In Conversation with Gary Younge – The Stand Comedy Club

This was a fascinating and illuminating hour with Gary Younge, writer and academic, who is an outstanding speaker. Whatever questions were asked by the interviewer or the audience, he answered calmly and lucidly.

Young was the Guardian’s US correspondent from 2003-15, then became the paper’s editor-at-large, and is still a regular columnist. He’s an editorial board member of The Nation, and has also written for, amongst others, The Financial Times and The New Statesman. His six books include, most recently, ‘Dispatches from the Diaspora’. He’s made several radio and tv documentaries on subjects ranging from Brexit to equal marriage.  His many awards include the Orwell Prize for journalism. And Younge is now a Professor of Sociology at Manchester University.

Asked by the interviewer, Graham Spiers, about his childhood, Younge said he had been born in Stevenage to Barbadian parents. His father left home when he was one, leaving his mother, then aged 26, to bring up 3 children on her own. She was a nurse but later became a teacher. Young described his mother as a ‘Caribbean matriarch’ who taught him and his siblings to live life joyously. She believed that education was not just good in itself, but that it increased a person’s options in life, giving them more freedom.

Younge loved growing up in Stevenage, one of the post war new towns, established in 1948. Originally there were only council houses in the town, which Younge felt made it difficult to judge people by where they lived. This gave the town a social democratic feel. Despite the fact that very few of Stevenage’s citizens were black, two of its mayors were. So too are most famous people from the town including Lewis Hamilton.

Asked if he’d experienced racism growing up in Stevenage, Younge replied that he had. The interviewer said that most Scots felt that there was less racism in Scotland than in England. However Gary said that the worst racism he ever experienced was in Edinburgh, where he studied at Heriot-Watt University from 1987 to 1992. Two men chased him down Lothian Road, waving baseball bats and shouting the N word.

Asked about the recent riots and Nigel Farage, Younge said that Farage’s provocative comments had played a role. However, he felt that Labour and the Tories were not blameless. The Tories stirred up feelings against asylum seekers and immigrants, going on and on about the small boats and their Rwanda policy. But Labour should have condemned more clearly the immorality of Tory policies and had not emphasised sufficiently the advantages of immigration. The argument that immigrants put strains on the NHS is bogus because the NHS would collapse without immigrant doctors and nurses.

Because he lived there for twelve years, Younge is an expert on American as well as British politics. His wife is African American from the deep south. And his father in law still has vivid memories of segregation in the south and can point to places that he could not enter because of the colour of his skin. So, segregation is not just distant history for Younge’s family – his two children can talk to their grandfather about it.

Younge has written a book about Martin Luther King called ‘The Speech’ which focusses on the civil rights march on Washington in 1963 and King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. Amongst those he interviewed for the book were Clarence Jones, a speechwriter and close friend of MLK; Angela Davis and other civil rights leaders; and Joan Baez, who sang at the march. Interestingly the famous ‘I have a dream’ sequence was not in the scripted speech. King had used this phrase once or twice before, but some of his aides thought it was a bit old hat and shouldn’t be used again. King was getting very near the end of the speech when the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was in the audience, called out, “Tell them about your dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!”  And King launched into one of the most quoted passages in American history. Extraordinary to think that it was virtually ad-libbed.

Younge tells some wonderful anecdotes. For example, when he was working as a journalist in America, he attended a Republican dinner in 2016. One Republican said to him that Muslims had installed a Muslim Mayor in London, and that gun control was a disaster.  Younge pointed out that the vast majority of those who voted for Sadiq Khan were not in fact Muslims, adding that gun control wasn’t an issue in the UK. Younge thought his reply was very mild, but it didn’t go down well with the diners. Then the Republican he felt was most sympathetic tried to be ‘helpful’ by saying “Don’t worry about Gary. They’re not free in England”.

Other topics included George Floyd and Black Lives Matter; Diane Abbott; the National Rifle Association (NRA); and, of course, Donald Trump.

The hour passed all too quickly. A stimulating sixty minutes with a great communicator. Younge is incredibly well informed on a wide range of subjects relating to Britain, America and the World in general. He stimulates thought, treats all questioners with respect and answers honestly and convincingly. This was a one-off appearance at Fringe.  But Younge’s website is a mine of information including many of his published articles as well as details of his six books: https://www.garyyounge.com

Reviewer: Tom Scott

Reviewed: 21st August 2024

North West End UK Rating: