50 Years Today Since The Infamous Rivers Of Blood Speech

[Bobbisox1]

Made by Enoch Powell ,very controversial for its time but a lot of it is happening with no controlled immigration nor any government in power or opposition ,willing to tackle it ,it’s seen as a poison chalice

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/enoch-powell-s-rivers-of-blood-speech-when-did-the-politician-make-the-controversial-address-and-what-about-it-was-so-inflammatory-a3818901.html

[Khandro]

Untitled //it was a speech intended to incite animosity toward black and brown people in britain made by an intelligent and completely amoral person who knew exactly what he was doing//

Complete rubbish, you are obviously ignorant of both Powell, his speech, or the circumstances of the time.

[naomi24]

Ich, words like piccaninny weren’t deemed taboo in the days before political correctness swamped our language. Likewise Red Indian and Eskimo. Slaves in the West Indies referred to their own children as piccaninnies. It simply means ‘small child’.

[Untitled]

and you're obviously disappointed that it failed khandro

[Hazi-Hammenuhoth]

If only Britain had listened. He spoke truth. And it still brings out the snowflakes in a rash.

[Khandro]

Untitled; The speech didn't "fail" it was prescient & accurate.

The message was not one of hate, he was pointing out the future societal problems which would occur if the country continued with the unrestricted immigration of a variety of ethnic & culturally diverse groups.

All of which has come to pass, though left-wing liberals prefer to turn a blind eye to what has happened & talk of 'diversification' & what a wonderful thing it is.

A high sounding moral attitude which costs them nothing,

[Stableford]

"I fail to see what is inflammatory about Powell's speech. I invite any fair-minded or level-headed person to read it, and point out anything which isn't factual."

Crickets.

[Gromit]

As a prediction, it was hopelessly wrong.
// In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man //

So the apocalypse should have occurred 1983-88. And it didn’t, and hasn’t 55 years later.
As a piece of fear-mongering, it was a corker.

[Khandro]

Gromit; **As a prediction, it was hopelessly wrong.
// In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man // **

Perhaps it has escaped you, but there's a Muslim mayor of London (creating havoc for Londoners) & a Hindu in number ten allowing many thousands more of immigrants into the country.

[bazwillrun]

Thats the same as dismissing 1984...Orwell wasnt exact in the year but its pretty damn close in its predictions and what message he was trying to get over and in trying to portray how things would evolve

[Stableford]

Gromit, that was a quotation from a constituent of his, which he quoted during the speech: " A week or two ago I fell into conversation with a constituent, a middle-aged, quite ordinary working man employed in one of our nationalised industries.

After a sentence or two about the weather, he suddenly said: "If I had the money to go, I wouldn't stay in this country. I have three children, I shan't be satisfied till I have seen them all settled overseas. In this country in 15 or 20 years' time the black man will have the whip hand over the white man."

That wasn't necessarily his own view, he was merely stating the concerns of his constituents. Next.

[Zacs-Master]

‘ Slaves in the West Indies referred to their own children as piccaninnies’

Not quite correct. Children in the West Indies used the term for children of all races. It’s a corruption of the Portuguese word for small children.

A word used by black people can be taken and used pejoratively by white people as an insult when said with a patronizing tone. Then it becomes racist….you know….like the N word.

[Stableford]

Again, when Powell used the word "picannies" which some take exception to, he was quoting his own constituents- a politican not afraid to stand up for the public. This is the context:

"The sense of being a persecuted minority which is growing among ordinary English people in the areas of the country which are affected is something that those without direct experience can hardly imagine.

I am going to allow just one of those hundreds of people to speak for me:

“Eight years ago in a respectable street in Wolverhampton a house was sold to a ***. Now only one white (a woman old-age pensioner) lives there. This is her story. She lost her husband and both her sons in the war. So she turned her seven-roomed house, her only asset, into a boarding house. She worked hard and did well, paid off her mortgage and began to put something by for her old age. Then the immigrants moved in. With growing fear, she saw one house after another taken over. The quiet street became a place of noise and confusion. Regretfully, her white tenants moved out.

“The day after the last one left, she was awakened at 7am by two Negroes who wanted to use her 'phone to contact their employer. When she refused, as she would have refused any stranger at such an hour, she was abused.

“When she goes to the shops, she is followed by children, charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies. They cannot speak English, but one word they know. "Racialist," they chant. When the new Race Relations Bill is passed, this woman is convinced she will go to prison.”

[Stableford]

The word "bleeped out" by Answerbank is the spanish word for "black". Unbelievable.

[ichkeria]

There is some desperate barrel scraping going on here by Powell’s defenders.
Yes Zacs is right: “patronising” is the word. There doesn’t have to be any hatred involved. Would Powell have referred to white children as piccaninnies? Never.

[Stableford]

Don't let the facts get in the way of rhetoric, ich. You seem to have missed Powell prefaced the word "picannies" (a quote from his own constituent) with the word, "charming."

[ichkeria]

The story quoted by stableford quotes Powell, not the woman.
And even if he is repeating what she said indirectly, it’s plain what he thinks.

Give the poor old barrel a break, folks

[ichkeria]

Now I’m not sure if stableford is mocking himself (!)

[Spungle]

Thanks for posting that, Stableford, it's helpful to understand the context. I have read the speech in full again today, and yes, "prophetic" is the word.

[Stableford]

"It's plain what he thinks" Oh, hello thought police.

He's speaking for those he was elected to speak for, his own constituents. You may dismiss this as somehow "scraping the barrel", but I believe you'd be scraping the barrel to find anything in the speech that wasn't factually correct.

"There are among the Commonwealth immigrants many thousands whose wish and purpose is to be integrated and whose every thought and endeavour is bent in that direction."- I completely agree.

[naomi24]

Zacs master, I said ‘their own children’ simply to emphasise that they had no problem with it.