism as the privates.
One feature of the case of the Fijian who was beaten was the failure of the Army’s prosecution service to investigate the assault properly. The victim was never told about the outcome and was not even asked to give a statement. He got £5,000 and a vacation back in Fiji, thereby conveniently sweeping the incident under the carpet.
Tulley had begun the programme with the sentencing of a serving soldier who had links with a white supremacist group called National Action, who advocate violence against ethnic minorities. The soldier got six months and was sacked from the Army after which Tulley interviewed his stepfather who made the ludicrous claim that it was ‘inherent’, because soldiers are trained to ‘fight foreigners’. So we saw exactly where the racist views had come from. Some of the racist comments used by this soldier on social media were read out and they would have been fitting for a KKK website.
This reminded me of an incident where some soldiers used Corbyn’s picture as target practice and when it came to light some top brass were embarrassed enough to promise an enquiry. The right-wing press were quite relaxed about what they described as soldiers’ ‘humour’. There’s banter in all workplaces. David Nkomo was nicknamed ‘ Black Dave’ , as there was another Dave in his unit. He never had a problem with this but he did have a problem with those in power who treated him differently.
