The "Birmingham Speech," or "Rivers of Blood," as it is more widely known, is a personal text that Enoch Powell gave on April 20, 1968. (Powell, 1968, p.1). He served as Wolverhampton South West's then-Tory representative. The West Midlands Conservative Association meeting was where the political address was given. (Powell, 1968, p.1). In addition to the attendees at the meeting, Powell was also speaking to the labor government, the entire British people, and particularly the native Britons. Enoch gave the address to denounce the administration's immigration policies. The Race Relations Bill of 1968 proposed by the government was about to have its second reading and the tory opposition had presented an amendment to weaken the provisions of the Bill (Powell, 1968, p.4). Powell's speech was, thus, meant to advocate for a prompt reduction in the number of immigrants and the adoption of a conservative policy that would stop immigration. On that note, the political speech had a prescriptive purpose, to warn Britons that the influx of Commonwealth immigrants into the country and the adoption of the Race Relations Bill would result in discrimination of the native population (Powell, 1968, p.2). Furthermore, Britain would "be of American proportions long before the end of the century (Powell, 1968, p.4)."
The main point that Powell was trying to outline was his fear with regard to the influx of Commonwealth immigrants in Britain, as well as the influence they had on the society, from his point of view. He was trying to pass across the prospective negative consequences of immigration of non-white population into the UK. Enoch felt that it was outrageous and insane for Britons to allow "the annual inflow of some 50,000 dependents" into the country (Powell, 1968, p.2). He thought that Britain was "busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre" (Powell, 1968, p.2) By quoting facts and figures, Enoch was illustrating why he thought that immigration should be stopped, even if it meant the public demanded it forcefully. To appeal to the audience's emotions and logic, Enoch narrates a story of an old widow who lived in Wolverhampton among immigrants. She had rented out her house but the white tenants left gradually. She recalls how her immigrant neighbors abused her one morning because she refused to let them use her phone (Powell, 1968, p.3). Enoch uses the story to try and convince his audience that the inflow of immigrants would soon result in insecurity among the native population. He argues, "When the new Bill is passed, this woman is convinced she will go to prison. And is she so wrong? " (Powell, 1968, p.4). Throughout the text, Powell strengthens his main argument against the Race Relations Bill and the inflow of immigrants into the country.
Enoch Powell is rather out right about his message. However, he unwittingly provides evidence into his beliefs, and perhaps his character. From his point of view, Enoch feels that he is only extrapolating the concerns of fellow Englishmen as regards Commonwealth immigrants. However, his tone and language reveal a rather racist standpoint as opposed to an educative or enlightening approach to conveying his viewpoint on the impacts of immigration. For instance, he uses words such as 'alien element' and 'wide-grinning piccaninnies' to refer to the non-white immigrants, indicating a discriminatory language (Powell, 1968, p.3). Furthermore, the thought that "stopping, or virtually stopping further inflow, and by promoting the maximum outflow" was the solution to the 'insanity' depicted by Britons, is also discriminatory against the non-white immigrants (Powell, 1968, p.1). His intention was not to display himself as a racist, but the manner in which he delivered his sentiments, unintentionally provided evidence that he is racist.
In the document, the author makes factual references to certain people and events when arguing against the conservative's immigration legislation in the UK. Powell specifically refers to the America Negro population, who according to him, should not be compared to the Commonwealth immigrants in the United Kingdom (Powell, 1968, p.2). One could argue that this reference is a response to the assertion that the American Negro populations have also been given the same rights as the ones contained in the British legislation. Therefore, he uses the opportunity to argue that the "The Negro population of the United States, which was already in existence before the United States became a nation, started literally as slaves" (Powell, 1968, p.4). The Negroes were given the rights of citizenship later on, which furthermore has been a gradual and still an incomplete process. Therefore, according to Powell, the American Negro population should not be used as the basis for granting instant rights to Commonwealth immigrants who come to Britain.
The phrases and words used in the speech were rather easy to understand. However the phrase 'wide-grinning piccaninnies' (Powell, 1968, p.3) was a bit confusing and I could only speculate that the word 'piccaninnies' was related to the Commonwealth immigrants, based on the context in which it was used. According to the dictionary, 'piccaninnies' is an offensive word used to refer to a little child of color, probably from an African origin (Stevenson, 2011, p.1342). It is a term that originated in the 19th century. Therefore, during the 1960s, using the word was somewhat racist and derogatory.
Finally, this source relates to other evidence from the period. To some extent, it confirms what is known from other primary and secondary sources about the subject being discussed. For instance, the source relates to documents such as Eric Clapton's speech that highlighted some of the fears of immigration (Street, 2013, p.131). Clapton, in his speech, infers that a section of Britain is not happy with the increase in the number of immigrants (Street, 2013, p.121). Therefore, the source by Powell confirms what is already known from other primary sources such as Clapton's speech. However, even though the sources are comparable, Powell's arguments are not as direct as Clapton's sentiments. In addition, this text also confirms what is known from secondary sources such as "Race and education: Policy and politics in Britain" by Tomlinson (2008, p.39). The book by Tomlinson talks about some of the ideological views of Britons at a time when the country was trying to integrate immigrants. Some of the arguments in the book are typical of what Powel asserts.
References
Powell, E. (1968). Enoch Powell, Speech in Birmingham, 20 April 1968.
Stevenson, A. (2011). Oxford Dictionary of English. [Oxford]: Oxford University Press, p.1342.
Street, J. (2013). Music and Politics. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Tomlinson, S. (2008). Race and education. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
