Why Countryfile’s Ellie Harrison is so wrong over racism in rural areas – GP Taylor

She said there was “work to do” to end prejudice in rural areas and that white people must acknowledge the “lingering, ambient racism” from the past.

Firstly, I never knew that the land could have the ability to judge people on their race. If she wasn’t meaning the earth beneath our feet, then she must have been speaking about the people 
who live in the countryside.

If that is the case, then it is a great generalisation. The attitudes of the past have little to do with the reality of modern country living.

Having spent a lot of my life as a police officer and priest living and working in rural Yorkshire, I have to say that I have never come across any out and out racist behaviour. On the contrary, I have found that there is a great welcoming of everyone to the county – regardless of colour or religion.

It is one of our greatest strengths that most people in Yorkshire are very open and do not judge a person by the colour of their skin. It seems to me that there is a growing trend for people in the public eye to virtue signal their wokeness at every opportunity.

Twitter and other social media outlets become a puerile conduit for some to jump on the growing race bandwagon.

Sadly, that is what it has become – a bandwagon. People in the media publicly showing their anti-racist credentials in Twitter rants. It does nothing to fight true racism and bigotry. In fact, I believe it just makes people close their ears to the importance of equality in society.

Blaming the countryside for being racist is ridiculous. It is no longer enough not to be racist. Now we have to be actively anti-racist, looking for racism down country lanes and on farms and hills.

To answer the points of this accusation would be the same as saying the African savannah is anti-white. The countryside is blind to those who inhabit or use it.

The Yorkshire moors, dales and coast have been moulded by thousands of years of history. Layer upon layer of invasions, wars and cultures make it what it is today. Celts, Romans, Saxons and Vikings have all contributed to making our county look the way it does.

Mass deforestation, new farming methods of the Middle Ages and the draining of the grouse moors have all had an effect on the land around us. It is the product of a multicultural experiment over thousands of years.

It is, however, a different thing to say that people from some ethnic groups find the countryside difficult to access. That, I think is true, but it is not something that is just experienced by the BAME community.

Rural communities are predominantly white, but that does not mean they are hostile or racist. In the Eden Valley of Cumbria, 98.9 per cent of the population are white and it is a shame that not more people from ethnic communities choose to live in the country. Maybe then, they could help to shape the way of life for rural dwellers. Just because a community is 98 per cent white doesn’t make it racist.

Interestingly, the criticism of the countryside is not coming directly from the BAME community. The root of the issue stems from a Defra survey that was sent primarily to city dwellers. I wonder how many of these people had actually experienced rural life first hand.

The problem appears to be that city dwellers have a preconceived idea of what the countryside is all about. Many treat it as a bit of a theme park, not realising that it is a working environment where thousands of people live and have jobs connected to the land.

Some ‘‘townies’’ expect to turn up and have free rein to do what they want when they want. The processions of mud covered four-by-fours tearing up green lanes gives testimony to that. It is not a place to come for a BBQ and leave all your waste behind. The countryside needs to be savoured and absorbed as well as understanding it has a different culture and history to a town or city.

Our countryside may be difficult to access by city dwellers. Effort has to be made and energy expelled. It is not best appreciated as a drive through experience. Visitors have to get out of their cars and come face to face with nature to enjoy it the most. Only then can people make a valued judgement.

When I was the vicar of a rural parish, I faced the brunt of an incomer who 
had bought a house in my village. Her wrath was fuelled by the fact that the cows in the farmer’s field ‘‘mooed’’ at 
night and that the tractors went by her window early in the morning. When I explained that this was rural life, her answer was that it shouldn’t be allowed and she had moved to the country for peace and quiet.

Our personal expectations of what rural life is like can often be so different from the truth. Whatever you may think of the countryside and the people who live there, they are certainly not racist.

GP Taylor is an author and broadcaster. 
He lives in Whitby.

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