Some things Never Change...

This weekend saw 50,000 (definitely non-fascist) music lovers descend upon Victoria Park as part of the Thirtieth anniversary of 'Rock Against Racism', the festival that united disparate social groups and raised awareness of racism through the medium of rock music. And I am trying very hard not to be totally cynical about its re-enactment.

1978 Britain was quite a lot different from how it is now. I have no way of knowing this authoritatively; when those rock giants such as The Specials and The Clash were sultrily stalking the stage I was no more than a glint in my father's eye. But I can imagine that race was a thorny issue, or else to 'rock against' it would have been slightly superfluous.

I am not naive or idealistic enough to claim that race is no longer an issue in Britain. People are still discriminated against for the colour of their skin or for their religious beliefs. This practice is both ignorant and abhorrent. But we have come a long way since 1978.

30 years ago racial tensions were far less civilized than today. Discrimination was institutionalized - if not openly admitted - and many facets of society routinely gave people different to themselves an unnecessarily hard time. 'Rock Against Racism' was a festival that sought to raise the point that racism was idiotic, and that just because it was commonplace, it needn't have been excusable.

The less catchily-titled 'Love Music, Hate Racism' festival last weekend seemed to me to be an overly nostalgic harking back to the seventies, when music was seen as a vehicle for ideological change. The world has moved on, The Clash's Paul Simonon has fewer hairs and people are infinitely more accepting and predisposed to social integration 'than back in the day'. Music's role in popular culture has also altered.

Philanthropist and musical visionary Damon Albarn argued that the concert proved music was "still a very cohesive force" in the fight against racism. But what is he hoping to achieve by reminding us what music once achieved? It seems a very backward route for progress.

Racism has altered from being a frowned upon social practice to being simply unacceptable. Any new attempt to root it out will not change the fact that there are always going to be pockets of society who are racist. If these idiotic minority will not change their mind in the face of common decency, social pressure or legal legislation, they are unlikely to alter their warped ways after listening to rock music.

You cannot seek to change indoctrinated and socially chastised individuals through popular culture. Racist individuals are subversive and, in adopting a position so at odds with social acceptability, make it clear that they don't care what people say publicly - indeed, they seek to contradict it.

Yet this doesn't stop moral paragons such as actors and musicians from attempting to change people's minds, from trying to save poor, unpopular people from their own sensibilities. Why not 'Rock Against Rape'? Or any number of social evils?

Like Ricky Gervais' pinpoint remark at Live8 a few summers ago, you can't make racism 'history'. It will always exist, just as poverty will. That is not to say that we shouldn't continue to fight against it. It's just that wheeling out some more hackneyed, self-aggrandising musician to re-enact a concert that made the headlines in the past is a fairly unoriginal way of doing it.

This new concert has succeeded only in reminding us that racism is still an unnecessary evil. In the same way that murder is. No one is under any impression that racism in not a very bad thing, even those people who perpetrate it. Events like this will not shake a racist's long-held beliefs.

By it's very nature, the concert would have attracted non-racist individuals, who support the idea of anti-fascism. It will not have reached any of the people whose ideas need altering. "Don't be racist guys." "Yeah, we know". It's just not a revolutionary discourse.

This back-slapping performance of social inclusiveness may have been spectacular, but trying to change oppositional views by inviting along a load of supporters is futile.

Perhaps we would do better to accept that there will always be a thankfully small minority who harbour racist views, and no regurgitation of punk's greatest hits can change that. But that wouldn't sell as many albums, would it?