# G.K. Chesterton, early 20th cen. England, and the N-word **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720 "2017-02-13T00:27:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/61 "2017-02-14T05:07:03Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > I’ve never heard womanliness implied, and I’ve read, heard, used the word most of my life; and been called a cunt: what does it mean when they call each other a prick ? Exactly so. It is not a slur on manliness. It is for all useful intents one step worse than calling someone a prick or arsehole. Seems we generally like to use bits of anatomy for pejorative terms. A “tit” is also not calling someone womanly, it is calling them a fool. Usually a clumsy or bumbling fool. Curiously “twat” has mostly the same connotations as tit. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/62 "2017-02-14T05:14:48Z")
ask a woman what she hears. ask a homosexual what they hear when something is “so gay” or “your a fag” just because you dont mean anything by it, doesnt mean its not sexist. just because youre not trying to be sexist, and just because, chesterton wasnt trying to be racist, doesnt change the realities of those words. mc ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/63 "2017-02-14T05:18:45Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > I guess it depends upon whether you are stuck in a lower socio-economic tier or living in fear of being lynched - possibly by the local police, or being carted off in trains by the local officials never to return. > > \*\*There is nothing benevolent about racism. But there is a big difference between any society viewing outsiders as inferior, and a society where peoples of another race are subject to active attack. \*\* > > There is a certain luxury is debating the level of odiousness that comes from detachment from the reality. (bolding mine), but these things did occur in GB during chesterton’s time. mc ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/64 "2017-02-14T05:42:45Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > (bolding mine), but these things did occur in GB during chesterton’s time. The difference in Chesterton’s time is that there were virtually no black people in England. So, the racist attitudes towards black people held by your typical English person of the time didn’t impact so directly on black people, because they never met any. And where it did impact on black people, in the colonies, that wasn’t observed or experienced, even directly, by most English people. None of this is to excuse or deny the racism inherent British colonialism, or to minimise its effects on those who were subjected to it. It’s just to explain why, in British English, “nigger” didn’t carry the connotation that it carried in US English. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/65 "2017-02-14T05:44:07Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > (bolding mine), but these things did occur in GB during chesterton’s time. 1874-1936. The 1919 race riots were not based upon notions of white supremacy - but simply the usual problem of perception of availability of jobs. The riots were in dock cities, and directed at foreigners of all colours (although Asians were less targeted). GB has always had the usual simmering race issues most countries have. However organised lynchings or mass government sanctioned murder of racial minorities is another thing entirely. Right now the UK is not a happy racial place. The manner the British managed their dominions (including Ireland) is a matter of national shame, but in the western world, there are few places that can compete with the Southern US, or WW2 Germany and occupied lands. This wasn’t about “the other” this was about racial superiority. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/66 "2017-02-14T05:52:52Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > It did, but not in any exclusive manner. “Black”, “negro”, “coloured”, and a host more, were exactly as demeaning and loaded. No, certainly not “exactly as”. We see in contemporary writings that though “nigger” was not considered (by the white people who used it, at least) to be unseemly language, it was definitely seen as less polite than other words for non-white people. Consider this excerpt from a [1920 novel](https://books.google.com/books?id=8gpPBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT53) where an English baronet’s widow is being told of the high-caste status of an Indian visitor: > [@](#): > > “Yes, some of these Brahmins are of very decent family,” admitted Lady Ambermere. “I was always against lumping all dark-skinned people together and calling them niggers. When we were at Madras I was famed for my discrimination.” ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/67 "2017-02-14T05:54:29Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Yes, but the reason they find it _so_ unacceptable in the US arises out of the historical circumstances and experiences of the US. That doesn’t apply in the same way in other countries; therefore the word does not have the same resonances in other countries that it has in the US. That’s not to say it doesn’t have negative resonances or is not regarded as unacceptable; but this doesn’t apply with the same force as it does in the US. we cant forget that racism is a long standing english way of life. the eastern seaboard was an english colony (with slavery) for over a hundred years before the united states was even a dream. most of the ships that brought africans to the new world flew british flags. the great british empire of the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries (ie’ west indies, subsaharan africa, india, australia, etc ) was built on the subjugation of the dark races. the skinhead and white supremacy movement, that we think of as uniquely american started in england. the word nigger meant the same thing to chesterton as it does to you; he just didnt care. there’s no need to consider the feelings of your inferiors. mc ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/68 "2017-02-14T05:59:26Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > The difference in Chesterton’s time is that there were **virtually no black people in England**. > > So, the racist attitudes towards black people held by your typical English person of the time didn’t impact so directly on black people, because they never met any. And where it did impact on black people, in the colonies, that wasn’t observed or experienced, even directly, by most English people. > > None of this is to excuse or deny the racism inherent British colonialism, or to minimise its effects on those who were subjected to it. It’s just to explain why, in British English, “nigger” didn’t carry the connotation that it carried in US English. (bolding mine) but virtually all the black people in the world were british! mc ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/69 "2017-02-14T06:11:09Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > the word nigger meant the same thing to chesterton as it does to you; he just didnt care. there’s no need to consider the feelings of your inferiors. A significant amount of early British colonial wealth was built upon the slave trade. However something that has always astounded me - the British actually don’t register this. If you talk about the riches that accrued to the empire in the past they are essentially oblivious to the way their forebears (and mine) grew rich on the back of slaving. Only a very few slaves ever set foot in the UK, and it seems it is a dirty little secret that was never discussed and mostly forgotten. A footnote in history that was ignored. I have relatives that overlapped Chesterton, and they find it hard to grasp how some of those old stately homes were not built on the back of legitimate trade and riches from the colonies, but were built on the back of the misery of slaving. They think in terms of trade from India and China, wheat, wool, and so on. The local perception of history on many fronts is highly biased and sanitised. (Not that this is a surprise anywhere.) ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/70 "2017-02-14T06:19:38Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > we cant forget that racism is a long standing english way of life . . . Yes, I know, but I think you’re missing my point. English racism mostly didn’t play out, and mostly didn’t produce its worst effects, in Britain. Therefore, it didn’t have the same impact on the British English sense of, and connotations of, “nigger” that American racism had on the same word in American English. None of this is to deny, excuse or minimise British racism; just to explain the observed fact that “nigger” in British English in Chesterton’s time didn’t have the same impact and connotations as it had in American English then, or as it has in American English today. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/71 "2017-02-14T15:52:50Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > I’ve never heard womanliness implied, and I’ve read, heard, used the word most of my life; and been called a cunt: what does it mean when they call each other a prick ? As was said in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to ‘what’s the difference between calling somebody a cunt or a prick?’ ‘no, cunt is a lot heavier than prick’. IME\* that’s true. But like a lot of this stuff it’s hard to solidly prove why. One dimension of it could be the idea women are inferior, but also the idea (which some might view as related) that women are to be held in higher respect. \*I’m American but I think the thread may lend itself to the tendency to overstate differences in US v other English speaking sensibilities now, which are pretty homogenized by mass media/entertainment. Decades ago, as is the nominal topic, that was somewhat less so among common people (US and Brit elites interacted a lot even way back); anyway now too it varies by groups within English speaking societies not just from one society to the other. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/72 "2017-02-14T18:52:26Z")
Thanks, everybody! This has been really informative and interesting. Another aspect of Chesterton’s writing is a tendency to view people — including other white people — through the lens of “national” stereotypes. German people are this way, Italians are this other way, the Irish are like this, the French do this … and I have to sort of assume, based on the way he words these statements, that these were simply the prevailing attitudes of the time. I saw sort of the same thing from my grandmother (born 1913) toward the end of her life. Now, my grandmother was the closest thing I’ve ever met to a “sainted woman”. She was well-educated, kind and caring, and never had a bad word for anybody. But toward the end of her life her mind was _just_ starting to go (thankfully, I suppose, she died of other causes before actually descending into dementia), and every now and then some odd thing would pop out of her mouth that was clearly a leftover from the prevailing attitudes during her youth. For example, she had noticed the large number of mixed white-Hispanic relationships in our town and one day said, “The white girls chase after the Latinos because of their reputations as great lovers!” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/73 "2017-02-14T19:04:35Z")
As a counter-point, H. Rider Haggard, a famous English popular fantasy writer, made a distinct point of having his narrator say that the use of “nigger” was derogatory - in 1885 - the publication date of _King Solomon’s Mines_ - where is found the following quote: > [@](#): > > I, Allan Quatermain, of Durban, Natal, Gentleman, make oath and say-- That’s how I headed my deposition before the magistrate about poor Khiva’s and Ventvogel’s sad deaths; but somehow it doesn’t seem quite the right way to begin a book. And, besides, am I a gentleman? What is a gentleman? I don’t quite know, and yet I have had to do with niggers --no, I will scratch out that word “niggers,” for I do not like it. I’ve known natives who _are_, and so you will say, Harry, my boy, before you have done with this tale, and I have known mean whites with lots of money and fresh out from home, too, who _are not._ The significance? - the narrator starts by casually describing African Blacks as “niggers”. - he deliberately corrects himself - “no, I will scratch out that word “niggers,” for I do not like it”. He uses the presumably more neutral term “natives” instead. - Why does he “not like it”? Because, in his opinion, Blacks have the same possibility to be “gentlemen” as Whites: “I’ve known natives who _are_, and so you will say, Harry, my boy, before you have done with this tale, and I have known mean whites with lots of money and fresh out from home, too, who _are not._” - the implications: while he doesn’t exactly know what a “gentleman” is, he does believe it has to do with one’s personal character and accomplishments - and is not something conferred by color of skin, where one is born, or how much money one has … all fairly uncontroversial now, but I would think pretty progressive for England in 1885. - the implications for the use of the word: it was in widespread casual use to describe Blacks and it was well-understood at the time (that is, in 1885 at least) as being derogatory. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/74 "2017-02-15T00:41:31Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Thanks, everybody! This has been really informative and interesting. > > Another aspect of Chesterton’s writing is a tendency to view people — including other white people — through the lens of “national” stereotypes. German people are this way, Italians are this other way, the Irish are like this, the French do this … and I have to sort of assume, based on the way he words these statements, that these were simply the prevailing attitudes of the time. Nah, both he and Belloc were _extreme_ Francophiles, adoring latinity and the Great Revolution and positively loathing Germany and all things German — although neither was brought up in the wealthier classes where France was admired ( along with Victoria’s son, Edward VII, the pre-war upper classes had moved away from admiring the Germans since the Franco-Prussian War [in which Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener had helped the French medical services as a youth] and gone over to palling with the French [as did contemporary Russia] in order to lay a sure foundation for the Great War ). Belloc’s mother was French, of course: although his background was more middle-class English Midlands nonconformist than _Folies Bergère_. And as a good Liberal Chesterton’s background was fairly similar. The rest of us still distrusted the Frogs. All the attitudes of the two, and they were an influential pair, predicated on the France-German position. If a country favoured one of these it was either good or bad itself. Plus their wanton and demented Catholicism, of course. [Something which would be extreme in one of those websites devoted to the **Blessed Holy Sepulchre of the Holy Heart of the Holy Mother of God ( _Pray For Us All, Now and at the Time of our Death )_ Mary**.] Amusingly both separately, although always still detesting Teutonicism, in their final years grew to distrust their democratic frenzies of youth and the perils of sterile debate/fascism/communism and moved to an understanding of the monarchic ideal. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/75 "2017-02-15T00:47:54Z")
The British have several racist expressions in their language that people have used, often quite innocently. Comes to mind the expression that expresses gratitude for someone’s doing you a favor: “That’s very white of you”, assuming that white people were inherently more virtuous than folks whose skin was a shade or two darker in tone. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/76 "2017-02-15T01:25:19Z")
Indeed, and "You’re a white man’ gratefully, and ‘The White Man’s Code’. However, a/ this might of come from the universal association of the colour white with purity ( nothing to do with race ) b/ turn of the century… hmm… there was a _lot_ of American influence on British media right then — America being the thrusting power to come, little brother soon to outpace the tired old Brits, the James brothers, Teddy Roosevelt bouncing around etc. etc., so considering the re-adoption of the American South back into mainstream American thought, it’s very possible the Brits slavishly simply copied Yank fashions, just as they do now. On the other hand, Kipling, who’s views were intensely _nuanced_, could praise the native beyond the white fella, as in ‘Gunga Din’ \*An’ for all ’is dirty ’ide ’E was white, clear white, inside When ’e went to tend the wounded under fire ! \* ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/77 "2017-02-15T02:02:35Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > As a counter-point, H. Rider Haggard, a famous English popular fantasy writer, made a distinct point of having his narrator say that the use of “nigger” was derogatory - in 1885 - the publication date of _King Solomon’s Mines_ - where is found the following quote: > > The significance? > > - the narrator starts by casually describing African Blacks as “niggers”. > > - he deliberately corrects himself - “no, I will scratch out that word “niggers,” for I do not like it”. He uses the presumably more neutral term “natives” instead. > > - Why does he “not like it”? Because, in his opinion, Blacks have the same possibility to be “gentlemen” as Whites: “I’ve known natives who _are_, and so you will say, Harry, my boy, before you have done with this tale, and I have known mean whites with lots of money and fresh out from home, too, who _are not._” > > - the implications: while he doesn’t exactly know what a “gentleman” is, he does believe it has to do with one’s personal character and accomplishments - and is not something conferred by color of skin, where one is born, or how much money one has … all fairly uncontroversial now, but I would think pretty progressive for England in 1885. > > - the implications for the use of the word: it was in widespread casual use to describe Blacks and it was well-understood at the time (that is, in 1885 at least) as being derogatory. And he contrasts it with _gentlemen_. That is, he places it within his own view that _class_ is the important distinction, and that “nigger” is a class term, not a race term. He won’t use the word “nigger” because it implies an inferior class, as the word “gardener” would. He won’t call all Africans “gardeners”, because some of them are “gentlemen”. That doesn’t mean that he thinks the word “nigger” is peculiarly offensive, any more than “gardener” is, just that he thinks class judgements shouldn’t be based on race. And he calls out that he differs from the ordinary English view in this, which was that class is based on breeding. ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/78 "2017-02-15T02:18:06Z")
However that didn’t stop him becoming right-wing conservative, anti-trades unions etc. etc. around WWI wherein he formed a friendship with Kipling, who was also moving that way. Class was funny that way; but due to mankind’s inherent snobbery and need to feel superior, classism has never gained the pejorative reputation of racism. Certainly not since the New Left jacked the old working classes and chose the path of social values. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/79 "2017-02-15T02:39:56Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Did the word, as used in England in the early 20th century, simply not have the offensive, derogatory meaning that it had, and still has, in the USA? Exactly. It didn’t have the same negative connotations. See the 1955 British movie ‘The Dam Busters’. It’s a true classic, an unforgettable movie, with wonderfully stirring theme, but there is a dog in the movie called ‘Nigger’. That didn’t raise an eyebrow in Britain in 1955, and wasn’t considered offensive. The name is historically correct. It was the actual name of a black labrador owned by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, but it’s obviously unacceptable today. There is actually nothing racially offensive at all in the movie, except for the name itself. The whole story is true, ‘bouncing bomb’, dog, and all. The scene in the first Star Wars where Luke Skywalker destroys the Death Star was inspired by the attack on the first dam in this movie. Trailer (with a brief mention of the dog Nigger) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xKQHVdgCeXo/hqdefault.jpg "Dambusters - Trailer.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQHVdgCeXo) ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720/80 "2017-02-16T12:43:42Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Yes, I know, but I think you’re missing my point. English racism mostly didn’t play out, and mostly didn’t produce its worst effects, in Britain. Therefore, it didn’t have the same impact on the British English sense of, and connotations of, “nigger” that American racism had on the same word in American English. > > None of this is to deny, excuse or minimise British racism; just to explain the observed fact that “nigger” in British English in Chesterton’s time didn’t have the same impact and connotations as it had in American English then, or as it has in American English today. Indeed. I feel it’s always worth looking at contemporary references to this sort of thing, I think it gives a better flavour for what was happening at the time than a lot of post-facto rationalization. This is the complete text of George Orwell’s regular 'As I Like It" column in Tribune from 11th August 1944. > [@](#): > > A few days ago a West African wrote to inform us that a certain London dance hall had recently erected a ‘colour bar’, presumably in order to please the American soldiers who formed an important part of its clientele. Telephone conversations with the management of the dance hall brought us the answers: (a) that the ‘colour bar’ had been cancelled, and (b) that it had never been imposed in the first place; but I think one can take it that our informant’s charge had some kind of basis. There have been other similar incidents recently. For instance, during last week a case in a magistrate’s court brought out the fact that a West Indian Negro working in this country had been refused admission to a place of entertainment when he was wearing Home Guard uniform. And there have been many instances of Indians, Negroes and others being turned away from hotels on the ground that ‘we don’t take coloured people’. > It is immensely important to be vigilant against this kind of thing, and to make as much public fuss as possible whenever it happens. For this is one of those matters in which making a fuss can achieve something. There is no kind of legal disability against coloured people in this country, and, what is more, there is very little popular colour feeling. (This is not due to any inherent virtue in the British people, as our behaviour in India shows. It is due to the fact that in Britain itself there is no colour problem.) > The trouble always arises in the same way. A hotel, restaurant or what-not is frequented by people who have money to spend who object to mixing with Indians or Negroes. They tell the proprietor that unless he imposes a colour bar they will go elsewhere. They may be a very small minority, and the proprietor may not be in agreement with them, but it is difficult for him to lose good customers; so he imposes the colour bar. This kind of thing cannot happen when public opinion is on the alert and disagreeable publicity is given to any establishment where coloured people are insulted. Anyone who knows of a provable instance of colour discrimination ought always to expose it. Otherwise the tiny percentage of colour-snobs who exist among us can make endless mischief, and the British people are given a bad name which, as a whole, they do not deserve. > In the nineteen-twenties, when American tourists were as much a part of the scenery of Paris as tobacco kiosks and tin urinals, the beginnings of a colour bar began to appear even in France. The Americans spend money like water, and restaurant proprietors and the like could not afford to disregard them. One evening, at a dance in a very well-known cafe some Americans objected to the presence of a Negro who was there with an Egyptian woman. After making some feeble protests, the proprietor gave in, and the Negro was turned out. > Next morning there was a terrible hullabaloo and the cafe proprietor was hauled up before a Minister of the Government and threatened with prosecution. It had turned out that the offended Negro was the Ambassador of Haiti. People of that kind can usually get satisfaction, but most of us do not have the good fortune to be ambassadors, and the ordinary Indian, Negro or Chinese can only be protected against petty insult if other ordinary people are willing to exert themselves on his behalf. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g-k-chesterton-early-20th-cen-england-and-the-n-word/779720.md?page=5)