Rupa Huq has a good piece up on Comment is Free on the foolishness of treating groups of ethnic/religious minorities as blocks of votes:

The past week has spanned a diverse array of Asian imagery in the news: ugly scenes of the so-called English Defence League clashing with Muslims in Nottingham city centre, Tory shadow communities minister Sayeeda Warsi being egged by extremists for not being Muslim enough in Luton and the BNP unveiling its first Sikh member, an Islamophobe now empowered to join up by equalities legislation. Before Nick Griffin records a party political broadcast in Punjabi to consolidate this, he and other party leaders would do well to remember that the majority of Asians in this country are now British-born with English as their first and often only language. Indeed the high degree of internal diversity within UK BME (black and minority ethnic) communities makes this jargonistic umbrella abbreviation almost meaningless.

This Wednesday sees an debate centered around the film Us Now, which focuses on online media and will be shown on More4 on the 10th. I can’t make it, but it looks interesting (tickets here):

Us Now, a documentary about the opportunities for more participative government, brings together some of the world’s leading thinkers in this field to discuss the unique possiblities of emerging networks to establish a different kind of democracy.

This is great!

Hat tip: Rupa Huq

So, Rupa Huq isn’t too impressed by Ruth Fowler’s article stating that she “had a thing for Asian boys”. A few people emailed me after Ruth’s piece and said omg wasn’t it offensive? I didn’t think so. Partly, the thing is that Ruth Fowler wants to be talked about so I doubt she’s too fussed about Rupa’s accusations. (I can somewhat relate to that – I even went on my Facebook hategroup and told them they needed to bump up the numbers!). In the modern age, the more haters you have the more fun it is.

But. There is a danger, when talking about race and religion and even feminism, that people take offence too easily. This is destructive. I’m not sure what Rupa’s argument is – I’m sure she’ll explain herself below soon enough – because initially it’s about how Ruth Fowler has a bit a colonial hangover and then its about not recognising the diversity amongst British Asians. On the latter, I think white people are getting the hang of it – its the brown people who are more guilty of perpetuating it. During the mayoral race we saw Muslim groups pretending that all Muslims behaved the same and would march to the ballot box and ensure Boris wouldn’t be let in. We know how that turned out.

Was Ruth Fowler being patronising when she said she liked Asian boys? Let’s throw away the assumption this is only one way. People of all races find those others ‘exotic’ and sometimes want them on that basis. Not all the time, but it does happen. Asian ‘boys’ are no different. Asian women aren’t any different. So if a white girl says that about a brown guy, its colonial… and if a brown boy says that about a white or black girl… does it became reverse-colonialism? C’mon now! This is a new generation and I think its time to lay the orientalism crap to rest… or leave it to the Daily Express.

Now – about the title of this post. The question posed was a long-running joke among us barficulture regulars (when I used to spend more time running it) because so many Asian guys came on and asked it. After a while we just made fun of them. (The other long-running joke question was: Do girls find guys with turbans attractive? Heh).
I’ve known Asian girls with a preference for black guys because they saw them as more virile and women with a preference for white guys because they came without the cultural baggage.

You know what – it’s a free world. People get too uptight about these things. Don’t get mad, get laid! That’s my pearl of wisdom this bank holiday weekend.

Over at Comment is Free, Pickled Politics commentator and occasional guest blogger Rupa Huq writes about the political prominence which some women have achieved in South Asia, and contrasts that with the relative lack of success enjoyed by British Asian women:

“UK public opinion often perceives Asian women as passive and submissive. The first ethnic minority MPs of recent times were elected in 1987. They included an Asian man (Keith Vaz) and a black woman (Diane Abbot), but no Asian women. Ten years on and this is still the case. Common opinion has it that Asians “in Asia” are more backward than British-based ones. However Pakistan, Bangladesh and India have all had women at the helm in recent history. In India Indira Ghandi presided over the world’s largest democracy. Bhutto’s election in 1988 made her the first ever woman premier of a Muslim country.

Sajjad Karim, 37, was the first British Muslim elected to the European Parliament in 2004, as a Liberal Democrat candidate. Today Conservative HQ announced that he’s ditched the Libdems and defected to the Tories.
Rupa Huq and Chris Paul have interesting analysis on this hilarious development.

Update: Guess who said this on their blog in June this year?

With their failure to support a resolution condemning discriminatory remarks by political and religious leaders targeting homosexuals, the Tories have shown their true colours. Tory apathy in the face of rising homophobia should come as no surprise as, today, the Conservative camp is rife with contradiction.

Whilst Cameron attempts to paint a glossy image of a gay-friendly party in the UK, he is also desperately trying to get into bed, at European level, with Poland’s openly homophobic ‘Law and Justice’ party. I just hope the British public see Chameleon Cameron for who he really is!!!

And now: “It’s David Cameron and the Conservatives who are now setting the political agenda in Britain. Only the Conservatives are capable of putting right Labour’s continued failure.”

Unsurprisingly Iain Dale and Guido are slavishly trotting out the party line. Heh.

Update 2: Duncan Borrowman has more contradictory quotes by Karim.

If you’re an Asian foraying into media/arts/academic arenas is there anyway you can separate your work from your ethnicity? I found myself at an ‘in conversation‘ event this week with the Guardian’s Sarfraz Manzoor onstage at the British Library plugging his new book where this question arose.

Manzoor seemed shocked that anyone would want to pay £6 to turn up – which probably explains the lack of Asians in the audience. The only other Asian there bar me asked him how he felt as a spokesperson for Muslim youth. This scenario has been termed by academics including me as ‘the burden of representation‘.

Manzoor described “the Muslim thing” as “an open goal”, continuing: “If I’ve got something to say about Muslims I know people will allow me the space to do so”.

On the other hand he agonized, “I don’t want people to only accuse me of talking about Islam. I’m not actually that interested in religion. I like other things as well”. And to illustrate he told us his next commissions were on the moon landings, Philip Roth and Bruce Springsteen, although the last one had been on whether immigrants should be forced to learn English.

In my own little way I’ve got gigs out of my cultural background as both Muslim and Asian. I’ve found as an academic researching youth culture it’s taken as a given that I’ll be studying bhangra although I’ve always been a Smiths fan. But whining white indie guitar boys are less attractive to publishers than multiculti music in the world we inhabit.

As a friend once put it “I’d rather be a token than unemployed”. The burden of representation argument can be applied to allsorts of things. I found East is East a stinking turd of a film but people who liked it reckon it should be accepted as a comedy not a representation of anything. What do other people think?

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This is a guest post. Rupa blogs here.

“British Muslim Citizenship and Integration” – four words, almost Rubiks cube like in the number of implications, associations and combinations that could come out of them.

Similarly like a Rubiks Cube, every time “British Muslims” are referred to they are seen as a problem that resolving. All this was left at the door of the Fabian Society to address in the last session at the last fringe meeting on the last day of Labour’s annual conference in Bournemouth.

Diehard delegates gathered in the surroundings of Connaught Hotel to hear Higher Education Minister John Denham MP, John Biggs (GLA member for East London), Zareen Roohi Ahmed (British Muslim Forum) and little old me spout forth on these subjects.

Labour candidate Rupa Huq writes on the event…

Our East end insider Halima points out that Rushanara Ali has won the opportunity to represent the Labour party at the next General Election for Bethnal Bow and Green, George Galloway’s constituency. Rupa Huq and others missed out. The hustings vote was yesterday. Both of them are quite intelligent and competent going by their CVs. Let’s hope Rushanara is now able to build solid grassroots support and Rupa gets selected for a different seat.

George Galloway MP (Bethnal Bow and Green) has promised he won’t be standing at the next election. Piara Khabra MP (Southall) was told a while back he wouldn’t be allowed to stand for his seat again. So who will replace them both?

The race to find a successor to Oona King as Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Bow has hit fever pitch after the party finally settled on its shortlist of candidates. Former Tower Hamlets council leaders John Biggs and Helal Abbas have been named alongside four previously selected contestants. They now battle it out with Tower Hamlets councillor Lutfur Rahman and the three remaining women in the contest, Dr Rupa Huq, Rushanara Ali and Cllr Shiria Khatun. A grand hustings takes place on April 26 with a final ballot of 500 party members two days later. [East London Advertiser via David Osler]

The person who gets elected is very likely to become the next MP for that area. Meanwhile, I didn’t get around to writing about this earlier, Labour has imposed an all-women’s-shortlist for Southall. Unsurprisingly that has annoyed a few local councillors but that’s nothing to cry over. The smart money is on Sonika Nirwal taking over. If she wins the seat, she will be competing with Priti Patel to take the title of first Asian woman MP.

It was the seat which senior Conservatives believed would only pick “a white, middle-class male”. But Tories in Witham, Essex have wrongfooted their critics by choosing an Asian woman as their candidate – rejecting a sitting MP in the process.

Priti Patel beat James Brokenshire, MP for Hornchurch, to the right to stand in the new constituency, which the Conservatives should win with ease at the next election. [Guardian]

If elected at the next General Election, Priti Patel will be the first Asian woman MP in the country I believe. That is providing Sayeeda Warsi does not tip her to the post. I also hear that Labour is planning to put up a young-ish Asian woman in Southall after Piara Khabra abdicates his little fiefdom. Or maybe Rupa Huq if she gets a good seat?

A Tory party member called me today to declare (a bit too eagerly): “see, we are not the nasty party any longer!” Priti Patel was elected by 300 local constituency members, not just dropped in by senior party members. So there is still hope yet.