THERE was a strange and disturbing story on the front page of the Guernsey Press recently about a senior advocate overhearing a policeman addressing a black adult as ‘boy’.

Obviously those of us who weren’t there can hardly pass judgement on what actually transpired, although it’s hard to see why a well-heeled local lawyer would go about making such stories up.

If it’s true, and he didn’t simply misunderstand what was taking place, it shows some local law enforcers in a quite unacceptable light. Indeed, such blatant racism must bring their suitability to remain in the force into question.

What worries me even more was the public reaction to the story in certain quarters. OK, by ‘certain quarters’ I mean I was sad enough to look on a couple of local internet forums. I’ve always believed that the small minority of islanders who bother to post regularly on these sites (the electronic equivalent of putting the world to rights over a pint in your local) are pretty unrepresentative of the wider public. I certainly hope so, after reading some of their comments on this alleged incident.

One common reaction was ‘what on earth is wrong with calling a fully-grown black man a boy – it’s hardly racist’ or words to that effect. I suppose it may just be that a few people were genuinely unaware of this infamous and ubiquitous form of insult used by white supremacists in the Southern States of the USA right through from the days of slavery to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and well beyond. If so, their ignorance beggars belief, but why go out of their way to highlight it by questioning the rightly appalled reaction of Advocate Peter Ferbrache, when he’s clearly better informed than they are on this matter?

For the avoidance of any doubt, the term ‘boy’ which was used by white people towards black people of any age – often older than themselves – was a blatant form of racist address. The same people would never have addressed fellow whites in the same way. It was intended to undermine the standing of the person being addressed by implying that his skin colour made him less than an adult with adult rights and responsibilities.

So deeply insulting was it to the black population of the United States that they started to counteract it by calling each other ‘man’ – something that spread and became a hip term throughout the black, white and mixed societies of the 60s and 70s.

Whether or not some Guernsey people may have lived such isolated, insular lives that they were somehow blissfully unaware of this background is in some ways neither here nor there. The reality is that every black person would be acutely aware of it and therefore those sensitivities should obviously be respected. Equally, there can be no reason why a police officer should address a mature, adult black person as ‘boy’ unless he wilfully intended to imply racial superiority. Do we really believe that a local police officer would use such terminology towards a white 30-something?

One reason I am unsettled by the public reaction to this story is that I have long believed that there is a deep reservoir of low-level racism in Guernsey. I don’t want to believe it, but I just can’t avoid that conclusion. From pathetic low-lifes calling Portuguese people living here in the 80s and 90s ‘pork and cheese’ to equally ignorant remarks about those from eastern Europe working here today, the examples of intolerance are legion. Of course it’s not extreme – no one is calling for ethnic cleansing or racial violence – but it’s still unsettling.

People who come to live and work here under our strict Housing Law are doing us a favour and we should be grateful, not spiteful – whatever their ethnic background. As a born and bred Guernsey person who has found myself warmly welcomed in countries around the world, I really do cringe at the idea that my island doesn’t fully reciprocate that racial tolerance.

Of course, I know that the vast majority of islanders are liberal, broad-minded and cosmopolitan, but we can’t let ourselves be stereotyped by a few idiots – whether they are police officers or not.

I am really proud of being a Guernsey person and of my cultural heritage, but if anybody thinks that being either local or white makes them any better than other people, they are blithering idiots.

* Following the complaint by Advocate Ferbrache the incident has been referred to the police professional standards department and the independent Police Complaints Commission.

A decision is pending.