It's all right being different
How I See It with Denzil McDaniel • Published 1 Dec 2011 09:30
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How many of you are old enough to remember a pop band called Blue Mink?
One of their songs from the early 70s or maybe even late 60s was called "Melting Pot" which began:
Take a pinch of white man,
Wrap him up in black skin,
Add a touch of blue blood,
And a little bitty bit of Red Indian boy....
The song went on to suggest we could turn out coffee coloured people by the score. Everyone would be the same, end of the problem of divisive hate.
As Britain began to get to grips with a multi-cultural society, tensions grew especially with politician Enoch Powell warning of "rivers of blood" on the streets. Worldwide, it wasn't any better with black people in United States still being treated as second class citizens in the Land of the Free.
Northern Ireland, of course, doesn't even need the simplicity of a differing colour of skin to create serious division.
After years of being at each other's throats, there have been times recently when you had to pinch yourself.
Take the First Minister, Peter Robinson. At his party conference at the week-end, he called for a new era of a shared society. No more "them and us".
Mind you, the DUP was still rocking with laughter at Sammy Wilson's "comedy" routine about Sinn Fein members babies being in cages, wrapped in blankets and refusing to eat their dinners. And what they did with their nappies! Oh how the conference laughed.
Maybe we have a bit to go yet, but going back to the 1970s era of Blue Mink, could you have ever imagined the fledgling DUP reaching out to Catholics the way Robinson did.
Credit where it's due, then, Robbo.
You get a tingling feeling of change sometimes when you hear things. Irish Republicans sitting sharing power in Stormont is such a given that we hardly pass any remarks any more.
A high percentage of Catholics, according to one poll, want to remain in the United Kingdom.
And now we hear that God Save the Queen may be replaced as the Anthem for the Northern Ireland football team possibly with a new anthem being penned by Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.
Good.
Pardon the pun, but I've nailed my colours to the mast on this one, and Northern Ireland should have its own anthem. I know Gerry Armstrong and Martin O'Neill, among many others, stood for The Queen. But times have changed.
Possibly not for the Orange Order, as another poll has shown. Most regard Catholics as IRA sympathisers and very few would be happy if their offspring married a Catholic.
You may be surprised to learn that I don't take any great exception to that. If that's their view, that's their view.
And they should be allowed to hold their opinions, the same as any other minority. Just so long as they don't try to foist things on the rest of us.
That's the rub for the way forward, isn't it.
I don't we should all be put into a melting pot and come out with nobody feeling or looking like their original selves.
We're all Northern Irish, with much in common, and everybody should be free to live out their faith, culture or whatever. We can, and should, be different as long as we respect the differences of others. And, of course, it's not just about our two tribes any more, as Northern Ireland comes to terms with the welcome influx of other peoples from around the world.
Peter Robinson quoted Bobby Sands at the week-end, the line about revenge being the laughter of our children. Though, of course, he wasn't being complimentary about the hunger striker.
But let me also quote Bobby Sands: "Everyone, Republican or otherwise, has their own part to play."
In a different context, that of improving society in 2011 and beyond, it's not a bad message.
Different is good. Who wants to be coffee-coloured.
Except perhaps one of our former Secretaries of State, Peter Hain. Well, coffee-coloured with an orangey tinge.
He has also been in the news this week after revelations that his phone may have been hacked.
Wonder what they were trying to find? The number of a good sunbed salon?
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