A Tolerant Country? by Colin Holmes

Author:Colin Holmes [Holmes, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317378921
Google: jNe9CgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-10-16T05:04:17+00:00

III

Hostility explored

Introduction

According to some commentators, the hostility encountered by immigrants, refugees and minorities reflects a tendency among human beings to prefer ‘what is familiar’.1 Apart from the fact that many people can be attracted to the unfamiliar, this glib explanation avoids a number of issues such as why certain individuals and groups have been exposed to hostility in specific situations at particular times. Other sources have suggested that the roots of hostility lie in ‘malevolence’.2 This assessment is intimately related to the prevailing cultivated image of Britain as a tolerant society. If this ‘good’ self-image is accepted, then those marginal deviants who do not conform to it can be categorized as evil. However, a discussion conducted exclusively or indeed primarily along such Manichean lines is inadequate. Deficient as a technique for understanding, it is likely to end up as a species of moralizing history. Too much work on newcomers and minorities falls into that category. If explanations such as these are discounted, what can be put in their place?

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