Black and British: A Forgotten History

by David Olusoga

The trajectory of racism in Britain in the post-war years is therefore difficult to ascertain. Sheila Patterson, the author of the sociological study Dark Strangers, found that while many white people in Brixton had fixed and negative views of their black neighbours, these prejudiced opinions were not universal. The common view, which is reflected in the memories of some West Indian migrants from the era, was that the country was split three ways. In his book The Colour Problem Anthony Richmond argued that one-third of the population were ‘Extremely prejudiced people’ who ‘strongly resist the idea of having any degree of contact or communication with coloured people. They object vehemently to mixed marriages, but are almost as strongly opposed to having coloured people in their homes, or to working with them in a factory or office. In fact they are generally of the opinion that coloured people should not be allowed in Britain at all.’33 Jamaican-born Sam King, who served in Britain with the RAF during the Second World War, came back on the Empire Windrush and, in 1983, became the first black mayor of the London borough of Southwark, agreed. He defined Anthony Richmond’s ‘Extremely prejudiced’ proportion of the population as the ‘third of people in Britain [who] still had imperialist ideas’ and felt that ‘People from the colonies should be planting bananas and chocolate and whatever it is.’ The middle third King regarded as being mildly hostile to black migration and the fi...