BalanceJuneIssue2017 - 22

H E SAYS

Nihal: off the record
It's high time bigotry kicked the bucket, says Nihal Arthanayake
- althought 'bucket' could happily be pronounced 'bouquet'...
photography by WI LL I REL A ND

A

their achievements are magnified so much they
inevitably lose touch with reality.
This state of being should be known as the
Hyacinth Bucket Syndrome (if you are aware of 90s
sitcom Keeping Up Appearances you'll know what

re you a snob? Do you ever look
down your nose at someone and
utter under your breath the words
'What doooo you look like?' or
'Ugh, you have no manners'? Is it

inevitable that each and every one of us will be a
snob at some point during our day? Or is snobbery
just another, more anodyne, form of bigotry?
It is very easy for others to exploit our feelings
of superiority. Refugees, people on benefits,
'chavs', reality TV stars, all face the ire of London's
metropolitan elite and the journalists and
commentators who ply their trade by being as
squiffy as possible about our fellow human beings.
Who hasn't watched an episode of Jeremy Kyle
and thought, 'There go I but for the grace of a good
education, good dentist and parents who love me'?
Snobbery is a mechanism that helps us to strengthen
the foundations of our own sense of self.

Not long ago, I was on the receiving end of someone
else's superiority complex. This individual tried to
talk down to me; I wondered what made them resort
to this tactic. Perhaps their default position was to
elevate themselves in times of conflict. They got
angry very quickly. My reaction was to smile. I have
enough confidence to know who and what I am: an
Essex comprehensive schoolboy, who has managed
to be quite successful in my chosen field.
For a long time I suffered from 'impostor
syndrome'; the feeling that at any moment I'd feel
a tap on my shoulder and someone would say 'OK
mate, you've had a bit of fun, but now you can leave.'
In my game you still get the odd oxygen thief
who, through social media, will try and tell me
that I have only got the job because of political
correctness. It is melanin that secured my post.
It just makes me angry that ethnic minorities still
have to possess an extra layer of thick skin.
If a person's world is, psychologically, a very small
one, the parameters they set for themselves must
eventually become suffocating. In this binary world

GROOMING: RICHARD HARVEY

I GE T THE O DD OXYGE N
THIE F W HO TE LLS ME
I O NLY GOT MY JO B
BE C AUS E O F PO LITIC AL
CORRE C TNE S S
be having a happy life, while she was
panicked about what others thought of her. 

EVERYTHING TO PROVE

20

I am talking about). Hyacinth was the quintessential
suburban snob. She insisted her surname was
pronounced 'Bouquet', not Bucket, and was
embarrassed by her unkempt family, who seemed to

SELF ASSURANCE
Like anyone, I have my own insecurities,
but I am not trying to eradicate them off the
back of people I regard to be inferior.
I should set up a charity to help
those people realise their
own ambitions
instead. B
Nihal hosts
Afternoon
Edition on BBC
Radio 5 live,
Mon-Thurs,
1pm-4pm,
and the
Asian
Network's
Big Debate
on Fridays,
10am-4pm.

BALANCE June 2017

Share your
thoughts
with
@therealnihal
@BalanceLDN



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of BalanceJuneIssue2017

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