Thread by @DoubleEph

My lukewarm take on the government’s race report is that cultural pessimism is probably underrated the discourse around disparate outcomes among ethnic minorities.

The disparities highlighted between black Caribbean and black Africans really makes me wonder - I know it’s true now but what happens with my kids? And their kids? Britain is not a racist country (don’t bother trying to convince me otherwise, I’m not interested) but....

For all that I really like this country, I’ve made a decision to inoculate myself against the one part of British culture I absolutely cannot abide - the relentless pessimism of British people. (That and potatoes). If I spend the rest of my life here, I’m never buying into that

I’ve never met people who are so down on their country like British. It can be relentless and suffocating. I cannot count the number of times I’ve had to ask a white British person ‘why are you so pessimistic and down on your country?’ I find it baffling

I have an Indian friend whose family has been in Nigeria for decades. One thing we often joke about is that one of the biggest problems in Nigeria is excessive optimism. Nigerians are optimistic in ways that can actually be harmful

If you’ve ever seen a Nigerian business plan, you’ll notice this immediately. In a country where the number of things that can conspire to make your business fail is infinite, a Nigerian will plan for a business where everything is all rosy and will all go to plan

But outside of Nigeria - and especially in a functional society that has order and predictability - that optimism is no longer a disadvantage. With a bit of optimism (and a few other things) you really will be ok in Britain. You may not have Rockefeller money but you’ll be okay

And I see this all the time with a number of my Nigerian friends. They will shout about racism from morning to night yet in all of their *actions* I can clearly see that they are optimistic about their future in the country. That is, even when pessimistic, they’re optimistic

I tell my friends - when British people are talking down on their country, don’t get carried away and join them. A British person will very happily tell you that Britain is more corrupt than Nigeria (Jolyon’s tweets regularly make it to Nigerian WhatsApp). Shrugs

The danger in partaking in such pessimism is that you can never quite tell how it affects different groups. Some may shrug it off, some may take it to heart and it then colours everything. Maybe this is something that migrants buy into after a while with negative effects

I don’t know what the policy choices that follow from this are. Maybe if you’re a British person try not to be so negative when you’re around migrants? Who am I kidding, knock yourself out. You’ll never catch me alive though

I honestly don’t know what the answer is. I make a conscious effort to transfer some of my optimism to my kids though. This is your country. Don’t be arrogant but if you want something put your mind to it and go for it. No one can stop you. 🤷🏽‍♂️