We're not racist but...

I'm convinced that Joseph Muscat doesn't have a racist bone in his body - for one thing, on a human level, he's a decent sort and, for another thing, he's too young to be racist. Sadly, it's generally those who should count among the "older and, thus, wiser" who are prone to racist sentiments.

Dr Muscat's reported statement while visiting the Corradino Islamic Centre, then, that the Maltese are not racist, has to be taken as coming from someone who can't conceive of inherent racism as a form of existence. Either that or he's a starry-eyed naïf.

Actually, when you think about it, it's a combination of both: he's a stranger to racism and he's a bit on the young and innocent side (OK, I exaggerate for effect, but you know what I mean), both of which traits lead him to the conclusion that the Maltese are like him, not racist but merely intolerant of illegalities.

I'm afraid he's a bit off the mark here.

Notwithstanding all the protestations that come from here, there and everywhere else, many Maltese, for all our so-called Catholicism and predisposition to hospitality, are racist, nothing more and nothing less. Mostly, this manifests itself in a strong dislike (now there's a euphemism) for people with a dark skin and/or who come from North Africa and places South, though there's plenty to be said for the theory that quite a few Maltese look down their noses at and/or seek to exploit citizens of other countries too.

How else would you classify the way a certain type of Maltese man treats women of Eastern European or, for that matter, Eastern, origin? They are below his contempt, fit only to act as possessions.

It is not "an intolerance of illegalities" that produces the venom spewed by so many people when stories about immigration - call it illegal immigration if you like, it makes no odds - or about detention centres or about anything to do with people from the South who fetch up on our shores.

It is racism, vile and simple.

It matters not which social class the people who make these comments occupy; it matters even less if they profess the Catholic faith. In fact, it matters not a jot that they themselves, if they bothered to examine their own ethnic origin, would find that there's quite a healthy mix in there.

As a man and woman, they hide behind the mantra "these are criminals and they should be treated as such" and then proceed to make it crystal clear that this is just a euphemism for segregating themselves, really or virtually, from "the blacks". I use the phrase merely as an identifier, nothing more.

To be fair, when confronted with the question And what do you expect to happen? Are these people to be allowed to drown? most of these crypto-racists tend to reverse their position slightly but they will generally revert to type and start chanting the mantra again just as soon as they remember that they really don't like these people, at all.

It was encouraging, last Saturday, to see the voice of reason, in the form of Martin Scicluna's article, shedding a cool and calm light on the whole issue. I didn't check out the comments that followed the online version but I have little doubt that there were many who disagreed with him, perhaps not with the violence I am pretty sure will feature below this piece. I've been called plenty of names because I am, please forgive me, "a nigger-lover", and many is the time I've suspended conversations with friends about immigration and racism.

There is no doubt that we have a problem; there is no doubt that the Northern Europeans are comfortable doing nothing to help us and there is no doubt that something will need to be done but this is not a reason for this country to descend into the slime of racism and intolerance.

And it is not a reason for the political class, exemplars that they are, to hop onto a convenient bandwagon and do some grandstanding about immigration and about Malta being full up, for all the world as if it was the No. 68 bus to Paceville. Our politicians have a golden opportunity to make a clear and simple declaration: This is a civilised and tolerant country and racism will not be part of our make-up.

Will they do it? Well, it's up to them.

Just to keep my appointment with extolling the finer things in life, I will report that we had dinner at Snoopy's last Saturday and it was really, really enjoyable.

imbocca@gmail.com, www.timesofmalta.com/blogs