Waitrose has come out to support all the diverse communities, and is showing this 'Proud to be Ourselves' notice board outside its Burgess Hill foodstore, and presumably outside every other. Outside every branch of John Lewis too.
This is highly commendable. There seems to be a growing groundswell against at least some minority groups, the narrow-minded and brainwashed of this world getting more active in singling out obvious target individuals for their hateful attentions. So this prominent note of inclusiveness outside each Waitrose or John Lewis store is a most welcome gesture. I suppose the kind of scummy folk who pick on Rainbow Flag adherents don't actually shop at Waitrose - well, I never see or hear them. It's probably too middle-class for them, the atmosphere too thick with Good Behaviour and Politeness. They know that a word or act out of place wouldn't be allowed to pass. So it's safe territory for the vulnerable - at a price of course. And even if the bigots and bullies feel uncomfortable about entering the store, they still have to pass that notice board, so it's a reproach they can't avoid seeing. I hope it pricks their conscience. Not all are so morally neuter as to be quite beyond hope. Though to my mind, anyone who can sink so low as to think themselves 'better' or 'more deserving' than another human being is a waste of space.
I rarely comment on diversity matters nowadays, but I thought it worth giving a cheer for Waitrose flying the Rainbow Flag.
I notice that the flag has acquired additional colours not found in any natural rainy-day rainbow: azure, pink, white, brown and black. Presumably - I don't know, I don't keep up - these are official. They are clearly meant to add an extra nuance to the inclusivity message, so that it not only covers sexual orientation, and gender difference, but racial diversity too. There's nothing to argue about there. And it helps to distinguish this flag from the rainbow flag and symbols of the NHS during the pandemic. I thought that the two flags, though equally positive in their intention, and to some extent overlapping, were in grave danger of being confused, and consequently both losing impact. But this new Rainbow Flag, with its extra colours, is distinctively different from the NHS version.
But now a question arises. We can agree that minorities need recognition, and that it's good to invent a banner that covers a wide spectrum of diverse groups who feel disadvantaged or oppressed. But the current design seems to include almost everybody who isn't plain, ordinary and boringly bog-standard. Who isn't in some respect represented by this Rainbow Flag? I wouldn't be surprised to hear that, actually, it's so inclusive that most people - whoever they are - can point to one or more stripes and say 'that's my colour'. It could credibly be the model for a World Flag.
What if you dislike flags and badges and labels, or feel that 'your colour' or 'your hue' is still not represented and recognised? In the first case, you don't want to be identified by any flag at all; and in the second case, the flag still doesn't acknowledge your particular kind of minority status, whatever it might be.
In my own case, I want no flag at all. I feel one of a kind, even although I'm probably not. But if forced to pledge my allegiance to a flag, I'd want it to cover my own special statuses - and they are multiple. For instance, I am in a minority because I am getting old, and I am in a minority because I am on my own. Indeed, these two major facts about myself are the chief ways in which I would claim minority status. They are important ways. But the Rainbow Flag doesn't fly for me. There is no grey stripe.
Not that I'm angling for yet another stripe in this flag, grey or otherwise. But the Rainbow Flag, having moved away from its original significance, and having got much broader in its inclusivity, is still far from covering all the many kinds of people who might feel despised, stigmatised or misunderstood. There are a host of other minority groups, such as the blind and the deaf, the unemployed, the homeless, the abused, the badly-educated, and the innocent victims of crime. Many of these seem to be outside the visible part of the spectrum, and (so to speak) lurk unseen and unnoticed in the infra-red and ultra-violet.
There are no pride marches for them. Nor would they want any such celebrations, for there is nothing to be glad about if you lose your job or your home, or a limb in some terrorist bomb blast. Pretty flags are no substitute for effective programmes that abolish ills and injustices, and give people genuine safety, independence, and a worthwhile life.
