Trevor Phillips’s youngest sister rang him in tears from America at 6.15am on
Tuesday, saying: “I just voted. I just voted.” Ten hours later, his elder
sister telephoned after she had cast her ballot for Barack Obama as well. “I
had to tell her to stop crying too,” he said. It is clear that the head of
the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who went to school in Guyana and
whose wife is Indian, was moved by the election of the 44th President of the
United States. He watched the results come in at the Operation Black Vote
party in London: “That was where the brethren and sisters had gathered, so
it was quite cool.
“This is the first time that a black person has seriously had an opportunity.
It is not that you couldn’t identify with John F. Kennedy or Bill Clinton,
but for most of my lifetime there has not been a possibility for a black
politician to be anything other than an insurgent.”
Britain’s most prominent black campaigner is, however, angry that the election
has all been about race. “One of the things that has irritated the hell out
of me in the last 48 hours has been all the stuff about Barack Obama being
the first black President. It’s a deep insult to the guy. He’s a
once-in-a-lifetime political phenomenon, a rock star, a single political
lightning strike. It’s not that he’s black.”
People should not reduce him to the colour of his skin. “We would never do
that with a white politician. We didn’t reduce Bill Clinton to a good old
boy from Arkansas. Barack Obama has rewritten the rules of politics: someone
with only two years of experience can’t get to be the candidate, you can’t
beat the Clinton machine, you can’t make that much money, you can’t make
young people vote. That’s not contingent on his race.”
It is the symbolism that counts in his view. “Americans want to feel better
about themselves and voting for someone who is not white makes them feel
better. For older Americans it is atonement for slavery but more
significantly for segregation. For younger Americans he is the coolest
person on the planet.”
In fact, Mr Phillips thinks the reason that Mr Obama had such wide appeal was
not because he was black but because he was of mixed race. “The central
message Obama has brought is one of reconciliation. He has a black family
and a white family, he is comfortable on both sides of the line, he is the
President who in his own story tells us we can live together. He is happy in
Kenya and Kansas; it puts everyone who tries to define themselves by race to
shame.”
Talk of a “postracial world” is, in his view, rubbish. “This guy walks on
water, he is a miracle, he does things none of us thought could be done in
politics – but don’t expect him to end war and racial discrimination, give
everyone a home and engender love and peace by Christmas,” he said.
“The expectations are ludicrous. One of the reasons I have a slight worry
about people’s obsession with him being the first black President is that I
have a horrible feeling that the minute things go wrong the word betrayal
will quickly come out.”
The problem, according to Mr Phillips, is that black and white Americans have
different expectations. “If he spends money on the cities it will benefit
black Americans more than white Americans, if he puts resources into rust
belt industries then the reaction might go the other way.”
Despite this week’s result, America was still divided on racial lines. “Blacks
still live where other blacks live, even the black millionaires live in
gated communities for black millionaires. Obama cannot make people live
together, but because of his personal story he can make people feel it is OK
to cross the colour divide.”
Britain, he believes, is less racially divided than America. “Here it’s more
about class. It is about culture, a different way of life and speaking. The
Muslim community occupies the space that black Americans have in the United
States. If you asked British voters whether you could have a Muslim prime
minister their mouths would drop open, but not with a black one.”
The public in this country would, he believes, embrace a black leader but the
system would prevent it happening. “Here, the problem is not the electorate,
the problem is the machine.” It was no coincidence that there were only 15
ethnic-minority MPs, he said. “The parties and the unions and the
think-tanks are all very happy to sign up to the general idea of advancing
the cause of minorities but in practice they would like somebody else to do
the business. It’s institutional racism.”
The Conservatives had done better than Labour at increasing the number of
black and Asian candidates. “They are less democratic. They are happier to
impose candidates on the local parties.” Labour was too in hock to “the
trade unions, the socialist societies, the left intelligentsia, and until
you get them to accept that they have got a responsibility to do something
it is almost impossible for the party leadership to make progress”.
I t would, he thinks, have been impossible for Mr Obama to become prime
minister in this country. “If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very
surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break
through the institutional stranglehold on power within the Labour Party.”
He is reluctant to endorse all-black shortlists because he thinks it would be
difficult to define “black” or to decide where they should be imposed. In
his view it would be better for parties to introduce a special fund to help
potential ethnic-minority candidates to find a seat. “Any positive action
has to be based on giving people who are already competent a bit of an edge.”
The Obama victory will, in his view, have as great an impact in Asia and
Africa as in Atlanta. “When the G8 meets, the four most important people in
the room will be the President of China, the Prime Minister of India, the
Prime Minister of Japan and Barack Obama – not one of them is white. It will
be the first time we’ve seen that on our television screens. That will be a
huge psychological shift for all sorts of people.”
The President-elect will be a role model for millions. Mr Phillips remembers
going as a young boy to the sorting office where his father, a postman,
worked. “Most of the guys who worked on the floor were black, most of the
supervisors were white. My father introduced me to one of the ‘governors’.
What he meant was, ‘I’m never going to be that, you’ll probably never be
that’. The assumption was that we’d be the guys in uniform.”
The former television presenter is boss class now. In 1999 he was appointed
OBE by his friend Tony Blair. Peter Mandelson was best man at his wedding.
As head of the Equality Commission, he has a budget of £70 million. But he
said: “I am in a very unusual position for a black person.”
The man who has perhaps come closest to being Britain’s Obama – he was the
first black President of the National Union of Students and flirted with
becoming Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London – seems to have given up his
ambition for elected office. “Some of us are born to be John the Baptist,”
he said.
He will be keeping a close eye on the Chosen One across the water. “Obama may
turn out to be the Messiah, but give the guy a chance to turn the water into
wine before we decide. When I first went into politics, my mother told me
there was a pretty much unfailing history of black leadership going wrong.
With one exception – Nelson Mandela – people are lauded, then brought down.
Even Martin Luther King was attacked for coming out against the Vietnam War,
Muhammad Ali was turned into a black Muslim monster when he refused the
draft. The history of black men in leadership is not a promising one. Barack
Obama has so far broken every rule and what I am hoping is that he will
break my mother’s rule that black men are eventually made to fail.”
LIFE AND TIMES
Born December 31, 1953
Education Queen’s College Boys’ School, Guyana; Imperial College,
London University
Job Head of Equality and Human Rights Commission
Career Researcher and reporter on London Weekend Television before
becoming editor and presenter of the London Programme in 1980. Became
head of current affairs at LWT in 1987. Member of London Assembly from 2000
to 2003. Chaired Commission of Racial Equality before getting current job in
2006
Family Married to Asha Bhownagary, two daughters
QUCIK FIRE
America or Europe? America
Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela? Martin Luther King
P Diddy or Pavarotti? Pavarotti
Ballet or football? Football
Champagne or Chablis? Champagne
Zadie Smith or Monica Ali? Monica Ali
