Smethwick, a town in the West Midlands of England, was once considered one of the most racist places in Britain due to the infamy of the Conservative candidate’s slogan: “If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour”. It won him the seat and bucked the national, and Smethwick’s historical, trend of voting Labour. Looking at the 67% who voted to leave the EU on 23rd June 2016, you may think that nothing has changed. But the demographic of Smethwick in 1964 compared to the present day has evolved greatly – over 35% of the borough today are non-white and, anecdotally, as many as 50% voted Leave.

Smethwick is representative of many of Britain’s metropolitan areas with an existing population who trace their origins back to the Commonwealth countries of the Caribbean or South Asia, living alongside a new immigrant population coming from a far more diverse range of countries and cultures including from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Poland, and Romania, countries not steeped in the Britishness of the former Empire. It’s just over 50 years since that slogan, and since Malcolm X felt the racism exhibited in Smethwick was so deep that it was important enough for him to visit. Here, in Marshall Street, he gave what turned out to be his last public speech 8 days before his assassination.

Diana Markosian visited Smethwick to meet a cross-section of its current residents while Mark Power went to explore the area where remnants of the old industrial past mix with contemporary modern high streets and housing estates. Hamish Crooks returned home to Smethwick to examine the motivations of both white and non-white British behind the Leave vote in this multiracial town.


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