Ethnic minorities celebrated the Jubilee too

The Diamond Jubilee — a historic occasion when British people from a variety of races, religions and cultures united to thank the queen for her sixty years of service and to celebrate her reign. This was a truly national event, which is why I disagree with the view, expressed by some, that black and ethnic minority people did not participate as much as white people.

I may have been off-camera when I was at the flotilla on Sunday, but there were people around me of all ethnicities, joining in the jubilation. I don’t have any statistics about the ethnic breakdown of street parties, but I can describe the last few days as I saw them. 

Across London, ethnic minority communities marked the occasion with a combination of their own culture and their strong patriotism for this country. In Brixton, for instance, there was a street party full of people mainly of Jamaican heritage. On my way to Butler’s Wharf, I passed through Peckham, where some African people were having a street party outside their church. Meanwhile, at Holbeach Baptist Church in Catford, where many of the parishioners are of Afro-Caribbean descent, there was a barbeque which was open to the public. They also prayed for the queen in their church service, which is not always done by Baptists.
 
The Jubilee concert was hardly a festival of music for the ‘old white man’ stereotype. The singers included Grace Jones and Will.i.am, and even the Countess of Wessex was singing along to his ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’. And, if the Jubilee celebrations were a ‘white-only event’, would Lenny Henry have been able to make his un-PC joke about a black James Bond in front the entire country to the sound of laughter?

The congregation at the church service in St Paul’s Cathedral was ethnically diverse; you could see that it was so on TV. Later, I went to the Mall to watch the fly-past. I found many African people, Asian people, Chinese people, Indian people and white people there, all packing the streets of central London to see their queen. The Jubilee that I saw was a thoroughly British affair.