BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH: WE MUST STAND UP TO HATRED
Benjamin Zephaniah

Independent.co.uk
Monday, 26 January 2009

Genocide is an appalling crime against humanity that we hope will
never again be repeated. Today, as we approach Holocaust Memorial Day ,
we might stop and reflect on the fact that it still has the potential
to be repeated and perpetrated around the world, unless we are on our
guard and understand that our actions today have consequences tomorrow.

The use of the term genocide can be problematic and contentious
but it shouldn’t disguise historical fact. One of the first modern
day genocides took place in Armenia, a part of modern day Turkey in
1915. This massacre of 1.5 million people, indiscriminate of age or
gender, is still not acknowledged as genocide by Turkey – long after
it took place. The United States did not recognise or act on the
events at the time and consequently Hitler admitted looking at the
Armenians and deciding that if they can get away with it, he could
also. If people don’t recognise something, its entire existence is
erased. It begs the question – if the United Kingdom and United States
had not recognised the Holocaust when it happened, would anyone think
it had ever existed? Who decides what we remember and what we don’t –
and does it mean that things we don’t remember or recognise didn’t
exist and don’t count?

My earliest recollection of hatred was in the late 60s when I was eight
years old, and I still have the scar to prove it. I was walking home
from school in Handsworth, Birmingham, when another boy came cycling
past with a brick in his hand. He hit me across the back of my head
with the brick and shouted ‘You black bastard!’, as he rode off. When
I got home, blood pouring from the back of my head, my mother told me
that some people in the world are just like that and it’s something we
have to live with. It was not even a consideration to report the crime
– it would have been ignored anyway. This incident was the first time
I realised I was different and that people actually hated me for who
and what I was. The scar on the back of my head is a constant reminder
of this.

People have to understand the past to see the future, they have
to start recognising the dangers of the present to prevent them
escalating into the Holocaust of the future. A close late friend
of mine recently told me a story of how, when she was very young,
she went to a political meeting in Austria with her mother and
auntie. After the meeting, the two adults were debating the event,
concluding that the main political figure, who was a radical speaker,
would never amount to anything and should just be ignored.

That main figure was Adolf Hitler.

When people don’t recognise these dangers, the problems start. Call it
innocent igno rance, call it optimism, however you want to look at it,
unless we recognise and stand up to these figures, who knows where it
can lead? My friend’s mother and auntie certainly would never have
imagined what Hitler could go on to do in the years that followed
that meeting.

Bob Marley said in one of his songs ‘Well the biggest man you
ever did see, was once a baby’, and that is what interests me as a
writer. Hitler was once a baby and would have been looked on adoringly
by people. He then went on to become one of the most powerful men
in history, orchestrating the killings of hundreds of thousands of
innocent people. The boy who racially attacked me in Handsworth may
have gone on to abuse and physically hurt other people since. His
attack on me was left unchecked so what’s to stop him?

It is so important that we have Holocaust Memorial Day in January to
remind us to acknowledge how bad we can be to each other, whether
it’s direct and intentional or indirect and unintentional. All it
takes is one discriminatory group to gain power and it can all fall
apart. We must join together to recognise where these acts of hatred,
regardless of size, can lead if left unchecked.

I urge all Britons to "Stand up to Hatred" and recognise the impact
we can have on our future. By considering these things, next time we
see, hear, or experience any act of hatred anywhere and in any f orm,
we can make a better future.