Translating offence

Last week’s Times obituaries recorded the death of Ann Dummett on February 7, just six weeks after that of her husband Sir Michael Dummett who had been Wykeham Professor of Logic at Oxford.

Lady Dummett was a very active campaigner for racial justice in this country, & the obituarist’s mention of the Dummetts’ membership of the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) reminded me of something I meant to record on this blog.

By the mid-1960s CARD, under the chairmanship of Dr David Pitt, a London GP, was regarded by some as too patient, polite & simply not radical enough, too NAACP & not enough of the new Black Power movements in America or of French ideas of negritude & the philosophy of Frantz Fanon.

English radicals soon had a new racial activist to champion. One Michael de Freitas changed his name by deed poll to Michael X & announced the formation of a new body called the Racial Action Adjustment Society (RAAS).

The fact that he had been an associate of Rachman & may have already had a criminal record (I can’t remember) only gave him more credibility in the eyes of some on the Left.

I don’t know how many of them were aware of the reason why Michael X chose to give them the acronym RAAS for their front page headlines, although I expect they know now.

I was reminded of that when Bali Rai explained a cosely related word in his contribution to Radio 4’s Four Thought on 1 February.

Links
Ann Dummett obituary: Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants

New York Times: Remembering Michael Dummett

Historical Geographies: Dr David Pitt

Ebony November 1961: Dr David Pitt

DANGO: Campaign Against Racial Discrimination

BBC Four Thought: Bali Rai

YouTube: BBC 4 Thought - School Talk On Racism By Author Bali Rai

Urban dictionary