Peter Jones

Rome, racism and Sadiq Khan

The mayor was not attacked for who he is, but for the company he kept

issue 14 May 2016

‘Racism’ refers to the belief in racially determined inferiority, most often recognised in body-type, about which, by definition, nothing can be done. It is hard therefore to see why accusing London mayor Sadiq Khan of sharing platforms with terrorists was ‘racist’. It was simply a comment on the company he kept.

The ancients are often accused of racism. The Roman architect Vitruvius, for example, said that southerners living in hot climates were intelligent but cowardly, while northerners were mentally slow but brave to the point of foolishness. Obvious racism? Far from it. A Greek doctor, following the same train of thought, gave the game away. He asserted that in Asia ‘men will be of fine physique, tall, differing little from one another, but courage, endurance, industry and high spirits are impossible to find among the natives and immigrants’.

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