Why BNP supporters aren’t stupid and vile

... and why thinking they are only supports the BNP

As a person who can be irrefutably classed as brown, one might expect some hatred towards members
of the British National Party. Firstly, because people should be allowed to think just about whatever they
want, BNP supporters have my - somewhat nervous - approval, or at least my recognition of their
legitimacy. I can't help feeling sorry for all the lovely white, working-class people who are tarred with the
'racist' brush, in the same way that I sometimes pity myself for slightly resembling a terrorist. It is a
downright shame that BNP members seem to form such a homologous and stereotypical mass, and, of
course, that comes with some level of ignorance on my behalf (although I did once try to join the British
National Party in curiosity and was refused entry, understandably). I, and presumably most people
reading this article, tend to tar members with the 'idiot' brush. What actually hugely annoys me about
supporters of the BNP is that they seem to demonstrate a level of ignorance that is unjustifiable in a
society that is constantly bombarded with information about news, current affairs and politics. There are
no physical barriers stopping transmission of information to the white working class population: we have
a free press and information is cheap, so the same sources that the mainstream mass uses to form its
political opinion are just as accessible to those members most vulnerable to the clutches of the BNP. So
get off your arses, stop complaining about immigrants, read a bit and get your facts right, before you
elect Andrew Brons to the European Parliament!

But it's hypocritical to be as lazy with my opinions as I accuse BNP supporters of being. So, instead, I
consult the work of 20th century French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who offers a refreshing insight into
the political underclass, and offers hope of a 'solution' to political ignorance. After all, to sweepingly
regard BNP supporters as stupid is to reduce their political choices to something innate and
deterministic, and therefore to excuse them. Bourdieu was a critical left-wing theorist who philosophised
into the ownership of culture, education and power by a dominant class, in a way that reassures readers
that we don't have to live on either side of a huge academic divide forever - we can resolve the rift that
exists between the politically incommensurable. Why aren't BNP supporters stupid and vile?

Bourdieu argued that people are not born on equal academic footings. Hang on - is he saying that some
people are born more politically aware than others? No. But people of different social groups are
immediately assigned by society levels of 'social competence' that partially determine the decisions they
consequently make. No one explicitly tells the child of a doctor and a journalist that they are competent
enough to learn and opine about politics, but they typically have the language, the behaviour, the
mindset and the confidence instilled in them from birth to be comfortable talking about the political.
Conversely, the child of a mail sorter is not physically restricted from learning about politics ('The
Guardian' readership is not reverse means-tested), but his culture renders him 'socially incompetent' and
renders the political sphere implicitly inaccessible to him. Bourdieu noted that high proportions of
working-class abstentions from surveys and interviews about the political climate showed that working
class people 'know' that they do not have a claim to the political; that all of their answers will be "silly"
and that they are better off staying out of political discussions. Social life divides people into the socially
competent and the socially incompetent, and only those who are socially competent feel that they can
legitimately learn more about politics.

Those labelled as socially and politically incompetent still have a vote because, technically, we do live in
a representative democracy. But, not feeling that they should participate in something as highly
intelligent and high culture as politics, the white working classes resign to entrusting their views to
organisations which can very reassuringly 'think' on behalf of them. Phew - we wouldn't want those idiots
trying to form their own opinions(!). To a certain extent we all do this - whenever I can't be bothered to
research an issue myself I pretty much side with whatever the Green Party says. They're nice enough
people; I'll blindly pledge allegiance with them. This is one of the ways in which religious institutions
wield overwhelming and fairly dangerous levels of power over an uncritical subgroup of believers (my
disdain towards the whims of an ephemeral Pope is a separate but related issue). So the stupidity and
the ignorance that we see is actually the strategic action of a group of people who have been socialised
into believing that they can only participate in politics vicariously.

Well, then, why racism? Why doesn't everyone follow my lead and let environmentalists adopt their
cerebrums? There is the argument that the BNP uses immigrants as scapegoats for angry, stupid,
working class people. But that's quite old and predictable. Instead, what about the idea that people start
supporting the BNP, and then their views are transformed into aggressive, racist, and xenophobic ones?

Actually, the whole culture and the image of the British National Party is, I believe, significant for
attracting the politically excluded. Web editing software is a pittance and the British National Party is too
famous to be poor - so why does its website look like shit? The leader of the party was educated at the
world's second best university, so why are its politicians so amateurish? The British National Party must
put effort into appearing unpolished, because a polished party does not attract members who think that
they are not worth it. A polished party is intimidating to those who have been made politically
incompetent by political elites. Those vulnerable to BNP membership may be embarrassed to be so
presumptuous as to think they are worthy of Labour or Conservative membership, despite their mantras
on inclusivity. "We are the BNP, and you scruffbags are our target group. We won't just take you - we
want you. We are you." What happens to members' views past the point of membership is mostly down
to 'implicit faith'.

So, if BNP supporters are to be seen as stupid, then they should be seen as stupid in the same way that I
am stupid for siding with the Greens, or that Etonians are stupid for veering centre-right. The unique
stupidity they have is the stupidity that they have been socially condemned to from the minute that they
were born. The Bourdieuian theory implies a solution, though, and a hopeful and inspiring one at that:
real democracy, not token democracy. Assign everyone social competence from the very beginning.
Dissolve the social and cultural barriers to political understanding by giving working class people access
to politics and confidence in their own political legitimacy. Don't make anyone feel too stupid to be
involved with their own lives and society. This doesn't mean doubling the frequency of 'Question Time'
episodes, on which the BBC kindly allows the plebeians their fifteen seconds of angry, raging, chip-on-
shoulder, soundbite fame. I'm saying that society and politics need to form a conscious part of our
everyday and our intellectual lives, from birth to death, no matter from which social strata we have
come. We shouldn't need to humiliate the BNP during a thirty-second one-sided video-link interview on
‘ITV News’. We should be debating these issues every day of our lives. And not just a nice, liberal, middle
class crowd of observers. I mean everyone. And it is true that you need a lot of time to learn about these
things, and that traditionally working class people have less leisure time, which is why the buck was
passed to the liberal intellectuals. But this issue is way too important to be brushed over like this: if there
is no time then we need to make time. Replace sex education with political education if needs be - we all
know about willies and fannies by year 4 anyway. Political competence and real, inclusive democracy are
absolute exigencies. We need to recognise the importance of in-depth politics and the integrality of the
working classes to it.